THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 15, 1994 TAG: 9409150516
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
The whistle-blower in the Tailhook scandal was a promising officer and pilot whose confidence crumbled after drunken aviators at the 1991 Tailhook convention groped and fondled her, an admiral testified.
Adm. Donald Becker said Paula Coughlin was a ``superb'' officer who never seemed the same after the convention at the Las Vegas Hilton.
``I noticed a change in her demeanor,'' Becker said. ``She was scared. She was frightened. She had been violated.''
Becker, in a videotaped deposition played Wednesday in Coughlin's lawsuit trial against the Hilton, said the former lieutenant was his aide for eight months during 1990 and 1991 at the Naval Air Testing Center in Maryland.
He described her as a ``great aviator'' who flew a half dozen different types of helicopters, and as a top candidate for advancement. She was no longer his aide during the convention, but Becker said he saw her a few weeks afterward.
Coughlin was the first to publicly accuse Navy and Marine aviators of sexual assault, saying she was forced to walk a lecherous gantlet. Afterward, about 90 women followed with similar complaints, and a dozen filed lawsuits.
Coughlin wanted to stay in the Navy, but eventually quit because she felt harassed by other Navy officers for taking the scandal public, Becker said.
Coughlin's is the first case to go to trial. She settled last week with the Tailhook Association, but failed to reach a settlement with the Las Vegas Hilton and Hilton Hotel Corp., defendants she accuses of negligence. She is seeking unspecified damages.
KEYWORDS: TAILHOOK SEXUAL HARASSMENT U.S. NAVY LAWSUIT by CNB