Women Testify Navy Hero Made Demeaning Sexual Comments

Two women testified Monday that they were the targets of repeated sexually explicit and demeaning comments and behavior by a highly decorated Navy officer for whom they formerly worked at a special training unit at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

In the first day of his court-martial, Cmdr. Steven C. Tolan, 46, a Vietnam War hero, appeared in Navy whites and sporting many medals, including three Purple Hearts.

Tolan has pleaded not guilty to charges of indecent assault, cruelty or maltreatment of a subordinate and behavior unbecoming an officer. If found guilty, he could be dismissed from the Navy, fined or jailed.

He listened grimly as Carole Wiemert, 48, a former civilian secretary, accused him of making sexually suggestive comments. And once in the parking lot, she testified, “he grabbed me and put his hand up the front of my blouse.”

Wiemert also contended that Tolan read aloud to her during her work hours a section of a novel he was writing about his experiences in Vietnam. She said she was offended by a description of child prostitution. She told the six members of the jury that she “felt very disgusted and downgraded” and wanted to flee but was obliged to stay at her desk to answer phones.

Wiemert said she waited two years before she filed a complaint because she was “scared” that she might lose her job and the health insurance that her retired husband with a heart condition depended upon.

A second woman, Kathryne Sparre, 22, who was fresh out of boot camp and diving school when she was assigned to Tolan’s unit, said the first day after work she was invited to a Mexican restaurant near the base where Tolan performed a “body shot” on her. She said he drank a shot of tequila and then licked salt off her neck and tried to suck a lemon that he put in her mouth.

After that, Sparre said, Tolan made comments on a weekly basis about her body and doodled with a grease pencil on her legs. On her 20th and 21st birthdays, she said, he spanked her in front of her colleagues.

Sparre said she left the Navy partly as a result of Tolan.

In his opening remarks, the defense attorney, Maj. Paul McBride, acknowledged that there was “definitely a crude, salty atmosphere” at the nearly all-male unit Tolan headed. The unit trains pilots how to survive crashes into the sea.

“There are guys talking about sex and talking crude all the time,” McBride said. He contended that Wiemert fit right in and “would tell dirty jokes with the best of them.” He alleged that Wiemert only complained to draw attention away from emerging concerns about her drinking on the job.

Wiemert contended, however, that questions about her drinking, which she said consisted of a glass of wine at lunch to relieve stress, arose after she complained about sexual harassment.

McBride characterized Tolan’s behavior toward Sparre as innocent “horseplay.” He said Sparre, who claims she recently resigned from the military in part because of Tolan, is “a nice young lady who was very naive about what to expect in the Navy.”