SLDN wants harsher penalties in hazing scandal
Published: July 7, 2010
Officials at the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network are demanding the Secretary of the Navy step in before a senior enlisted sailor dubbed the ringleader of the hazing scandal at the Navy’s Military Working Dog Division in Bahrain is allowed to retire quietly and at full pay.
Last fall Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint was removed from his leadership post within Naval Special Warfare Group 2 and forced into a retirement track after a two-year investigation confirmed 93 instances of hazing and sex crimes inside the canine unit during Toussaint’s tenure as commander, from 2004 to 2006. That included crimes against former Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Rocha, who was suspected to be gay and was forced by superiors to simulate oral sex on other men.
The delayed investigation was forced by an investigative report by Youth Radio, exposing inaction in the case. In February a retirement board recommended that Toussaint retire this summer at full pay in his current rank, which he was promoted to following his time in Bahrain. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus at the time told SLDN (a gay rights advocacy group) that he supported both the administrative action taken against Toussaint and the retirment recommendation.
But this week, with Toussaint's separation appearing imminent, SLDN legal director Aaron Tax called that insulting: "The Navy appears to be sending the message that a superior may abuse those in his or her chain of command with few repercussions.”
The group wants at minimum for the Navy to reduce his grade to reflect Toussaint's pre-2004 rank -- a move that will cost him several hundred a month in retirement pay -- and give him a less-than-honorable discharge.
"To do anything less sends the message that ... not only will the law continue to silence lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members who are the subject of harassment, but the Navy will continue to give license to their superiors to harass, degrade and abuse them," Tax said in a letter to Mabus.
So far, the Navy has not issued any response.
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