THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 30, 1995 TAG: 9512300365
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SHARON WAXMAN, THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
A 23-year-old Navy petty officer described in military court Friday how a drunken superior groped her breasts and thighs continually during a commercial airline flight out of Norfolk in October, failing to stop - or be stopped by other Navy personnel - until she shook him and slapped his face.
The woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, testified at a preliminary hearing at the U.S. Naval Station here about the alleged incident involving Chief Petty Officer George Powell, 49. She said the final straw came when, after repeated rebuffs, he grabbed her left breast and said, ``Honk.''
``I went a little crazy,'' she said. ``I got out of my seat, I ripped up the armrest and grabbed him by the collar and shook him, and I slapped his face. I said, `You're in the Navy 24 hours a day - why not start acting like it.' ''
An investigating officer, the military equivalent of a judge, heard testimony related to 11 charges being considered against Powell for indecent assault, drunk and disorderly conduct, sexual harassment and simple assault,
including two new charges stemming from another alleged incident of sexual assault that came to light during the investigation.
After news reports about the most recent incident, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda ordered an all-Navy ``stand-down,'' which resulted in orders for the 430,000 active-duty naval personnel to stop work for one day and meet with their units to discuss regulations and standards of conduct. A previous stand-down was called in 1992 to discuss sexual harassment in light of the 1991 Tailhook Association scandal, in which naval aviators groped female colleagues at an annual convention.
Despite the Navy's heightened awareness and intolerance of such conduct after Tailhook, Powell - who has a long history of alcoholism - continued to be tolerated in the service, undergoing a court-martial in 1993 for drunk and disorderly conduct in another assault incident involving a female sailor.
But in Friday's testimony, Powell, a Navy cook and former Marine, appeared to be preparing to put much of the blame on the armed forces themselves. His lawyer called to the stand a Navy psychiatrist who testified that Powell suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder because of his experience in Vietnam, which in turn led to his drinking.
Capt. Antonio Reyes said that it was the Navy's fault that the stress disorder had not been diagnosed and treated, and that this was why Powell's alcoholism remained a chronic problem. Reyes, who became choked up several times during his testimony, called Powell a ``hero'' for managing to cope with life at all, although he admitted under cross-examination that the stress disorder and subsequent alcoholism did not excuse Powell's conduct on the airplane.
``It doesn't excuse his behavior, but it explains his behavior in my judgment,'' Reyes said. ``If life is a marathon, he's running the marathon on crutches. I suppose some people can blame him, but he's running the marathon.
Powell's attorney, Lt. Andrew Henderson, said Powell had no recollection of the assault - what Henderson termed an alcoholic ``blackout'' - and suggested that as a result his client could not have had sexual intent, calling to the stand a Navy specialist in alcohol dependency.
But prosecution attorney Lt. Cmdr. John Hannink said that a voluntary act such as drinking could not absolve Powell. ``The Navy did drop the ball - they didn't send him to treatment in 1993,'' he told the court. ``But . . . voluntary intoxication is not a defense by which he can escape liability.''
After lengthy discussion over post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism, the female sailor's testimony brought the court's focus back to the Oct. 27 incident on an American Airlines flight from Norfolk to Alameda, Calif., via Dallas.
The sailor recounted that the destroyer tender Samuel Gompers, where both she and Powell had been on tours of duty, was decommissioned that day and that, after a reception, crew members were traveling to another base in California.
She said that she and Powell were assigned adjacent seats, with a third one empty, and that he was drunk - ``loud, singing, dancing around'' - when he got on the plane. After a bit of small talk, she said, Powell began caressing her hand. She pushed him away and moved to the empty window seat.
Then ``he reached into my waistband, stuck several fingers between the waistband and my turtleneck and tried to pull me back, until I said, `No, don't touch me,' '' she said. He then drank three glasses of rum in rapid succession, she testified, and moved to the front of the plane, while she went to sleep.
She awoke, she said, when she felt a hand between her thighs near her crotch, and opened her eyes to see Powell sitting beside her. She said she raised her voice and told him to stay away. ``I'm sure the whole plane heard me,'' she said. Then he put his hand on her knee and caressed her thigh, she said. She again yelled at Powell, she said, and they exchanged expletives, and she ended up pushing him out of his chair.
At that point a Navy chaplain intervened. Powell swore at the chaplain, the woman said. She then went back to sleep and was awakened by Powell's hand on her breast. A few minutes after that, he allegedly squeezed her breast and said, ``Honk.'' Then the chaplain took Powell's seat, and he moved elsewhere. But then on a second flight from Dallas, as the chaplain spoke to the woman about pursuing a complaint, Powell came over and put his hand on her knee, she said.
It is still not clear why other Navy personnel on the plane did not react. Lt. John Andre, about six rows behind Powell and the woman on the first flight, said he saw her stand and gesture in anger, though he could not hear her exact words. The woman said three civilians on the flight berated Powell and offered to change seats with her.
An additional incident emerged when a statement was offered by one of the female sailors on the flight, who also said she, too, had suffered a sexual assault by Powell when he grabbed her breast on a ship a year ago. She did not appear in court and has also asked to remain anonymous. Henderson asked that the charges be dismissed since they were so late and because the woman chose not to come to the hearing.
KEYWORDS: U.S. NAVY SEXUAL HARASSMENT ALCOHOL TESTIMONY HEARING by CNB