ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9606030083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: Associated Press|
The Navy will investigate a report that several trainees for its elite SEAL commando force had group sex with a woman in their barracks at Coronado, Calif., in 1994.
A spokesman for the service's Special Warfare Command, which oversees SEAL teams on both coasts, said Friday that Coronado officials will follow up on a SEAL's testimony last week that he witnessed the event.
``We're going to do what's necessary,'' the spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. James R. Fallin Jr., told The Virginian-Pilot.
The SEAL's comments came during the murder trial of SEAL trainee Billy Joe Brown Jr., who - along with fellow trainee Dustin Turner - is accused of killing Georgia pre-med student Jennifer Evans in Virginia Beach last June.
Todd Ehrlich, an operations specialist, testified Wednesday in Virginia Beach Circuit Court that Brown, Turner and at least two other men had sex with an unidentified woman in a barracks room. At the time, the men were enrolled in the Navy's rigorous, months-long SEAL training.
Ehrlich also testified that ``sort of like a crowd'' witnessed the scene with him, and that he declined an invitation to join in.
His testimony, which was not heard by the jury and not allowed into evidence, represented a departure from the official portrait of life at Coronado, where SEAL training begins with 25 weeks of brutally challenging schooling.
Only 30 percent of the men admitted to Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL School finish the course before going on to parachute school and other training.
Fallin said Coronado officials have no record of the alleged group sex incident.
Patricia O'Connor, a spokeswoman for the Special Warfare Command, said SEAL leaders would expect trainees to report any incident in the barracks affecting ``the safety of individuals, or anything that's going on that is illegal or unsafe.''
Beyond that, she said, SEAL trainees are ``inculcated with the highest values and responsibilities of citizenship.''
Ehrlich, now assigned to the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, said he became aware of the woman's presence in the barracks when Brown banged on his door and urged him to see something amazing in another room.
He said he followed Brown to another part of the building, where he saw a drunken Turner having sex with the woman on a bed. Several other men were also present, he said, and two of them also engaged in sex with the woman. Brown also told him, Ehrlich said, that he had sex with her earlier.
Ehrlich said he remembered the date - July 12, 1994 - because he was scheduled to fly to Connecticut the next day to recover from a training injury.
Fallin said Special Warfare Command leaders have cooperated with Virginia Beach authorities prosecuting Brown and Turner. The jury in Brown's case is to hear closing arguments this week and Turner is set for trial June 25.
The prosecution has alleged that Brown and Turner were trying to have sex with Evans when she was strangled.
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