THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 5, 1994 TAG: 9410050537
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Paula Coughlin testified Tuesday that President Bush wept when she told him of being sexually assaulted by drunken aviators at the 1991 Tailhook convention.
The former Navy lieutenant from Virginia Beach told a U.S. District Court jury that she met with Bush at the White House in the summer of 1992 as she was granting a series of media interviews about her experiences at the convention.
``President Bush said he had recently found out what happened to me,'' she testified. ``He had a 30- or 31-year-old daughter and he started to cry and I didn't really know what to do. He told me he had asked for the resignation of the secretary of the Navy.''
Former Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett III resigned over the Tailhook scandal.
Coughlin, 32, also testified that her former boss, Adm. Jack Snyder, ``shrieked'' at her during a phone call in which he suggested she change her story.
Sobbing in her second day of testimony, Coughlin said she told Snyder about the Sept. 7, 1991 incident the night after it occurred, but he took no immediate action despite promises to do so.
Coughlin said Snyder telephoned her later and shrieked, ``Paula, you've got to help me out here. I'm getting really beat up. We've got to get our stories straight. These investigators are all over me.''
Snyder has said that he didn't know of the attack until nearly two weeks later.
Coughlin is suing the Las Vegas Hilton and Hilton Hotel Corp. for unspecified damages, saying they failed to provide proper security at the gathering of Navy and Marine aviators.
She recently settled a lawsuit against the Tailhook Association for an undisclosed sum. After Coughlin went public with her ordeal, about 90 other women said they too were groped and fondled at the convention as they were forced down a gantlet of aviators in a hallway. A dozen have sued.
Coughlin said she told Snyder about the attack again later that same week but ``he scoffed it off again.''
``I didn't think he understood it was the worst thing that ever happened to me,'' she said.
On Monday, Coughlin testified she feared she would be gang raped as her fellow aviators trapped her in a hotel hallway and tried to pull her skirt and underwear off.
A helicopter pilot who was once touted as a ``bright star'' by her superiors, Coughlin said she was relegated to a desk job in the Pentagon when she continued to pursue the Tailhook issue.
She resigned from the Navy earlier this year, citing pressure from her role as a Tailhook whistleblower. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former Navy Lt. Paula Coughlin leaves the Federal Building in Las
Vegas, Nev., Monday with her mother, Rena. Coughlin testified Monday
that she feared her fellow officers were going to rape her in a
hotel hallway at the 1991 Tailhook convention.
George Bush told Coughlin he had asked for the resignation of the
secretary of the Navy, Coughlin testified.
KEYWORDS: TAILHOOK U.S. NAVY SEXUAL HARASSMENT
ASSAULT TRIAL by CNB