Trial Set in Gay Seaman’s Death : Military: U.S. Navy in Japan plans court-martial of shipmate in a homosexual’s death. Charges include assault on two shore patrolmen.

Airman Apprentice Terry Helvey, 20, will be court-martialed early next week on charges of murdering a shipmate who had sought release from the Navy as a homosexual, the U.S. Navy command in Japan announced Wednesday.

Helvey, of Eloise, Mich., a crewman aboard the Belleau Wood, an amphibious assault ship, also will face charges of assaulting two shore patrolmen on the night of the killing last Oct. 27-28 in Sasebo in southwestern Japan, giving a false statement to Navy authorities and “obstructing justice.”

It was the first time that the Navy had disclosed a fight involving shore patrolmen in the death of Seaman Allen Schindler, of Chicago Heights, Ill.

Schindler, 22, was slashed and beaten to death in the restroom of a public park in Sasebo, one of two major U.S. Navy bases in Japan. Reports indicate that he was beaten beyond recognition. An autopsy showed that all but two of his ribs were broken and his genitals cut.

The Navy initially reported the death without mentioning that last Sept. 24, Schindler had told Capt. Douglas Bradt, commander of the Belleau Wood, that he was gay and asked for a discharge under the U.S. military’s current rules banning homosexuals. Only in December, after inquiries from reporters, did the Navy acknowledge that Schindler’s homosexuality may have been a factor in the murder.

Schindler had served in the Navy for more than four years and had been assigned to the 39,300-ton Belleau Wood, which is based at Sasebo, for 11 months.

The Navy has repeatedly deflected requests for details of the incident, asserting that “a delicate balance must be maintained between the public’s right to know and the accused’s right to a fair and impartial trial.” It repeated that disclaimer in its announcement of the court-martial, raising the possibility that the trial, like the preliminary hearings, will be conducted behind closed doors.

“That decision has not yet been made,” a Navy spokesman at Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, site of the Navy’s headquarters in Japan and its other major base in the country, said today.

“The first session of the trial . . . the arraignment, will be scheduled for some time early next week” in Yokosuka, the spokesman said. If found guilty, Helvey could face a sentence of death as the maximum penalty, he added.

Schindler’s mother, Dorothy Hajdys, 46, an accountant for the Salvation Army, has said that the Navy has refused to answer most of her questions and told her to stop talking to reporters.

President Clinton’s declared intention to lift a ban on homosexuals in the armed forces has focused interest on the issue. As a result, Schindler’s case, and that of three Marines who allegedly beat a gay man in Wilmington, N.C., last Saturday because they were angered by Clinton’s proposed policy change, have attracted special attention.

Gay rights groups in the United States have charged that the Navy failed to protect Schindler against harassment and threats on the Belleau Wood, which has a crew of nearly 1,000. The Navy has responded that ship’s officers told Schindler to report any trouble and insisted that he had made no complaints.

The decision to proceed to a court-martial came after the Navy conducted a closed-door hearing Jan. 22 to question another Belleau Wood sailor, Airman Charles A. Vins, 20, of Sturgis, Mich., who witnessed the attack on Schindler.

Vins had been convicted at a court-martial Nov. 23 of failing to report the attack and resisting arrest. He was sentenced to one year in prison and given a bad-conduct discharge, but his prison term was later reduced to four months, apparently in return for his agreement to testify against Helvey.

Helvey and Vins were arrested the day after Schindler’s death. Schindler had been taken to a medical clinic on the base at Sasebo shortly after the beating but died during the night, the Navy said. Naval authorities still refuse to say who reported the assault.

Japanese police in Sasebo have said that no Japanese were present at the scene.

The Belleau Wood, which is the first American amphibious assault ship to be based in Asia, arrived for its new assignment in Sasebo last Sept. 30 and put out to sea Oct. 28, the day after Schindler’s killing. The ship is capable of carrying 1,700 combat troops--a Marine battalion--as well as attack helicopters and vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft.