
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 22, 1993                   TAG: 9310220055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: QUANTICO                                LENGTH: Short

OFFICER CLEARED OF ASSAULT ON TAILHOOK WHISTLEBLOWER

The Marine Corps dismissed charges Thursday against a flight instructor who had been accused of assaulting Tailhook whistleblower Paula Coughlin.

The dismissal of indecent assault and conduct unbecoming an officer charges against Capt. Gregory J. Bonam had been recommended by an investigating officer assigned to Bonam's case.

At a hearing in August, Coughlin, a Navy lieutenant, identified Bonam as the man who grabbed her buttocks and breasts in the infamous gantlet at the Las Vegas Hilton during the 1991 Tailhook Association convention.

But Bonam, 30, insisted that Coughlin was mistaken. At a new hearing last week at the Quantico Marine Base, two witnesses testified that Bonam spent virtually the entire evening with them on the hotel's pool patio, away from the gantlet.

Another witness who saw the assault on Coughlin said her attacker was only slightly taller than her 5-foot-4 height. Bonam is 6-foot-1.

Lt. Gen. Charles Krulak, the top Marine authority on Tailhook cases, determined that sending Bonam to court-martial "was not warranted by the evidence."

by CNB