ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210043
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
WASHINGTON - A Navy selection board has renominated for promotion a decorated aviator who senators rejected once because of questions about his behavior at the 1991 Tailhook convention.
The move confronts Pentagon leaders with the choice of risking a political row by affirming Cmdr. Robert E. Stumpf as a captain or rejecting the promotion despite their own repeated praise of Stumpf.
Allegations that the Senate has been seized by political correctness and remains intent on punishing Tailhook participants have incensed members of the Armed Services Committee who spent months deliberating Stumpf's nomination the first time around.
A onetime commander of the Navy's elite Blue Angels flight team, Stumpf boasts a string of outstanding evaluations from superiors urging his rapid promotion. During the Persian Gulf War he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and numerous other medals.
But his behavior at the 1991 Tailhook convention drew scrutiny on at least two counts: He was in a hotel room where two strippers performed, although he left the room before one of the women engaged in a sex act with an airman; and, he flew from his Florida base in an F/A-18 fighter jet, landing in California and driving two hours to Las Vegas. Pilots were not supposed to use combat planes to get to Tailhook, but Stumpf has said he needed to return to Florida quickly for a military exercise and used the trip for flight training. - The Washington Post Police probe erases 60 more convictions
PHILADELPHIA - In a growing police corruption scandal, a judge Wednesday threw out 60 more drug convictions, saying the arresting officers had set their victims up.
With Judge Legrome D. Davis' rulings, 116 convictions have been reversed in the year-old 39th District case. More are expected as internal and federal investigations continue.
Six former officers in the 39th have confessed to planting drugs on suspects, stealing their money and falsifying police reports. - Associated Press
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