Judge bars Navy
from discharging
McVeigh

The sailor says he wants to transfer
out of Pearl Harbor's sub force

By Gregg K. Kakesako and Pete Pichaske
Star-Bulletin

A federal judge today permanently barred the Navy from discharging Senior Chief Petty Officer Timothy R. McVeigh, the Pearl Harbor sailor accused of violating the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays.

McVeigh said today he would like to be transferred out of Pearl Harbor's Submarine Force because it illegally accused him of being gay and tried to get him dismissed.

"I would prefer to be moved to another duty station," McVeigh, 36, told the Star-Bulletin, "because right now I am in with the people who caused all this to begin with . . . at a minimum I would like to get away from that command."

McVeigh said that, besides being given menial assignments, he has been subjected to a "hostile environment" since returning to duty, his attorney said.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin today made permanent a preliminary injunction he issued this week that barred the Navy from going ahead with its plans to discharge McVeigh.

Sporkin said, "The Navy violated the very essence of 'don't ask, don't pursue' by launching a search and destroy mission'" by trying to discharge McVeigh based on information it illegally obtained from America Online.

Following today's ruling McVeigh, who is no relation to the Oklahoma City bomber, said that "leaving the islands could be best," but he said he won't make a final decision until after conferring with his attorneys and Navy personnel officials.

A Navy official said McVeigh is currently assigned to Pacific Fleet's Submarine Squadron Three, which oversees the operations of the nuclear attack submarine USS Chicago, and his permanent assignment would be "commensurate with (his) experience, training and pay grade in accordance with the needs of the Navy."

McVeigh said the case has received so much nationwide publicity not only because of his charges that the Navy violated its five-year policy against pursuing homosexuals but also because the Navy obtained information about him from America Online without a warrant or court order.

In a new issue broached today, Christopher Wolf, McVeigh's attorney, accused the Navy of giving McVeigh demeaning assignments in the days since the case first came to court.

McVeigh said after being removed from the Chicago last fall, he was doing "construction work, putting up walls and ceilings."

After returning to Pearl Harbor Tuesday from his court appearance in Washington, McVeigh said he was given the job of publications clerk, normally done by a sailor two or three ranks lower.

"That is a far cry from being in charge of 134 enlisted sailors on a nuclear submarine," McVeigh said.

Until September, McVeigh was the senior enlisted sailor on the Chicago with numerous citations for good performance. However, all that changed after he sent Helen Hajne, the submarine's ombudsman who serves as a liaison between the ship and crewmembers' families, an e-mail using the screen name "boysrch" and signed it "Tim." According to court records, Hajne checked AOL's user profiles and learned that "Tim" lived in Hawaii and listed his marital status as "gay."

All that information was turned over to Pearl Harbor officials, who had a Navy paralegal anonymously call AOL to verify that the profile belonged to McVeigh.

Based on that information, the Navy held an administrative discharge hearing Nov. 7 and moved to honorably discharge him on Jan. 15.

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McVeigh ruling seen as
tempering military zeal

By Pete Pichaske
Star-Bulletin

WASHINGTON -- An organization that helps servicemen and women accused of violating the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays is predicting today's decision barring the dismissal of Timothy R. McVeigh will persuade the military to drop its "overzealous" pursuit of possibly gay members.

Attorney C. Dixon Osburn of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which helped in McVeigh's defense, said the ruling by U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin marked the first time a federal court had stepped in to say the military violated its own limits on the policy.

"We hope the Pentagon will take notice and tell those in the field to back down," said Osburn. "Each of the services has not followed the promise that there will be a zone of privacy. They've consistently violated the limits of 'don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue.'"

A Navy spokesman today said the Navy planned to appeal Sporkin's ruling.

McVeigh, 36, was relieved of his duties as top enlisted man on the USS Chicago after a Navy investigation, prompted by an e-mail message from McVeigh, concluded he had violated the military's policy on gays.

The Navy had sought to discharge McVeigh, a decorated 17-year veteran. But earlier this week, in an opinion highly critical of the Navy, Sporkin ruled the Navy had "gone too far" in pursuing its investigation of McVeigh and had illegally obtained private information from America Online.

Today, Sporkin made that ruling permanent, in effect ordering the Navy to keep McVeigh on duty.

In court today, Navy lawyers and a spokesman offered no objections to Sporkin's decision.

Osburn called the decision "a huge victory for McVeigh." He noted that while other judges have ruled on constitutional challenges to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, this was the first time a judge has ruled that any service had violated the policy.

He said his organization has heard persistent tales of servicemembers suspected of being gay having their diaries seized or their parents interrogated, and military psychiatrists are often urged to "turn in" gay clients.

"Again and again, they've been very overreaching," said Osburn of military investigations. "We've warned the Pentagon many times that that this has to stop or they would be spawning a new generation of litigation."

In his ruling, Sporkin noted that the Navy erred by calling America Online anonymously to determine if an online profile, in which the user listed his marital status as "gay," belonged to McVeigh.