CAPTAIN FINED ON LESSER CHARGE IN FRATERNIZING CASE

Scott R. Clarke, a 28-year-old Air Force captain from Medford, will
not be going to jail or dismissed from the military because of charges
he smoked marijuana and fraternized with enlisted personnel. Instead,
a court-martial panel in Germany yesterday ruled that Clarke should be
reprimanded and fined $3,000 after finding him guilty of reduced charges.

''We're relieved that he is not going to jail,'' said Clarke's mother,
Christine, who had criticized the Air Force for going ahead with the
court martial despite disputed evidence.

Air Force officials said Clarke was found guilty of attempted use of
marijuana on one occasion last October and several instances of
fraternizing with enlisted personnel. The decision by a seven-member
military panel followed a four-day hearing at the US Air Force Base in
Spangdahlem, Germany.

A graduate of Tufts University, Clarke's five-year Air Force career
was marked by uninterrupted promotions and commendations until he was
charged with the offenses last October. They stemmed from allegations
that he had smoked marijuana at a going-away party for an Air Force
colleague at his house in Germany.

The most direct evidence against Clarke came from himself. While
nearly a dozen others at the party said no marijuana had been smoked,
Clarke told investigators he believed when he put a hand-rolled
cigarette to his lips on a back porch that it was marijuana, but that
he was too drunk to know for sure. The two women who were with him at
the time denied it was marijuana and said the cigarette consisted of
only regular tobacco.

The judges reduced the marijuana charge, which carries a maximum
two-year sentence, to attempted use of marijuana.

The fraternization charge stemmed from his socializing with several
enlisted Air Force men and women with whom he had become friendly
after being assigned to Vokel Air Force Base in the Netherlands in
October 1996. Military policy bans fraternization to the extent that
it might give the appearance of favoritism or adversely affect morale,
discipline, or respect for authority.

Clarke acknowledged to investigators that he was friendly with several
enlisted members. But his lawyers argued that his leadership was not
adversely affected and that Vokel AFB was such a small facility, with
only seven officers, that officers would inevitably socialize with
enlisted personnel.

Checked-by: "Rich O'Grady"