THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 10, 1994 TAG: 9412100186
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By KERRY DeROCHI, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
The first time she was grabbed by the Australian sailor, Cristina Woods smiled and said simply, ``Please leave me alone.''
The second time he ran his hands up her thighs, Woods, a cocktail waitress, slapped them away and told him, firmly, that she was working.
Later, when he burned her leg with his cigarette, Woods told her boss to kick him out.
When that didn't work, she had him arrested.
``I was just trying to get it stopped,'' Woods said in a recent interview. ``I just wanted him to leave me alone. I didn't want it to come to this.''
This week, in a hearing with international implications, a Virginia Beach judge convicted the sailor on two counts of misdemeanor assault and ordered him jailed for 120 days.
The sailor, David Pringle, 32, a chief in the Australian Navy, was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon, despite protests from his lawyer and an agent for the Australian embassy.
He was freed late Friday pending an appeal, after the judge in the case, Virginia Cochran, received written assurance from the embassy that he wouldn't leave the country. She ordered him to stay away from Woods until the case is reheard.
Neither Pringle nor his attorney, Greg McCormack, would discuss the case.
For Woods, the conviction is a victory in a five-month struggle.
A thin woman with long brown hair, Woods, 22, lives in a small townhouse off Dam Neck Road with her husband, Jay, and their 2-year-old daughter, Rachel.
Woods was hired as a cocktail waitress in February at the enlisted man's club at the Navy's Fleet Combat Training Center at Dam Neck. She took the job because the money was good and she could save to pay for college.
On July 16, a Saturday night, Woods was one of several waitresses working the crowd at the bar. She stood at the waitress station, waiting for the bartender to make drinks.
That's when Pringle touched her, she said.
``He was grabbing my legs, he was sticking his hands up my shorts,'' said Woods. ``He didn't even know my name.
``I told him to leave me alone. He kept touching me.''
Later that night, she said, Pringle, who was attending school at the Dam Neck Base, grabbed her as she delivered drinks to a table of other Australian sailors. When he rubbed her thigh, his cigarette singed her leg.
She went looking for her manager to tell him what had happened. When she returned to the table, Pringle was gone.
She said the harassment continued last summer.
``He would grab my face and try to kiss me,'' Woods said. ``I was like, `Leave me alone.'
``It's not like I haven't been hit on before. You know how to deal with it. You try to control it.''
It wasn't until October that Woods learned the sailor's name. That month, she filed a complaint with security at the Dam Neck Base. Three days later, she told the club management about the problems.
On Oct. 18, she met with an agent of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and gave a statement. She said the agent assured her the sailor would be barred from the club.
Woods said fine. That's all she wanted.
On Nov. 10, she walked into work and saw Pringle sitting on a chair near the door. He grinned at her, she said.
That night, Pringle followed her around the bar, calling her ``Hollywoods,'' she said. His friends ordered drinks from her and then sent them back. He pinned her against the bar and was thrown out by the club manager.
On Monday, Nov. 14, Woods went to talk to a magistrate at the Virginia Beach court.
She swore out arrest warrants for him and waited for them to be served. When she learned from friends that Pringle was trying to leave the country, she called the commanders of the Dam Neck base to try to make him stay.
``Nothing would have happened to him if they had let him go home,'' Woods said. ``He thinks he can do whatever he wants to anyone he wants.
``He'd be sitting there saying, `I harassed an American woman,' and his buddies would go, `good on you.' ''
Pringle was served with the warrants and told to stay in the country.
On Wednesday, he appeared in Virginia Beach General District court with a lawyer, and a representative of the embassy.
Woods stood on the other side of the judge's bench.
Her husband, an aviation electrician's mate, and her daughter sat behind her.
The more she listened to Pringle tell his side of the story, the angrier she got.
``It happened, and he knew it happened,'' Woods said. ``I didn't understand all the legal mumbo jumbo.''
When it was over, she tried to thank the judge. But she couldn't find the words. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/
``He was grabbing my legs, he was sticking his hands up my shorts.
He didn't even know my name,'' said Cristina Woods, a waitress at
the enlisted man's club at the Dam Neck base.
KEYWORDS: SEXUAL HARRASSMENT by CNB