THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 7, 1995 TAG: 9511070312
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC SCHMITT, THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
Despite the acquittal last month of the Navy's former top equal-opportunity officer on charges of sexually harassing a woman who worked for him, Navy officials said Monday that the officer's promotion to admiral would be canceled.
The verdict last month by an eight-officer Navy tribunal cleared Capt. Everett L. Greene of any criminal wrongdoing. When he won that ruling, it seemed that choosing the risk of defending his reputation rather than quietly accepting administrative punishment had paid off.
But after reviewing nearly 800 pages of court transcripts, Navy Secretary John H. Dalton decided Monday that Greene ``was out of line,'' ``exercised poor judgment'' and repeatedly displayed ``inappropriate behavior,'' said a senior Navy official involved in the case.
While Greene, a 47-year-old Naval Academy graduate, may not be legally culpable for writing sexually suggestive letters, cards and a poem to a former aide, Lt. Mary E. Felix, after she asked him to stop, Dalton decided that he was not fit to be an admiral, the official said.
``If this was a case of a one-time slip of judgment, hey, everyone makes a mistake,'' the official said of the secretary's decision. ``But the facts show that over a continuing period of time, he acted inappropriately.''
Greene, the highest-ranking naval officer to face court-martial since World War II, who now commands a Navy Seal commando unit in San Diego, said in a telephone interview that he would fight Dalton's decision. ``I will request an opportunity to address whatever basis he has for a lack of confidence,'' the captain said.
After reviewing Greene's rebuttal, Dalton will forward his final decision to Defense Secretary William J. Perry. Perry, in turn, will send the recommendation to the White House, which would ultimately be responsible for removing Greene's name from a list of officers sent to the Senate earlier this year.
But for all practical purposes, Pentagon officials said the decision was Dalton's, and top Navy aides said it was highly unlikely that Greene could say anything new that would change the Navy secretary's mind.
Moreover, Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda, the chief of naval operations, supports Dalton's decision, a top Navy official said, foreclosing the possibility that the Navy's top admiral might intercede with Perry on Greene's behalf.
The case of Greene, who is black and whose accuser is white, became a lightning rod for critics who contend that the Navy turned a blind eye to the seriousness of his conduct to advance the goal of promoting more minority officers into senior ranks. Only five of the Navy's 220 admirals on active duty are black.
Advocates of women rights rallied around the case as a test of the Navy's resolve to quell sexual harassment in any form, be it obvious cases of assault or harder-to-define instances, like coarse speech or sexual advances.
Greene's case fell into the latter category. He was accused of writing poems and letters, and of making harassing telephone calls to two aides who worked for him in 1993, Felix and Lt. Pamela Castrucci. The military judge dropped the charges involving Castrucci once the trial began.
In a poem to Felix, Greene said: ``Whenever you need to be adored, I will be there. Whenever you need to be befriended, I will be there. Whenever you need to be comforted, I will be there.''
Greene also gave Felix little presents - from a bag of chewing gum to an old pair of men's running shorts - and also went jogging regularly with her.
A married father of three children, the captain readily acknowledged all of this, but said his accusers had mistakenly twisted his fatherly concern for something much worse.
Neither woman accused Greene of ever touching her.
Felix and Greene informally resolved their differences in late 1993 using mediation that the Navy has offered since the 1991 Tailhook scandal to deal with complaints before they became more serious.
Felix renewed her complaint after Greene was promoted in February. The lieutenant testified at the captain's court-martial that she had been led to believe by the Navy officer who mediated the agreement that the captain would not be promoted.
While virtually all top Navy aides agreed that Greene showed poor judgment, some debated whether Dalton was sending the right signal to the fleet by canceling his promotion.
``It was a tough decision,'' one top Navy official said.
``Dalton wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but here he just couldn't.'' ILLUSTRATION: A Navy tribunal last month cleared Capt. Everett L. Greene of
any criminal wrongdoing.
by CNB