THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996 TAG: 9605160427
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO LENGTH: Short : 31 lines
A Navy petty officer convicted of groping two female sailors, including one aboard a commercial flight from Norfolk, has been discharged and will lose $12,000 annually in pension benefits, officials say.
Chief Petty Officer George Powell, 49, was released from the brig at Miramar Naval Air Station on Monday after serving 75 days of an 89-day sentence, Lt. Cmdr. Bruce Cole, a Navy spokesman, said.
``He will not receive retirement benefits,'' Cole said.
Powell, a 19-year veteran, was convicted in February. The judge, Cmdr. Nels Kelstrom, said Powell had ``discredited the naval service'' and violated the ``physical and emotional sanctity'' of the women he assaulted.
Powell said he was suffering from an alcoholic blackout when he grabbed the thigh and breast of a 23-year-old petty officer last October aboard an American Airlines flight from Norfolk to Oakland, Calif. He said he also was drunk when he groped the breast of a petty officer third class aboard the Samuel Gompers in early 1995 when it was anchored off Hong Kong.
KEYWORDS: U.S. NAVY SEXUAL HARASSMENT ASSAULT by CNB