Navy investigation finds hazing, harassment in Bahrain unit

NORFOLK

An internal Navy investigation of a dog-handling unit in Bahrain found repeated episodes of hazing and sexual harassment in 2005, as well as allegations that prostitutes were routinely brought into government quarters for parties.

The non commissioned officer who allegedly allowed and encouraged the abuse to flourish was promoted and is now assigned to an elite special warfare unit at Dam Neck Annex to Oceana Naval Air Station.

The investigation came to light Thursday on the Web site of Youth Radio, a journalism training program for young people in California. The site posted copies of two inquiries - a 22-page command investigation and a "finding of fact" forwarded to the admiral in charge of naval installations worldwide.

"These actions don't reflect who we are as a Navy," said Cmdr. Cappy Surette, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon.

Most of the documents' pages have some information redacted, and entire sections - including the investigator's opinion and recommendations - were removed before the document was released. It is unclear whether anyone was punished for the alleged abuses.

But three things are clear:

- Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint remains in the Navy and has been promoted since serving as head of the military working-dog division in Bahrain.

- Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Valdivia, a dog handler, was found dead in her living quarters on the Bahrain base. Her death was reportedly a suicide.

- Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Rocha - called "an exceptionally outstanding young sailor" in a performance evaluation and recommended by the secretary of the Navy for an appointment to the Naval Academy - is out of the military and in treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder that resulted from two years of alleged abuse.

Central to the unfolding story is Petty Officer 1st Class Shaun Hogan, a dog handler who was assigned to Bahrain with Toussaint, Valdivia and Rocha. Hogan, now a naval reservist who lives in Maine, decided in 2007 to see what became of a hazing investigation that centered on his old unit, which works with dogs trained to sniff out explosives and narcotics.

Hogan submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for copies of the Navy's investigation. He later shared the findings with Youth Radio.

Hogan said in an interview Friday that he witnessed many of the alleged abuses, including a videotaped "training scenario" in which Rocha was directed to simulate homosexual sex.

Hogan said he participated in that exercise as a dog handler. When he entered the room with his dog, he said, "I was expecting to find someone role-playing an intruder. I didn't expect to see somebody role-playing homosexual sex."

Hogan said he saw a videotape of another "training scenario" involving a woman handcuffed to a bed. The woman in the bed, he said, was Valdivia, the unit's second-in-command.

"When the camera pans around inside the room," he said, "there's Jennifer Valdivia, wearing nothing but a bedsheet, handcuffed to a bed, and several other females in the room pretending to be drunk and acting crazy."

After Toussaint transferred out of the unit, Valdivia was placed in command of the kennel, Hogan said.

On Jan. 16, 2007, the day the investigator forwarded the findings to the commanding officer of the Bahrain base, Valdivia was found dead. Her death was reported by the Gulf Daily News, a Bahrain newspaper, as a suicide.

"There are a lot of people who were victimized," Hogan said. "I think the Navy is trying to cover this up."

Particularly galling to him, Hogan said, is that Toussaint, whom he considers the ringleader of the alleged abuses, not only escaped punishment but received a career boost.

"To the best of my knowledge, the charges were dropped," he said. "The guy got promoted, and now he's in charge of the most coveted canine position in the entire Navy - the canine special warfare unit. That's the Navy's way of punishing him?"

Toussaint was assigned to Dam Neck's Naval Special Warfare Developmental Group in July 2008, according to a spokesman for the Navy's special operations command. The senior chief was unavailable for comment Friday because he is deployed, the Navy said.

The investigation and finding-of-fact detail dozens of incidents:

- Rocha was duct-taped to a chair and rolled into one of the dog kennels, then left there until someone released him.

- A sailor was hog-tied and forced to bark like a dog while his mouth was stuffed with liver dog treats.

- Some unit members used racial epithets; one sailor's picture was decorated with a Hitler moustache and given Nazi salutes.

- One female sailor was taking a shower when a male sailor barged in, removed her clothes from the room and then tried to get into the shower with her.

- A sailor allegedly assaulted a prostitute who had tried to steal a CD from the house where they were partying.

- A sailor was forced to drag around a fake dog, stand in the corner, wear a muzzle and hold a chew toy in his or her mouth.

- One sailor told the investigator it was common to have prostitutes at division functions. Sometimes the prostitutes would come to sailors' quarters, driven there by a government-paid driver.

Sailors said they were told, "What happens in the kennel stays in the kennel" and "God help anyone who airs our dirty laundry."

Surette said that after the investigation, Vice Adm. Robert Conway, then head of the Navy's installations command, made regional commanders aware of the findings.

Surette said he did not know whether any individuals were implicated in the wrongdoing.

Conway ordered that the investigation be sent to the parent commands of each sailor involved and that commanding officers of any implicated sailor be notified of the findings.

Conway, who retired this year, also recommended that an additional investigation be conducted into the security officers at the Bahrain base, Surette said.

Finally, he ordered training.

Rocha left the Navy after acknowledging he was gay. He said the abuse began after he refused to have sex with a female prostitute in Bahrain - something he claimed was common among other masters-at-arms and dog handlers in the unit.

Rocha is now attending classes at the University of San Diego. In an interview Friday, he said he continues to suffer PTSD symptoms, including nightmares, anxiety attacks and extreme depression.

"What I've struggled with the most is self-worth," he said. "The level of degradation, the animalistic treatment. Being a young man, 18, 19 years old, who went to serve in the Middle East and finding myself being ordered to get on my knees and simulate gay sex was so humiliating, it really caused severe trauma. I've felt worthless ever since, even though I know I've accomplished a lot."

Rocha said he was assured by his commanding officer in Bahrain that Toussaint would be punished. In late 2007, he said, a Navy lawyer contacted him and asked if he would testify in a court-martial. Even though he was afraid of retribution from Toussaint, he said, he finally agreed.

Weeks later, he said, the lawyer called back and said the case was being closed and his testimony would not be needed.

Attending the Naval Academy was his life's ambition, Rocha said, but he decided after his experience in Bahrain that there was no way he could go on.

"I spent my whole life trying to get into that school and then forfeited it," he said.

Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com