Navy Investigating Sex Harassment Charges

Navy criminal investigators are looking into allegations that three women were sexually assaulted or harassed by fellow members of a squadron that tests weapons at the Navy base here, officials said Monday.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has interviewed more than two dozen people during the three-week investigation into allegations of inappropriate grabbing, fondling and comments at Point Mugu’s detachment of the Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 9.

“The Navy takes this very seriously,” said Point Mugu spokesman Alan Alpers. A team of investigators continues to look into the allegations focused on four enlisted men who work at the squadron, known as VX-9. No commissioned officers are targeted by the investigation.

Yet a 25-year-old who reported being improperly grabbed said she and others are dissatisfied with the progress of the investigation.

“We are being made out to be the problem,” said the woman, who requested anonymity. “This is not the Navy I thought I was joining. I’ve been discriminated against and sexually harassed. It’s like Tailhook has never ended.”

The Navy has become extremely sensitive to sexual harassment complaints since the scandal following the infamous 1991 Tailhook Assn. convention of naval aviators in Las Vegas.

Navy officers initially stonewalled investigators probing allegations that dozens of women were groped at the convention. Eventually, the inappropriate behavior came to light, ending the career of some Navy leaders and prompting new Navy rules and training on sexual harassment.

“At the present time, the Navy couldn’t take the matter more seriously,” said Marilyn G. Hourican, agent-in-charge of the local office of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

“We have three women who have come forward with allegations involving indecent assault,” Hourican said. “We’ve done between 25 and 30 interviews and no additional victims have come forward. We are continuing to pursue leads.”

The alleged incidents of sexual assault took place over a period of several months, officials said.

Hourican said she hopes her team will wrap up its investigation within two weeks. Meanwhile, she acknowledged that the investigation has become what she calls “complicated.”

One of the women making allegations flew out of control during a meeting with investigators and fractured a bone in one agent’s foot, sources said. The Navy is considering filing charges against the woman related to the incident.

The sexual harassment investigation began April 1 when several women complained of sexual grabbing and other problems to a career counselor on base. The counselor referred the matter to Navy lawyers, who, in turn, called in the Naval Criminal Investigation Service.

The service only looks into allegations that could warrant prosecution as felonies. The Navy handles complaints of improper comments and other sexual harassment through its regular chain of command.

Capt. Craig Weideman, commanding officer of VX-9, said an administrative investigation within the squadron has been put on hold to await the conclusions of the criminal probe.

In the meantime, Weideman said, the three women accusers and four men under investigation have been reassigned to other duties so that they are no longer working in the same units.