Navy Officer in Fraternization Case Cleared of All Charges

Lt. Kathleen Mazure, a Navy dentist who was threatened with court-martial for fraternizing with an enlisted Marine who later became her husband, has been cleared of all charges, officials said Wednesday.

Maj. Gen. Gene A. Deegan, commander of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, made the decision a day after an administrative hearing.

Mazure’s trial was to begin earlier this week, but the general court-martial charges were dropped by the Marines’ judge advocate’s office.

“We are all just thrilled,” said Mark Rosenbaum, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California. “It is a major victory for civil liberties in the military, and particularly for women.”

Will Stay in Service

Mazure, who planned to go out to dinner with her husband and parents to celebrate, said: “I’m really happy. It’s been going on a long time and I’m happy that it has been resolved.”

She added that she intends to stay in the service.

“I’m going to continue doing what I have been doing, serving as a dental officer for the Navy. It’s something that has always been my dream.”

The case was one of the first in which a member of the armed forces faced a court-martial for fraternizing with a member of another branch of the military--and in which no professional working relationship was at stake.

The Marine Corps was prosecuting the case against the Navy officer because the fraternization occurred at the Marines’ desert facility.

Mazure, 29, a Navy dentist now stationed at Twentynine Palms, and Scott Price, a Marine aviation mechanic, were married last year.

Deegan was not available for comment Wednesday, but Chief Warrant Officer Doug Hauth, a Marine spokesman, said: “Gen. Deegan was of the opinion that, because of her background and training and short time assigned to this Marine Corps command, that fundamental fairness required that she not be held criminally accountable for her relationship with Price.”

Deegan took into consideration the fact that Mazure had received virtually no formal or informal training regarding fraternization, Hauth said. Another consideration, he added, was that she was exposed to other such relations at her previous duty station, and thus did not realize that it was unacceptable.

More Information

Also, the general “received substantial additional information favorable to Lt. Mazure. A complete picture of the nature and circumstances of her relationship with Lance Cpl. Price became clear,” Hauth said.

Earlier this month Price, 24, was given an honorable discharge. He was given a choice of leaving the service or of transferring to North Carolina and serving aboard a ship for six to nine months a year.

Price, who is now studying at a junior college, hopes to enter the California Maritime Academy this fall and become a merchant marine.

The couple met in Jacksonville, Fla., where Mazure was serving as a dentist and Price was undergoing training before returning to the Twentynine Palms base.

Several months later, Mazure followed when the Marine Corps, which contracts with the Navy for dental services, had an opening for several women officers at the desert facility.

A next-door neighbor who was a deputy provost marshal at the base told authorities about the relationship.

The couple married shortly after the investigation began. But Mazure was charged with fraternization stemming from two incidents of sexual relations before the marriage.

Fraternization Cases

The ACLU had said that the case had none of the other aggravating circumstances usually associated with fraternization cases that go to court-martial, such as adultery, drug abuse or sexual harassment.

Fraternization is a violation of Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and is considered a serious offense because of the threat posed to order and discipline, Marine officials say.

The ACLU said that the heart of the case was how Mazure and Price could have threatened military order when they never worked together and never had a role in evaluating one another’s work performance. Also, the case had none of the other aggravating circumstances usually associated with fraternization cases that go to court martial--such as adultery, drug abuse or sexual harassment.

A 1985 study by the Department of Defense obtained by the ACLU showed that 10% of all marriages within the armed forces are between officers and enlisted persons.