Air Force Sex Harassment Case Spans Years, Globe : Military: A reserve colonel eventually was punished. But service was ill-equipped to handle women’s charges.

The war in the Persian Gulf lasted 92 days.

The war between Air Force Reserve Col. Robert Mears and his accusers lasted more than two years--a pitched battle waged across two hemispheres by letter, phone and sworn statement, dividing men from women, reservists from regular Air Force, enlisted from officers, even officers from officers.

It began during Operation Desert Storm, when two enlisted women in the 42nd Aeromedical Patient Staging Squadron--a medical reserve unit--accused Mears of sexual harassment, prompting superiors to send him back to Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino.

The drawn-out repercussions revealed a military organization and culture seemingly ill-equipped to deal with the allegations. At the time--before the Tailhook sex scandal hit the Navy, before Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas--the Air Force had no explicit policy on sexual harassment. The Air Force devised such a policy last year, but it will take another year to implement.

The first Air Force investigator in the case questioned the credibility of the women because of their “tainted reputations.” He noted that some reservists regarded the women as “sluts.” He concluded that the charges against Mears, while partially substantiated, were the product more of wartime struggles over power and command than anything else.

The women believe that they were harmed more than the man they accused. Returning home to San Bernardino from the Gulf, the women say Mears threatened and cajoled them into recanting their accusations. Accused of “misrepresentation,” one left the service under pressure, the other successfully fought discharge but left the Air Force for an Army commission.

Initially, Mears retained his rank and was assigned administrative duties as a special assistant in the 445th Airlift Wing. Only after testimony about alleged witness-tampering was heard a year ago was Mears placed on non-active reserve--cutting off his pay and retirement “points.”

Recently, a nine-month investigation of Mears was completed by the Air Force Office of Special Investigation. A spokesman for the 445th said last week that Mears recently “accepted his punishment” meted out by Brig. Gen. James E. Sherrard III, commander 4th Air Force at McClellan Air Force Base. But the Air Force says it cannot release details about what the investigation found or what action was taken. Mears is now on non-affiliated reserve status and may apply for retirement.

*

In a hotel room in Bahrain, 13 days before the air war began in January, 1991, two women reservists from the 42nd nervously handed an unsigned two-page note to an Air Force major who had flown in from Saudi Arabia to ferret out what was going on.

“Some of the women involved are willing to speak if it is guaranteed that there will be no penalties if they come forward,” said the handwritten note given to Air Force Maj. Richard Williams. “We are concerned about the impact this will have on our military careers.”

Mears had sexually harassed women under his command, they alleged, not just in the Gulf but stateside, not just for two weeks but for two years, putting his hands on them, pressing drinks on them and once forcing himself on one of them sexually.

They were speaking up now because this was not a reserve weekend. They could not go home after their duties. Here they were in Bahrain, in close quarters for what could be months.

Williams and subsequent investigators gathered testimony about several alleged incidents dating from 1987:

* At 42nd social events, Mears made “unwelcome advances” to Staff Sgt. Regina Monarrez, “asking her to go up to his room and attempting to dance with her,” according to witnesses’ statements. He would “touch her, rub her shoulders . . . against her will.”

* On exercises in California, a sergeant noticed that Mears kept trying “to get his hands around” Monarrez. After hours, playing a game of bouncing quarters into a shot glass, the sergeant said Mears tried to kiss Monarrez every time he missed. “She wanted to be rescued from him.” The sergeant stood up to intervene, but Mears “gave me a look . . . like sit down or get out of the tent.”

* A soldier testified that at a party in California shortly before the 42nd left for the Gulf, he saw Mears grab Monarrez and say, “Well, we’re gonna get drunk tonight. . . . I’m glad I picked all these females to come with me over to Bahrain. . . . I personally handpicked all of you.” In Bahrain, Monarrez used a “buddy system” so Mears would not catch her alone.

But the most serious charge--that of a forced sexual encounter--dated to 1988, when the 42nd was in Germany for annual exercises and Tech Sgt. Alyson Wubbenhorst went out to dinner with Mears and two other male officers. After dinner and several rounds of drinks, Mears invited them all to his room for a party. When Wubbenhorst arrived, she said, she was the only guest.

