THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 14, 1994 TAG: 9407140651
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
A Navy doctor faces a charge that carries the death penalty in connection with allegations he committed sex acts with three children during a 16-year period.
Capt. Marion Hollis Tanksley, 57, a flight surgeon at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, also is accused of impeding the investigation into the case by threatening to harm one of the alleged victims and her mother, Navy investigators said.
Tanksley committed the offenses between 1978 and 1993 while stationed at several locations, including Hampton Roads; Washington, D.C.; Huntington Beach, Calif.; and Lake Charles, La., Navy investigators said.
Tanksley, who lives in Saluda on the Middle Peninsula, was arrested Tuesday and is being held in the Navy Brig at Norfolk Naval Base.
None of the alleged victims was a patient of Tanksley's, said Cmdr. Dave Barron, a spokesman for Norfolk Naval Base.
Tanksley has been serving as administrative director of the Oceana Branch Medical Clinic for the past seven months but did not have clinical privileges there, Barron said.
The most serious of the charges he faces, capital rape, stems from a 1978 incident in Huntington Beach involving a 17-year-old. The woman is now 33.
The military's capital rape charge, punishable by death, requires the government to prove that rape occurred under one of three conditions: the victim was younger than 12 years old, the victim was maimed during the rape, or there was a murder attempt.
Officials did not specify which of those conditions the government alleges.
Tanksley also faces charges of exposing himself to a female younger than 16 in November 1990 in Washington and in August 1993 near Lake Charles. In addition, he is accused of committing indecent acts near Saluda during 1990-93, and of striking one of the victims with the back of his hand in November 1993.
The charge of impeding the Navy Criminal Investigative Service's investigation stems from an incident near Saluda in November 1993, investigators said.
Barron said he had no details on why the charges were filed at this time, so long after some of the alleged incidents occurred.
The investigation began in November 1993, according to one official.
Tanksley has been a Navy physician for 18 years. The charges date to 1978, two years after he entered the Navy.
Tanksley's parent command is the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, where formal charges have been brought.
He was reassigned this week from Oceana to Norfolk Naval Station, where he was arrested.
He faces a magistrate's hearing Monday to determine whether he will be kept in custody. The charges will be heard later at an Article 32, or preliminary hearing. At that time, a military judge will decide whether a court-martial is warranted.
KEYWORDS: U.S. NAVY INVESTIGATION RAPE SEX CRIME
by CNB