THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 20, 1995 TAG: 9510200489
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
A captain who formerly headed the Navy's drive against sexual harassment was acquitted Thursday of a charge that he harassed a female lieutenant.
His wife cried ``Thank God!'' and embraced the family's pastor as a jury of five rear admirals and three captains acquitted Capt. Everett L. Greene.
Greene's weeklong court-martial at the Washington Navy Yard focused on allegations that he harassed Lt. Mary E. Felix in 1993 when she was assigned to counsel callers to a sexual harassment hotline in the Bureau of Naval Personnel. Greene was her boss.
The verdict underscores the Navy's continuing difficulty in enforcing its zero-tolerance policy in sexual harassment. That policy was adopted after the 1991 Tailhook Association convention in Las Vegas, at which drunken naval aviators allegedly assaulted some female colleagues and civilians.
Tailhook and public reaction to it derailed the careers of several senior Navy officials, and forced the resignation of then-Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett, who had attended the convention. No one was convicted of any criminal offenses.
A spokesman said after Thursday's verdict that the Navy's prosecution of Greene, who last February was selected for rear admiral, demonstrates its determination to stop harassment. ``All Navy people need to feel confident that such allegations will be taken seriously - that was done,'' he said.
Greene seemed to agree. Offered a chance to criticize the Navy for prosecuting him, he said, ``All charges of sexual harassment and fraternization must be taken seriously,'' regardless of the rank of the accused.
But a former Navy captain who has worked extensively with harassment victims said an acquittal in such a high-profile case - all four major television networks had reporters staffing Greene's trial - may discourage other women who have been victimized from coming forward.
``That's always a problem,'' said Georgia Sadler, director of the Women in the Military Project at the Women's Resource and Education Institute in Washington. The fact that two women sat on the jury that acquitted Greene, she added, should blunt suggestions that he was protected by an ``old-boy network.''
Two former harassment victims who testified in Greene's defense acknowledged in interviews that the way his case unfolded, with aggressive attacks on Felix's character and credibility, could discourage harassment victims from voicing legitimate complaints.
Greene said he hoped that would not happen, but suggested he had little choice but to attack Felix's credibility to defeat what he saw as false allegations. ``She was not on trial,'' he said.
Rear Adm. Steven R. Briggs, who as the Greene jury's senior member announced the verdict, said the message it should send to all hands is that the court system demands that allegations be proven. ``We dealt not in impressions . . . or innuendos,'' he said.
Greene's case also has implications for a system of ``informal resolution'' the Navy encourages its members to follow in dealing with cases where harassment may be perceived, but not intended.
Greene, Felix and another former co-worker, former Lt. Pamela Castrucci, had agreed to an informal settlement last year in which Greene simply promised to have no further contact with either woman. Felix said she went to her superiors in Spain to revisit the case after seeing Greene's name on the promotion list in February.
By permitting such a resurrection of the case, the Navy will discourage informal settlements of future cases, said Bob Rae, a retired Navy commander who now practices law in Hampton Roads.
Because the Navy's ``zero-tolerance'' policy requires that all harassment allegations be reported all the way up the chain of command, senior officers are under pressure to prosecute even marginal cases, Rae said. ``It's being driven by a lot of political forces,'' he said.
For similar reasons, Rae asserted that Greene almost certainly would have been convicted at an ``admiral's mast,'' a formal but still ``non-judicial punishment'' proceeding the Navy suggested when Felix came forward. At mast, with a private hearing before a single senior officer, ``you're (effectively) presumed guilty,'' he said. ``The only way you can beat it is a court-martial.''
The 47-year-old Greene did not dispute the Navy's allegation that he sent Felix a series of cards and letters, including a poem in which he promised that ``whenever you need to be adored, I will be there.''
But Greene insisted that his attentions were aimed at boosting Felix's morale as she struggled with medical and emotional problems arising from a failed romance. She knew he was trying to act as a surrogate father, not a would-be lover, Greene said.
Both Greene and Felix said they never had a sexual relationship. But each accused the other of suggesting they become intimate.
``My judgment always was that what I did was appropriate,'' Greene said Thursday. He conceded later that he would ``definitely give some more thought'' to the language he uses in the future when dealing with troubled subordinates.
Felix, now a public affairs officer stationed in Spain, was unavailable for comment Thursday. A Navy spokesman said she decided to take a few days leave after her court appearance last week.
The verdict left Greene's future uncertain. Greene, the first person selected for flag rank since World War II to be taken to court-martial, was about to become one of the highest-ranking African Americans in the Navy when Felix filed her complaint in March.
Now his fate rests with President Clinton, Navy Secretary John H. Dalton and the Senate. The president, acting on the secretary's recommendation, makes all nominations for flag rank, which must be confirmed by the Senate.
Dalton, who was out of the country Thursday, could withdraw Greene's name for any reason, but doing so now almost certainly would imply that he was substituting his judgment for that of the senior military leaders who heard the evidence.
Greene said he hopes his nomination can go forward. Part of the reason he wanted a trial was his desire to ensure that Dalton and the Senate would have a full record of the allegations and his response, he said.
Greene and a parade of other officers and enlisted people who testified on his behalf portrayed him as an upright, unfailingly honest and unusually caring leader.
But Cmdr. Carol Cooper, the prosecutor, urged the jury to remain focused on the cards and letters and argued that their tone was all the Navy needed to prove that Greene had allowed himself to become too familiar with Felix.
``The evidence is pretty strong'' that Felix flirted with Greene, Cooper said, and some of it indicated she suggested they become intimate. The prosecutor argued that Greene should have rebuffed any overtures directly, telling Felix, ``I'm a senior officer. I'm your boss. We shouldn't be doing this.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Capt. Everett L. Greene, 47, did not dispute the allegation that he
sent cards and letters to a female officer.
KEYWORDS: SEXUAL HARASSMENT U.S. NAVY COURT-MARTIAL
TRIAL VERDICT by CNB