Navy Reopens Sexual Assault Inquiry : Harassment: The woman who alleged that a fellow security officer attacked her during a training class says the re-examination of the case ‘proves that I was correct.’

Top U.S. Navy officials have reopened a 1989 case of alleged sexual assault at the Long Beach Naval Station, where a security officer said she was attacked by a fellow officer during a police training class.

Adm. Robert J. Kelly, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, ordered an investigator appointed to look into the case, said Capt. Mark Neuhart, a Navy spokesman.

Neuhart declined to explain why Navy officials have decided to reopen the complaint.

“There (were) thoughts in the senior leadership that perhaps we need to re-examine this case,” he said.

Christine Jongejan, 29, said she learned last Friday that officials are re-examining her complaint that a Navy security officer forced her on top of a table and simulated sex in front of other security officers during a training class in November, 1989.

Jongejan said that Petty Officer Earnest L. Simon, 44, assaulted her twice that day, the second time after she protested.

Navy officials said if the facts warrant it, they will consider disciplining Simon.

“The Navy has the option of recommending a judicial proceeding--a court-martial,” Neuhart said at the San Diego Naval Base, where Simon is now assigned.

Earlier this year, Navy officials said they had ruled out a court-martial in part because “the age of the incident . . . diminished the probability of a clear-cut result and could create the perception the case was being resurrected merely to make an example of someone.”

Jongejan said she is surprised and pleased by the Navy’s decision to re-examine her case.

“It only proves that I was correct,” said Jongejan, a Redondo Beach resident and mother of two young children. “Now that Washington knows what’s going on, they’ll try to solve it.”

Simon could not be reached for comment. In the past, he gave the Navy conflicting statements about the incident, according to Navy officials and Long Beach police. At first, Navy officials said he agreed with Jongejan’s account of what happened but said it was done in jest. In a second statement more than a year later, however, he denied touching Jongejan except for grabbing her ankles.

Jongejan, a civilian officer since April, 1989, initially complained to her supervisors in the Long Beach Naval Station Security Department, where military and civilian officers work side by side to patrol the base and Navy housing projects in the city and surrounding communities.

But the case was closed by the Security Department and never reached the station’s commanding officer. Records of the investigation disappeared, Navy officials said.

By the time high-ranking station officials learned of the case in 1991, they said it was too late to do anything about it because of a technicality in Simon’s status with the Navy. Because Simon had re-enlisted in June, 1990, Navy officials said they could not impose administrative discipline for an offense that occurred during a previous enlistment.

The Navy, and the rest of the military, have been hit in recent years with reports of rampant sexual harassment. According to a 1990 Defense Department report, 64% of the women in the U.S. military reported being sexually harassed. In another survey published earlier this year, a majority of female Navy officers surveyed said they had been subjected to off-color jokes, sexual remarks and unsolicited physical contact.

As of March 1, the Navy announced that it will not tolerate sexual harassment and will kick out those who break certain anti-harassment rules.

“We want to ensure our sailors . . . are sensitized to issues of sexual harassment, to ensure that when there are instances of sexual harassment or sexual assault, proper action will be taken,” Neuhart said.

Jongejan said her goals are similar. “I wanted to make sure it never happens to anyone again,” she said. “I don’t care how they do it. But I want them to ensure it doesn’t.”