Two OU students and three of their friends were arrested and charged Aug. 5 with felony vandalism in connection with $5,400 in damages to 14 lights on the bike path this summer.

Dustin Istnick of Massillon, Daniel Elson and Brent Bogrees of Dayton, and OU freshmen Patrick Lytle and Chad Pritchard will appear before the Athens County Court of Common Pleas later this month. Lytle and Pritchard have been referred to OU Judiciaries.

OU likely will ask Lytle and Pritchard to pay for damages, said Mark Mathews, assistant director of the OU Police Department.

At 3:20 a.m. Aug. 5, a resident of Mill Street Apartments reported the incident to the Athens Police Department, according to an OUPD report. The resident reported seeing five young men kicking bike path lights near the apartments.

Because the bike path is on OU property, the APD transferred the call to OUPD, which immediately dispatched officers to the scene, according to the report.

At the scene, the officers saw Lytle, Elson and Bogrees kicking the lights, Mathews said. When the officers asked them to stop, Elson and Bogrees reportedly dove into the bushes, got into a vehicle and drove away from the scene. APD Officer James Michael and his canine unit traced Istnick and Pritchard to Gamertsfelder Hall, where they were taken into custody.

After questioning Lytle, Istnick and Pritchard, officers received the description of the car and traced the vehicle to The Crossroads, 139 N. Plains Road in The Plains, where Elson and Bogrees were arrested.

Ted Fares, director of operations and utilities, said 12 of the 14 lights were seriously damaged. Four of them were repairable, and eight need to be replaced.

"They didn't damage the foundations, so we were able to reuse (the lights). It would have been much more costly if we had to replace the foundations of those lights," he said.

Four of the lights were fixed with leftover materials, and the other eight light fixtures have been ordered and are expected to be installed within the next week or two, Fares said.

Richard Carpinelli, director of Judiciaries, said he cannot release any information about the case.