THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 14, 1994 TAG: 9409140475
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Former Navy Lt. Paula Coughlin's personality changed dramatically and she became suicidal after she was groped by drunken aviators at the Tailhook convention, her mother testified Tuesday.
Rena Coughlin, taking the stand as the first witness in her daughter's lawsuit against the Las Vegas Hilton, described her daughter as extremely bright, outgoing and happy prior to the September 1991 convention.
She said all that changed after her 32-year-old daughter came forward with allegations stemming from the convention at the Las Vegas resort.
``When she first made public the events of 1991 I think she felt a sense of relief,'' Coughlin said. ``Then she became extremely depressed and she was considering harming herself.''
Coughlin, who lives in Virginia Beach, said her daughter was even more upset by the attack because it involved her fellow officers and other co-workers.
Nine months after the convention, Coughlin went public with her account of being forced down a gantlet of drunken pilots who grabbed her buttocks and slipped their hands inside her bra as she passed. More than 80 other women followed with other complaints of sexual assaults.
``She felt like she was mortally wounded, once by the attack and once by the people who did it to her'' because they were her peers, Coughlin said.
Coughlin said her daughter, once a healthy and athletic woman, has suffered severe stomach problems and headaches requiring treatment by doctors since the convention.
Coughlin said the treatment her daughter received eventually led her to leave the Navy.
``She was basically ostracized. People refused to fly with her, dine with her and refused to sit with her,'' Coughlin said.
Coughlin was an admiral's aide when she attended the convention. Her revelations ignited a scandal that led to the resignation of Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett III and the early retirement of Chief of Naval Operations Frank B. Kelso II.
Coughlin resigned from the Navy in February, saying ``covert attacks'' and the strain from the case made it impossible for her to continue her career.
Coughlin's lawyer, Dennis Schoville, said in his opening statement in the federal trial that Hilton security guards saw the assaults but did nothing.
Hilton lawyer Eugene Wait said Coughlin used to go out drinking with male aviators after she became an officer in 1984 and should have had the foresight to avoid the gantlet.
Coughlin settled last week with the Tailhook Association, which was the other defendant in the case. Terms were not disclosed. Her lawsuit against the Hilton seeks unspecified damages.
KEYWORDS: TAILHOOK U.S. NAVY SEXUAL HARASSMENT
ASSAULT TRIAL LAWSUIT by CNB