Military

Navy Investigating Death of Gay Sailor

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published July 15, 2009 at 2:33 PM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

Two weeks after a navy seaman was found shot to death in a guard shack on Camp Pendleton, the Navy still has not decided if the case is serious enough to go before the military equivalent of a grand jury.

The Navy continues to maintain there’s no evidence to show August Provost’s death was a hate crime. Provost, who was gay, had told relatives before he was found dead, that he was being harassed.

Navy spokesman Matt Brown says there’s no time limit on the investigation. It’s currently still under the authority of the commander of the unit in which Provost served.

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“The commander of Assault Craft Unit Five (ACU 5) will determine, based on the information provided by investigators, if this is a case that perhaps should be considered by a higher level review, such as a general court martial,” says Brown.

A suspect is being held in the brig on Camp Pendleton. Brown says under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, he can be held indefinitely, as long as investigators can show a military judge they are aggressively pursuing the case.

The first step in the legal process is for an Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury, to hear the evidence. They then make a recommendation as to whether the case should go to court-martial.

This process could take several weeks. If the case goes to a court-martial, it could end up in the hands of the incoming commander of the Navy Region Southwest. The current commander, Admiral Len Hering, is due to retire in August.

Military

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.