High Officer at Sub Base Will Be Tried on Sex-Harassment Charges

The court martial of the second-ranking officer at the Naval Submarine Base in Point Loma, accused of sexual harassment and assault on two woman officers and two enlisted women, will begin Monday, Navy officials said.

Lt. Sonya Hedley, a Navy spokesman, called it “very, very uncommon” for sexual harassment allegations to reach the point of a court-martial.

Cmdr. John Boyar, who as executive officer is second in command at the home base for 24 nuclear attack submarines, is the highest ranking Navy officer to be court-martialed on sexual harassment charges on the West Coast, according to Cmdr. George Osper, chief defense counsel for the Navy in San Diego and Boyar’s attorney.

Boyar, 44, was charged Monday on several counts of sexual harassment, assault, conduct unbecoming an officer, use of indecent language and fraternization after complaints against the officer were investigated last February in a manner similar to a grand jury proceeding.

The sexual harassment and assault charges allege that the 27-year veteran put his hand on the leg of a female officer “in an intimate manner,” grabbed the face of another enlisted woman and kissed her lips, and put his arms around the shoulder of another female officer while sitting close to her. The incidents allegedly occurred in March and April of 1987.

Hedley declined to identify the woman officers or elaborate on the sexual harassment allegations.

Osper, who is representing Boyar, said he recalled only one other sexual harassment case involving such a high-ranking Navy officer, and that was in Rhode Island.

Boyar, who has been temporarily reassigned to the Naval Air Station in Miramar, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Osper described the officer’s record as outstanding.

Osper said Boyar never attended college--he said it is unusual for a Navy officer to reach Boyar’s position without a college degree--and had worked up through the ranks since enlisting in New York City 27 years ago.

“He’s what we call a mustang,” Osper said. “What that means is that he’s a wild horse that’s been tamed.”

Boyar, who came to San Diego after serving on the submarine tender Frank Cable in North Carolina, served as executive officer of the submarine base here from December, 1986, to November last year, when he was reassigned amid the allegations of harassment.

Boyar is married and has two sons, including one who is a Navy officer in San Diego, Osper said.

Osper said the charges against Boyar are based on “misunderstandings by the accusers.”

“The defense’s position is that the incidents were blown totally out of proportion,” he said. “We expect justice to be done . . . in an acquittal.”

If convicted, Boyar faces up to 12 years in prison, dismissal from the service and forfeiture of pay and retirement benefits. He is charged with four counts of assault and five counts of sexual harassment.

In March, 1987, Boyar allegedly harassed a female officer sexually at the Naval Submarine Base “after she had several times rebuffed his advances,” according to a Navy list of the charges against Boyar. He is accused of harassing the officer in an “offensive and sexually suggestive manner.”

Boyar is accused of “conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman” by using “inappropriate, insulting and demeaning language” when speaking to an enlisted man carrying a message from another officer. He is also charged with making “prejudicial comments” about a Navy commander, using “indecent language” on a civilian and fraternizing with enlisted people, which is defined as unlawful contact between people of differing ranks.

A year ago, the Department of Defense issued a scathing report criticizing the Navy and the Marine Corps in the Pacific for discrimination and “morally repugnant” sexual harassment of women. The report was based on visits to Navy and Marine Corps installations in Hawaii, the Philippines and Japan.