Two Are Suspended After Leverett Incident

The Administrative Board gave one-year suspensions to two Leverett House sophomores Tuesday following their arrest last week by Cambridge fire officials on charges of arson.

Mark B. Caudill '88 and Ronald E. Corcillo '88 said yesterday they have been forced to withdraw from the College because of a fire they allegedly started in B-Entry of Leverett House's McKinlock Hall in the early morning of January 30.

The fire, which they said was the unintentional result of the last in a series of pranks, brought Harvard police and Cambridge fire officials to McKinlock Hall and landed Caudill and Corcillo briefly in jail.

Three other Leverett House residents were put on disciplinary probation for participating in the pranks. The Ad Board dropped the cases of the remaining two students involved, said Michael L. Goldenberg '88, one of the suspended students' roommates.

The two suspended sophomores said their case was unfairly handled and said that Leverett Senior Tutor Thomas A. Dingman '67 did not represent them favorably before the Ad Board.

"It didn't look like a fair trial," Corcillo said.

"It's not as if asking us to withdraw for a year will make us grow up and stop setting fires. We didn't intend to set any fires," Corcillo said, calling the punishment excessive.

Dingman and Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III did not return repeated phone calls, and other College officials refused comment.

A Cambridge District Court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, when the students said they will attempt to have the charges against themreduced from arson, a felony which impliespre-meditation of the crime, to wanton destructionof property, a misdemeanor.

The series of pranks that led to the fire beganbefore midnight and involved about sevenundergraduates. The kidnapping of a residenttutor's stuffed animal precipitated a squirt-gunfight, which led to the pennying of doors and thefuming of rooms with cologne, Corcillo said.

The fire was started when Corcillo and Caudillplaced a smoldering stick of incense under thelocked door of a neighboring suite, the two said.

They said they did not realize there was acologne-soaked towel on the opposite side. Theoccupants of the suite quickly extinguished thefire with a bucket of water, they said.

The pair also said they did not know a fire hadbeen ignited until after Harvard Police beganquestioning them