Acquitting a Chaplain

In one of the more sensational courts-martial on record, Navy Chaplain Andrew Jensen, a Baptist minister, went on trial for conduct unbecoming an officer, accused of adultery by two women who claimed they had sexual relations with him (TIME, April 3). Last week he was acquitted at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla. Prosecutor Ralph Levy had argued that the two Navy wives would never have risked the publicity if their charges were false. "This is too high a price to pay for anything but the truth," he told the court.

Commander Jensen, 43, denied having affairs with the women, and his attorney claimed that they were "sick and conspiring." When the verdict of not guilty was announced, Jensen's wife Kathleen, 43, embraced him and expressed her relief: "Thank the Lord." The chaplain was surrounded and congratulated by other wives at the base who had raised $15,000 for his defense.

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