CHEYENNE - The University of Wyoming has reversed the suspensions of four fraternity members accused in a September incident said to involve "dangerous levels" of intoxication, a lawyer for the students said.

UW President Tom Buchanan formalized the decision in a memo and ordered four university officials to conduct an "independent and detailed review" of the original incident, said C.M. Aron, a Laramie attorney who represents the students in a civil rights lawsuit against three UW officials.

Buchanan also said that if any new charges are warranted at the conclusion of the review, they should "be brought consistent with appropriate due-process safeguards," according to Aron.

Aron declined to provide a copy of Buchanan's memo, because he said the officials who are in charge of reviewing the case must be protected from "public scrutiny" while they perform their duties.

UW also declined to provide the memo. Spokeswoman Jessica Lowell said the university does not comment on student disciplinary affairs or on litigation.

"President Buchanan should be given credit for rescinding the suspensions," Aron said in an e-mail to the Star-Tribune Monday. "He has not passed judgment one way or the other on what happened at Sigma Nu in September."

In October, the university ordered the fraternity members suspended after another UW Greek-society member reported "dangerous levels" of intoxication at Sigma Nu in September.

A state judge stepped in to prevent the suspensions, however, and the students remain in classes, Aron has said.

The fraternity members - Remington W. Burley, 19, of Gillette, Garrett H. Ricks, 22, of Douglas, Elijsha Eckhardt, 18, of Gillette, and John J. Whitmire, 20, of Georgia - then sued the state in federal court to have the suspensions rescinded.

That lawsuit has been dropped in light of Buchanan's memo, Aron said.

However, the fraternity members are pressing ahead with a civil rights lawsuit against three university officials. That lawsuit accuses Dean of Students David Cozzens, Vice President of Student Affairs Sara Axelson and Assistant Dean of Students for Judicial Affairs David Hennings of violating the fraternity members' due-process rights and their First Amendment right to publish information on the Internet.

Aron maintains that the charges against the fraternity members were based on a video that was recorded by Whitmire and briefly posted on Facebook, a social-networking Web site.

Court documents filed by Aron describe the footage as including "pranks of the standard sort that are customary and standard practices at universities and colleges throughout the United States."

The video shows a young man drawing with marker on the cheek of a sleeping person and a man pretending to pull down the pants of a sleeping person, according to the court documents.

The footage does not show any criminal activity, nor any evidence that the four fraternity members were dangerously intoxicated, said Aron, who has declined to provide a copy of the video to the news media because of the embarrassing nature of the images.

Reach capital bureau reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at jared.miller@trib.com.