THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607210050
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 97 lines
Navy SEAL Cmdr. Marshall D. Daugherty was cleared Saturday of all charges alleging he illegally brought his two daughters with him when he returned from Spain to the United States to undergo spinal cord surgery.
The 46-year-old former commanding officer of an elite SEAL unit in the Mediterranean also was found not guilty of unrelated charges alleging he violated travel orders during a business trip to Madrid, Spain.
The rulings came Saturday after three days of testimony at a special court-martial in Rota, Spain, where he is assigned.
Daugherty chose court-martial, rather than an administrative hearing. He insisted he had done nothing wrong, as alleged by his command, Special Warfare Group Two, headquartered at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Norfolk.
Cmdr. Jim Fallin, a spokesman for the Special Warfare Command in Coronoda, Calif., said the original complaint came from the Personnel Support Detachment in Rota, and had to be investigated.
``Questionable judgment was found, and the decision was made to handle this administratively,'' he said. ``However, Cmdr. Daugherty chose to go to court-martial. He has now been found not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing.''
Fallin said it remains to be seen whether any further administrative action is taken.
Daugherty's wife, Denise, said by telephone Saturday she is relieved the nine-month ordeal has ended, but doesn't know what's in store for her husband's future.
Initially Daugherty, with 26 years in the Navy, had asked to be retired by the end of September. But the case has put his retirement status in limbo. He now wants to stay, but must wait until a medical board decides whether he is fit to continue to serve.
``It's just too soon to feel up,'' Denise Daugherty said. ``Not only have we had to deal with this legal issue, but also the family's embarrassment over this and my husband's injury.''
Daugherty was injured in April 1995 when he tried to lift a heart attack victim out of a seat aboard a commercial airliner. He ruptured two disks in his back and required surgery in June of that year.
While his physician authorized travel back to Portsmouth Naval Hospital for his wife and himself, none was authorized for their two children, then 9 and 11.
Daugherty, exercising his authority as commanding officer, had orders issued that allowed them to return on emergency leave.
His command in Norfolk subsequently charged him with disobeying military regulations governing ethics for bringing his two children to the United States at government expense.
The cost of the children's tickets: about $700 each.
His superiors maintain Daugherty used undue command influence for his own benefit, even though he was aware government travel for his children had been refused. It has always been allowed for his wife.
Daugherty also had been charged by his command in an unrelated, later incident, in which he was accused of filing fraudulent travel papers for a conference he failed to attend during a business trip to Madrid.
He maintains he went to Madrid, met with embassy officials concerning an upcoming operation and renewed his passport. But he ran out of time during the four-hour visit: By the time he made it to the conference, it was ending.
The charges were brought by his superiors, Capt. Stan J. Holloway, chief of staff of the command and Navy Capt. Pete Toennies, the commander of Naval Special Warfare Group Two.
During the hearing, Cmdr. Michael Stimpson, the senior military judge for the Navy and Marine Corps in the Mediterranean, dismissed the air travel charges involving the children on a defense motion filed by Daugherty's military lawyer, Lt. Richard K. Giroux.
In essence, Stimpson ruled ``there was no crime,'' Giroux said by telephone.
He also ruled that Toennies shouldn't have the authority to prosecute Daugherty because he was reaching beyond the theater of command. Daugherty, while administratively assigned to Special Warfare Group Two, is operationally under a European command.
Further, Stimpson ruled that because Holloway was the accuser in the case, and Toennies the convening authority, neither could later review the case with any authority to pass judgment. Generally inn all courts-martial, the convening authority has the right to review the court's decision.
Testimony from a representative of the Navy's Bureau of Medicine, Lt. Katie Hawkins, indicated it has never been policy to restrict family members from traveling to the United States from overseas with an injured or ill service member.
Hawkins told the court it was the Bureau of Medicine's policy to ``keep the whole family together.''
On charges relating to Daugherty's business trip to Madrid, the court found him not guilty.
Daugherty flew to Madrid to get his passport renewed for an upcoming operation. He also visited the U.S. embassy there, but did not have time to attend a scheduled conference.
His command charged him with fraud and wanted him to repay the government.
Daugherty, who later underwent a second surgery that fused a portion of his spinal column, was stripped of his command in Madrid. The Navy Bureau of Personnel relieved him for cause the week of his court-martial.
He was formally stripped of command two days before his trial began. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Cmdr. Marshall D. Daugherty
KEYWORDS: U.S. NAVY COURT-MARTIAL VERDICT
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