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Sexual Assault Is Still the Military’s Best-Kept Secret
The accuser’s testimony was gut-wrenching, and she sobbed as she recounted how her three-year relationship with a superior officer, a man she thought she might have loved, fell apart. Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair, a 51-year-old rising star of the United States’ military command, allegedly forced the accuser, herself an ambitious Army intelligence captain, to give him oral sex in her office in Afghanistan. They had been lovers for a few years. He was married and she was his Arabic-speaking adviser, but he would often be more forceful in his advances than she was comfortable with. The second time he forced oral sex on her, according to the accuser’s testimony, she tried to resist by pushing away, telling him, "If you... touch me again I’ll scream, and I don’t care who hears." But the general, who was the deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and of American forces in southern Afghanistan, pushed on. The captain couldn’t scream.
Then there was the military convoy plane they took together from Iraq to Kuwait, where General Sinclair allegedly fondled the accuser’s breasts and crotch against her will in plain sight of other soldiers.
Years earlier in Iraq, the general allegedly warned the accuser that if she ever told anyone about their affair, he would kill her and her whole family, and he would "do it in a way no one would ever know." He went on: "You need to know what you’re dealing with." The affair continued, but to the accuser it no longer felt consensual. "I didn’t know how I could tell him I didn’t want to be with him anymore. I was scared to death of how that would go," she said to a jury (composed of all male officers) at a court martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, last week. According to rules of the trial, the identity of the accuser will remain anonymous.
Based on these accusations and more, the government charged Sinclair with sexual assault, sodomy (oral sex is included in the military's definition of sodomy), groping and fondling, having sex in public, and abusing his government credit card in 2010. If convicted, the general would spend the rest of his life in military prison. Sinclair is believed to be the highest-ranking military official ever put on trial for accusations of sexual assault, reported instances of which have risen over the years in the US armed forces but remain perhaps the military’s best-kept secret.
According to the military’s count, between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2013, there were 3,553 reported sexual assaults, up 46 percent from the same period the previous year. That sharp uptick in reported cases could mean more victims are coming forward, and having a general stand trial might signal that a culture of impunity no longer exists, even for top brass.
But the prosecution’s case fell apart last week, when it was revealed that a cell phone containing texts between the two was in fact found weeks before the accuser had previously said. It seemed a minor point, but it undermined the credibility of the accuser to such a degree that the presiding judge suspended the trial and let General Sinclair work out a deal with prosecutors.
According to Stars and Stripes, the Army’s official newspaper:
Her credibility is central to the case. Is she a woman whose affair with a charismatic and approachable superior ended with him forcing her to perform oral sex and threatening to kill her and her family? Or is she, as Sinclair's lawyers have portrayed, a jilted lover who fabricated allegations of sexual assault when Sinclair refused to leave his wife?
General Sinclair agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges Monday, including disobeying a commander’s order, misusing his government credit card, and mistreating the accuser—but not sexual assault. Sentencing hearings are happening this week, and so far they've revealed even more tawdry detail. Yesterday, a witness claimed that Sinclair’s philandering was so well known to his comrades that a roast in his honor, in 2010, featured a skit in which a soldier portraying the general received pantomimed oral sex from a subordinate female officer. The general will likely be dishonorably discharged but may avoid jail time.
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/sexual-assault-is-still-the-militarys-best-kept-secret
The accuser’s testimony was gut-wrenching, and she sobbed as she recounted how her three-year relationship with a superior officer, a man she thought she might have loved, fell apart. Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair, a 51-year-old rising star of the United States’ military command, allegedly forced the accuser, herself an ambitious Army intelligence captain, to give him oral sex in her office in Afghanistan. They had been lovers for a few years. He was married and she was his Arabic-speaking adviser, but he would often be more forceful in his advances than she was comfortable with. The second time he forced oral sex on her, according to the accuser’s testimony, she tried to resist by pushing away, telling him, "If you... touch me again I’ll scream, and I don’t care who hears." But the general, who was the deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and of American forces in southern Afghanistan, pushed on. The captain couldn’t scream.
Then there was the military convoy plane they took together from Iraq to Kuwait, where General Sinclair allegedly fondled the accuser’s breasts and crotch against her will in plain sight of other soldiers.
Years earlier in Iraq, the general allegedly warned the accuser that if she ever told anyone about their affair, he would kill her and her whole family, and he would "do it in a way no one would ever know." He went on: "You need to know what you’re dealing with." The affair continued, but to the accuser it no longer felt consensual. "I didn’t know how I could tell him I didn’t want to be with him anymore. I was scared to death of how that would go," she said to a jury (composed of all male officers) at a court martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, last week. According to rules of the trial, the identity of the accuser will remain anonymous.
Based on these accusations and more, the government charged Sinclair with sexual assault, sodomy (oral sex is included in the military's definition of sodomy), groping and fondling, having sex in public, and abusing his government credit card in 2010. If convicted, the general would spend the rest of his life in military prison. Sinclair is believed to be the highest-ranking military official ever put on trial for accusations of sexual assault, reported instances of which have risen over the years in the US armed forces but remain perhaps the military’s best-kept secret.
According to the military’s count, between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2013, there were 3,553 reported sexual assaults, up 46 percent from the same period the previous year. That sharp uptick in reported cases could mean more victims are coming forward, and having a general stand trial might signal that a culture of impunity no longer exists, even for top brass.
But the prosecution’s case fell apart last week, when it was revealed that a cell phone containing texts between the two was in fact found weeks before the accuser had previously said. It seemed a minor point, but it undermined the credibility of the accuser to such a degree that the presiding judge suspended the trial and let General Sinclair work out a deal with prosecutors.
According to Stars and Stripes, the Army’s official newspaper:
Her credibility is central to the case. Is she a woman whose affair with a charismatic and approachable superior ended with him forcing her to perform oral sex and threatening to kill her and her family? Or is she, as Sinclair's lawyers have portrayed, a jilted lover who fabricated allegations of sexual assault when Sinclair refused to leave his wife?
General Sinclair agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges Monday, including disobeying a commander’s order, misusing his government credit card, and mistreating the accuser—but not sexual assault. Sentencing hearings are happening this week, and so far they've revealed even more tawdry detail. Yesterday, a witness claimed that Sinclair’s philandering was so well known to his comrades that a roast in his honor, in 2010, featured a skit in which a soldier portraying the general received pantomimed oral sex from a subordinate female officer. The general will likely be dishonorably discharged but may avoid jail time.
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/sexual-assault-is-still-the-militarys-best-kept-secret
