THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 4, 1994 TAG: 9410040422
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Paula Coughlin testified Monday that she feared her fellow officers were going to rape her in a hotel hallway during the 1991 Tailhook convention.
``They were trying to pull my underwear off from between my legs,'' she sobbed in her first testimony before a federal jury.
``I thought if I didn't make it off the floor, I was sure I was going to be gang raped.''
She said at one point, she tried to move ahead of a man and he turned, grabbed her breasts, and smiled. Coughlin said she finally was able to reach an empty suite.
``I sat down and tried to figure out what had happened. Why couldn't I walk past these people? We were on the same side (fellow officers).''
The next morning, she said, she told her boss, Adm. Jack Snyder, about the attack. Snyder has said that he didn't know of the attack until two weeks later.
Snyder's response, according to Coughlin, was, ``Well, that's what you get for going down a hallway of a bunch of drunken aviators.''
``All I could think of is, That's not what you get,'' she testified. ``What if that had been your daughter?''
Coughlin is suing the Las Vegas Hilton, where the convention took place, and Hilton Hotel Corp., claiming they failed to provide proper security.
She recently settled her lawsuit against the Tailhook Association for an unspecified amount. Coughlin is among dozens of women who were groped and fondled during the three-day convention's final night.
A psychiatrist testified Monday that the stress on Coughlin after the convention was as damaging to her physical and mental health as the assault. Dr. Richard Rahe, a professor at the University of Nevada-Reno and a 20-year Navy veteran, said on videotape that in January 1994 Coughlin was suffering from major depression, post-traumatic stress and a peptic ulcer.
Coughlin, a lieutenant, resigned from the Navy earlier this year, citing pressure from her role as Tailhook whistleblower.
A Navy report read into the trial record described Coughlin as a ``bright star in the Navy's future. They don't come any better.'' Another called her a ``future superstar with unlimited potential.''
KEYWORDS: SEXUAL HARASSMENT TAILHOOK TRIAL by CNB