“He started talking about how he used to wear his hair long before he was in the service and it began to feel weird. We were sitting on the bed and he leaned over and kissed me. I pushed him away and said ‘What are you doing?’ ” Wubbenhorst recalled in an interview with The Times.

“I wanted to leave, but I was afraid that if I left he would treat me bad,” she said. “Then he started using his rank . . . (saying that) nobody would believe me if I said anything. I became tired and couldn’t fight any more. He said ‘Nothing happened tonight, if you say anything I’ll tell your husband. Your career will be over.’ ”

One day after the women were interviewed by Williams, Mears was sent back to California.

Long after the accusations were made and careers wrecked, Monarrez and Wubbenhorst agreed to speak publicly when The Times learned about the controversy from some of the participants last year. Mears declined to be interviewed, but The Times obtained sworn testimony and reports that give his point of view.

*

James C. Wecker, a reserve colonel in the 42nd and an attorney in civilian life, was sent to the Gulf to investigate. Over about 2 1/2 weeks, he interviewed 46 witnesses. The Air Force Reserve regarded the allegations in the case as non-criminal, and military rules provide wide latitude in what can be investigated as improper.

Wecker found that Mears may have been guilty of “extremely poor judgment,” noting remarks Mears made to a Bahraini lieutenant: “When are you going to set me up with some of those Bahraini women? I’ll set you up with some of mine if you set me up with some of yours.”

He also found that Mears had a reputation as a toucher--he hugged everybody, someone said, men and women. One sergeant, answering investigators’ questions, said that he had not wanted to bring his wife near “the human octopus” at social events. Others under Mears’ command thought of him as a “womanizer,” a “swinger” who “likes to party.”

Yet Wecker emphasized the women’s sexual reputations. Although Wecker believed that Mears had made advances that Monarrez “tried to avoid,” Wecker wrote, “her reputation and current actions lead me to question her credibility,” and he found Wubbenhorst’s veracity and credibility to be “highly questionable.”

“I do not believe that the (sexual assault in Germany) took place.”

The women were stunned by Wecker’s focus on their reputations.

William G. Smith, a Los Angeles attorney representing an officer caught up in the Mears case, said: “Making conclusions that the accusers had loose morals and somehow had it coming is classic sexism and has no place in the investigation.”

Reached at his office in Carmichael, Calif., recently, Wecker said he could not comment about the investigation.

For his part, Mears told investigators that he just enjoyed socializing with the folks in his unit. It was his personal style, and it got misinterpreted. “I tried to create a family atmosphere in the squadron,” he wrote in his defense.

He and his defenders told investigators that something more nefarious propelled the accusations. They say Mears was the victim of a power play.

Almost as soon as the 42nd had unpacked its gear in December, 1990, Mears had butted heads with Capt.--soon to be Maj.--Carl Alley, a regular Air Force veteran whose duties were to train the unit in the treatment and evacuation of wounded Air Force personnel. Although Mears outranked Alley, the regular Air Force officer took command during the transition.

It was hard for Mears, “a colonel full bird, to listen to a captain (Alley),” one airman said in his testimony to investigators. “That was the big friction thing there.”

Mears and his defenders said that those who supported Alley exploited the accusations to get Mears out of the way.

They placed particular blame on reserve Lt. Joanna Rodriguez, who worked as Alley’s administrative assistant. They claimed in sworn statements that she and Alley were having an affair, an accusation Wecker was inclined to believe. Both Rodriguez and Alley denied it.

In his Feb. 23, 1991, report, Wecker concluded that no action should be taken against Mears. He believed that Alley’s desire to remain the medical unit commander “prompted exploitation of the sexual allegations. . . .”

Yet no charges were brought against Alley as a result of the Wecker report. Phone calls to Alley were not returned.

*

Even before Wecker filed his conclusions, Mears was pressing the women from thousands of miles away to retract their charges, the women say.

