Navy officials said Thursday that they had wrongly accused Chief Michael Toussaint of abusing former petty officer third class Joseph Rocha (pictured) while stationed in Bahrain.
Rocha reported in 2009 that Toussaint singled him out for being gay and subjected him to several acts of hazing. He said the treatment forced him to come out to his commander so that he could report the abuse.
He was then discharged from the Navy and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Rocha testified before a U.S. district court in August in the case Log Cabin Republicans v. United States, where he said he was forced to eat dog food, put in to a kennel filled with dog feces, and his colleagues harassed him for being presumably gay.
Two Navy officers who investigated his claims told Bloomberg News that Rocha's claims are "flawed" and unsubstantiated. However, Toussaint will be forced to retire for "minor" hazing directed at Rocha and other trainees. He will not be demoted in rank, nor will his discharge papers show any record of hazing.
He is still in the running for the Navy's highest award, the Silver Star, because he saved the life of a Navy SEAL in a 2009 firefight against insurgents in Afghanistan.
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