Ex-Base Commander Appeals Punishment : Navy: Former head of Miramar and junior officer, disciplined for fraternizing, appeal to higher command.

Capt. Larry (Hoss) Pearson, who was recently relieved as commanding officer of Miramar Naval Air Station because of fraternization charges, has appealed to a higher command for a reprieve, saying his punishment was too severe.

When Pearson, a renowned pilot who joined the Navy 25 years ago, was accused this spring of having an affair with Lt. Janet McCully, the head of Miramar’s legal department, it caused a sudden and embarrassing derailment of his highly decorated career.

McCully, who was fined and reassigned to the legal department at 32nd Street Naval Station, also filed an appeal to the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, Adm. Robert J. Kelly, whose headquarters is in Hawaii.

Kelly’s review of the two cases was received Tuesday by officials at North Island Naval Air Station.

Navy officials declined to discuss Kelly’s decision because neither Pearson nor McCully has been informed of his ruling. However, sources familiar with the case said it is unlikely that Kelly will lighten the punishment for either officer.

In order to obtain proof of Pearson and McCully’s alleged affair, McCully’s husband apparently had a San Diego sheriff’s deputy file a report that he had seen the two kissing in a parking lot, sources said.

During their respective administrative hearings, McCully and Pearson were both charged with fraternization as well as conduct unbecoming an officer. Both McCully and Pearson are married.

In her three-page appeal, McCully countered that kissing a man is not an embarrassment to the naval service.

McCully and Pearson also complained in their appeal to Navy authorities that they had been denied privacy because The Times printed an account of their involvement and subsequent punishment, sources said.

In McCully’s appeal, she said that the Navy should have informed her that The Times was preparing a story because she might have opted for a court-martial rather than undergoing an administrative hearing, which is usually kept secret and cannot be attended by the public. The results of a court-martial are public, but McCully apparently believed that she might have been vindicated in the legal proceeding.

When reached by phone, McCully declined to comment on her case, saying: “I’m trying real hard to keep my private life private.”

Pearson was unavailable for comment.

In an administrative hearing in April, Pearson offered to retire and was given a letter of censure that is permanently entered into his service record, fined $3,000 in pay and reassigned to a far less prestigious job before his June 1 retirement. For Pearson, a Vietnam war hero, it was an inglorious end to a bright career.

McCully, who joined the Navy six years ago, was fined $1,500, relieved of her duties and reassigned to her current post. Because she was the lesser-ranking officer, her punishment was lighter.

The relationship between Pearson and McCully was discovered by her husband, who complained to Navy authorities. The Navy has strict rules prohibiting “unduly familiar personal relationships” between personnel of different ranks--a tradition maintained for more than 200 years.

The rules were established to avoid favoritism and prevent an officer making strategic combat decisions that might be based, in part, on emotions.

“It has to be clear to everybody up and down the chain of command that a sexual element can never be present, because it obviously gives one individual a real or perceived advantage over another,” said one Navy official.