DENVER -- Three Air Force Academy cadets face charges of underage drinking after a police officer found them at a hotel with two teenage girls on Friday.

A police officer working at a dance at Pine Creek High School on Friday learned that two high school girls had left the dance, apparently to rendezvous with male cadets at a motel.

Police raided the room and cited three cadets and the two girls, ages 16 and 18, for underage drinking.

Four other cadets who allegedly were involved were 21, academy spokesman Lt. Col. Perry Nouis said. All were juniors.

Last month, senior cadet Phillip Hawkins, 21, was arrested when police found him with a young woman who had passed out in a vehicle. He was to appear in court in Colorado Springs on Monday to face sexual assault charges. Prosecutors said he knew his victim was helpless and had not consented to sex.

Nouis said officers at the academy would meet Monday with police to discuss the latest case.

In the aftermath of a sexual assault scandal that resulted in the ouster of the academy's commanders earlier this year, academy officials had stressed repeatedly that underage cadets must not drink, and no cadet should provide alcohol to minors.

"Alcohol seems to continually show up as a factor in the situations and it is a concern to everyone," said Nouis.

"You wonder how this could happen. This year it has been truly stressed that you have to do the right thing and if you don't, you are going to be held accountable. And that message has been delivered repeatedly," he said.

The reports of sexual assaults, including claims that female cadets were punished for reporting them, led to four investigations, three by the military and one by an independent panel created by Congress. Only one has been completed, and it found that although not enough attention was paid to the assaults, there was no attempt to cover them up.

The Gazette of Colorado Springs reported this weekend that top Air Force officials and members of Congress were alerted to the sex assault problem in 1996 but did nothing.

The Gazette said a four-page report by a high-level Air Force whistleblower warned that the academy had become a haven for rapists because of a "culture of silence" that discouraged women from reporting attacks.

Then-Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall said the report never reached her.

Richard Skorman, Colorado Springs' vice mayor, said reports of cadets drinking hurt the academy's reputation and worry city residents.

"Given the history of what's gone on there, I think everybody is uncomfortable in ways they haven't been in the past," said Skorman.

"I think that the cadets should certainly be more cognizant of how the community feels about them and how sensitive it is about these sorts of issues," he added.