Tech Sgt. Rodney Laster (now a lieutenant), testifying at a discharge hearing for Monarrez, said he spoke by phone with Mears from Bahrain about a week after Mears was sent home. He “mentioned early on that he was going to get (Rodriguez) and that her career is over. . . . (Monarrez and Wubbenhorst) need to recant their statements. See if I can talk to them, see if I can get them to recant their statements.”

Rodriguez said the wrangling in the Gulf “was minor compared to what I observed when we landed after we came home.”

On March 15, 1991, Mears met the C-141s returning the 42nd stateside and spoke with Wubbenhorst and Monarrez, Rodriguez said. “He should never have been there,” she said.

About a week after the 42nd returned, Mears, through an intermediary, sent the two a message. He was not angry, he gave them to understand--sometimes people are pressured into saying things they don’t mean. “He wanted to meet with us,” Wubbenhorst told The Times.

Two days later, the women were served with papers saying that they were being charged with “cohabitation with a male other than her spouse.” The male was never identified. Soon after, they said, they sat down with Mears in a McDonald’s restaurant near the base.

“He told us, ‘If I were you, I’d change your statements because they will keep charging you with things until you do.’ He also said if his career was ruined, he’d have to take the matter to civilian court,” Wubbenhorst recalled. “He was really nice to us and told us it wasn’t our fault, that we had been encouraged to make the charges by people with ulterior motives. He said he was willing to sweep this thing under the rug.”

Less than two weeks after they got back, the two women recanted. Wubbenhorst told Mears’ attorney that the colonel’s remarks and behavior were taken out of context, that she was under stress and she had never seen him sexually harass anyone, nor had she even heard stories about it.

Two days later, the cohabitation charges were dropped.

“I was very excited,” said Wubbenhorst. But it was short-lived.

About April 20, 1991, the women were told by certified letters that they were being recommended for discharge because of “misrepresentation.” They were also put on non-active status, barred from drawing pay and pension credits and from any reserve activities.

In March, 1992, the day before she was to appear before an administrative discharge board, Wubbenhorst spent several hours closeted with a military defense attorney. “He was really trying to help me,” she said, “but he said it didn’t look good.”

She took the offer: a general discharge under honorable conditions. “I was totally betrayed,” she says now.

Monarrez fought the false-swearing charges at her administrative discharge board in April, 1992, and won. This prompted the Air Force Reserve to drop similar charges against Rodriguez. The testimony of Monarrez and Laster triggered the witness tampering investigation against Mears.

Monarrez has since left the reserves and recently got her commission as a 2nd lieutenant--in the Army.

“I had to go to another unit where they take me seriously. Although they said they don’t hold it against me, if my name went before a (promotion) board, one way or another (the Air Force reserve) would find a way to reject me.”

Both women have told The Times that they told the truth about Mears when they made their accusations in Bahrain.

*

After the Monarrez hearing, scrutiny turned to Mears. He was suspended without pay, and the Air Force Office of Special Investigation began investigating.

Rodriguez, a 12-year reserve veteran, has stayed on. When the Air Force charged her with making a false statement--denying that she had an intimate relationship with Alley--Rodriguez hired Smith, the Los Angeles lawyer. The Air Force dropped the charges when she demanded a court-martial.

Smith said Air Force officials are trying to block her promotion with the same allegations they refused to pursue in a court-martial.

“Since they can’t court-martial her, they’re trying to think of other ways to discharge her,” said Smith, an Air Force veteran who specializes in military cases.

Rodriguez has already been turned down for promotion once since 1991; once more and she is automatically out of the active reserves. Her next promotion review is coming up this summer.

The three women challenged a “good old boy network and it turned on them,” said Smith.

Laster, Mears’ former assistant, is “the subject of an unjustified internal investigation in an attempt to discredit him,” said Duncan Webb, his San Bernardino attorney. “He’s demoralized to the point that he just feels unless command changes or supports him, he’s probably not going to make a career of the service as he intended.”

Laster eventually complained to Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton) that he was the victim of “discrimination, sexual-racial harassment, intimidation methods and false rumors” for testifying against Mears.