THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606010261
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 72 lines
The Navy will investigate a report that several candidates for membership in its elite SEAL commando force had group sex with a woman in their barracks at Coronado, Calif., while they underwent training in 1994.
A spokesman for the service's Special Warfare Command, which oversees SEAL teams on both coasts, said Coronado officials will look into the matter in the wake of a SEAL's testimony in Virginia Beach this week that he witnessed the event.
``We're going to do what's necessary,'' the spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. James R. Fallin Jr., said Friday.
The SEAL's comments came during the murder trial of SEAL trainee Billy Joe Brown Jr., who - along with fellow trainee Dustin Turner - is accused of killing Georgia pre-med student Jennifer Evans in Virginia Beach last June.
Todd Ehrlich, an operations specialist with SEAL Team Eight, testified Wednesday in Virginia Beach Circuit Court that Brown, Turner and at least two other men had sex with the unidentified woman in a barracks room. At the time, the men were enrolled in the Navy's rigorous, months-long SEAL training.
Ehrlich also testified that ``sort of like a crowd'' witnessed the scene with him, and that he declined an invitation to join in.
His testimony, which was not heard by the jury and not allowed into evidence, represented a departure from the official portrait of life at Coronado, where SEAL training begins with 25 weeks of brutally challenging schooling.
Only 30 percent of the men admitted to Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL School finish the course before going on to parachute school and other training.
Fallin said Coronado officials ``have no record of that incident,'' but that they ``intend to start an appropriate inquiry.''
He declined to elaborate, saying only that Special Warfare Command leaders ``have been, we are and we will continue to cooperate with local authorities'' prosecuting Brown and Turner.
Patricia O'Connor, a spokeswoman for the Special Warfare Command, said Thursday that SEAL leaders would expect trainees to report any incident in the barracks affecting ``the safety of individuals, or anything that's going on that is illegal or unsafe.''
Beyond that, she said, SEAL trainees are ``inculcated with the highest values and responsibilities of citizenship.''
Ehrlich - who is now among about 1,000 SEALs assigned to teams at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base - said he became aware of the woman's presence in the barracks when Brown banged on his door and urged him to see something ``amazing'' in another room.
He said he followed Brown to another part of the building, where he saw a drunken Turner having sex with the woman on a bed. Several other men were also present, he said, and two of them also engaged in sex with the woman. Brown also told him, Ehrlich said, that he had had sex with her earlier.
Ehrlich said he remembered the date - July 12, 1994 - because he was scheduled to fly to Connecticut the next day to recover from a training injury.
That would have been a Tuesday - a workday for SEAL trainees, who generally labor Monday through Friday.
As a rule, civilian visitors do not get access to the barracks, a spokeswoman said, noting that they are stopped at the facility's quarterdeck. Ehrlich also testified that Turner described the episode in a ``humorous'' SEAL narrative known as the ``Book of Woe.''
BUD/S spokeswoman Lt. Dee Dee VanWormer said she had never heard of such a book, and had been unable to find anyone else at Coronado who had.
Fallin, meanwhile, said the SEAL fraternity was following the case closely. ``The entire SEAL community is still shocked and stunned by the events of a year ago,'' he said. ``Our heartfelt prayers continue to go out to (Evans') family.'' ILLUSTRATION: VP Map
KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL SEAL ORGY INVESTIGATION by CNB