THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 6, 1994 TAG: 9410060487
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS, NEV. LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Paula A. Coughlin, whose charges of being sexually assaulted at the 1991 Tailhook convention shook the Navy from the top down, ended three days on the witness stand on Wednesday by defending her conduct as an aviator in the year and a half after the incident.
The 32-year-old former Navy lieutenant from Virginia Beach admitted under cross-examination in her civil suit that, despite her fragile mental state and recurring thoughts of suicide after the convention, she persisted in piloting helicopters.
Generally, military and civilian pilots are not allowed to fly if they are under stress or unusually distracted by personal problems. A pilot who confesses to suicidal thoughts is almost invariably grounded and is not allowed to fly again pending psychiatric treatment.
Coughlin is suing Hilton Hotels Corp. and the Las Vegas Hilton, where the Tailhook convention was held. Under sharp and at times belligerent cross-examination by Eugene Wait, a lawyer for Hilton Hotels, Coughlin on Wednesday insisted that she had done nothing wrong in continuing to fly.
``I made an agreement with my commanding officer that I would never fly if I was too distracted or incapable,'' she said.
Wait continued to press her, asking how many passengers flew with her during the time she thought of ending her life. After deflecting the question several times, Coughlin exclaimed in exasperation:
``I think you're being mean! I've had a very clear relationship with my commanding officers regarding my mental health!''
Wait's questioning of Coughlin's decision to continue flying was apparently meant to raise doubts in the minds of jurors about her ability to make astute and rational decisions.
Throughout the trial, defense lawyers have sought to suggest that Coughlin was emotionally immature and impulsive, repeatedly asking her whether the clothes she wore might have been provocative, how much alcohol she consumed and which men she met at various sites around the convention.
At issue is whether the Hilton Hotels Corp. and its subsidiaries failed to set up proper security even though the hotel had been the scene of 19 previous conventions of the Tailhook Association, events that had often turned into drunken debauchery. Members of the association, which is independent of the Navy, are former or current naval aviators.
The defense appeared to abandon its earlier strategy of suggesting that Coughlin was a hypocrite who, while condemning her fellow aviators, had participated in much of the raucous partying on the evening before she was assaulted.
In August, defense lawyers filed a sworn deposition by Lt. Roland Diaz that he shaved Coughlin's legs on Sept. 6, 1991, while she was dressed in her Navy uniform. Diaz later testified that she returned to a party later that night wearing a miniskirt and tank top, and that she was drunk at the time.
Diaz's testimony was expected to be a central issue in Coughlin's cross-examination on Wednesday morning, but Wait never mentioned the incident. Nor did he question her about being intoxicated during the convention.
KEYWORDS: CIVIL LAWSUIT TAILHOOK TRIAL by CNB