JURY SAYS HOTEL NEGLIGENT IN TAILHOOK

The Las Vegas Hilton was ordered today to pay former Navy pilot Paula Coughlin $1.7 million for failing to provide adequate security at the1991 Tailhook convention, where Coughlin says she was sexually assaulted by drunken aviators. A U.S. District Court jury in Las Vegas ruled after two days of deliberations that the hotel and its parent, Hilton Hotel Corp., acted with malice. Deliberations begin Monday on punitive damages. Coughlin sued the Navy and the hotel, but settled with the Navy. So far, the Tailhook scandal has resulted in the resignation of former Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett III and put on hold some 10,000 Navy and Marine promotions.