THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 18, 1994 TAG: 9410180300
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
A former Navy pilot said she saw a uniformed Paula Coughlin getting her legs shaved by a male officer the day before the Tailhook whistle-blower was groped by drunken aviators in a hotel hallway.
In videotaped testimony played in federal court Monday, Tamela Redford said she remembered the incident in a suite at the Las Vegas Hilton because she felt that Coughlin was not showing respect for her Navy uniform.
``I was appalled,'' Redford said.
Redford said she didn't know who Coughlin was at the time. It was months later, she said, that she saw a picture of Coughlin and recognized her as the woman getting her legs shaved.
``For that person to be tearing the Navy apart really amazed me,'' Redford said.
Coughlin, a former admiral's aide who went public with her tale of being sexually assaulted at the 1991 convention, is suing the Hilton, claiming its security was inadequate.
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.
The Hilton has produced testimony that Coughlin actually took part in some of the debauchery.
Redford, who left the Navy last year, corroborated earlier testimony by Lt. Rolando Diaz, who said he was the officer who shaved Coughlin's legs.
Diaz testified that he shaved Coughlin's legs on a Friday when she was in uniform and again the next night, when, he said, she was wearing a miniskirt and was drunk.
It was on Saturday night that Coughlin was assaulted by aviators who formed a gantlet in a hallway.
Redford said she told investigators during the Navy's Tailhook inquiry that she had seen Coughlin getting her legs shaved, but ``they didn't want to hear about it.''
Redford also testified that she avoided the hallway the night Coughlin was attacked. ``It was not an inviting atmosphere,'' she said. ``I didn't have any trouble recognizing I didn't want to go down there.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Paula Coughlin, recently settled her suit against the Tailhook
Association.
KEYWORDS: TAILHOOK U.S. NAVY SEXUAL HARASSMENT
ASSAULT TRIAL LAWSUIT TESTIMONY by CNB