POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. (AP) — A court-martial has been scheduled next month for a female airman who says she was charged because she refused to testify against three male airmen she had accused of rape.
The woman is charged with one count of committing indecent acts and one count of consuming alcohol as a minor. The defense says the charges against her involve the same men she accused of raping her.
The military won’t identify the men or confirm whether they were ever charged because the case is pending, base spokesman Ed Drohan said today.
“The whole thing is a system failure,” said Capt. Christopher A. Eason, one of the woman’s military defense attorneys. “This is unprecedented.”
In letters dated June 7 to the congressional delegations and governors of North Carolina and her native Texas, the woman said she decided not to testify against the three men because she was “under enormous stress.”
The Associated Press generally does not identify possible victims of sexual assault.
She says she was attacked in another airman’s barracks room on the night of May 12-13, 2006. She is charged with performing an indecent act on one of the three men she accused while the other two were witnesses, the defense says.
In her letter, the woman said she reported the attack on her, was given a medical examination and the three men were charged with rape, but the charges were dropped after she refused to testify. The men received nonjudicial punishments and have been granted immunity for their testimony in the woman’s trial, according to documents the defense provided.
“The pressure of the judicial process was too much for me, and I felt like no one was looking out for my interests,” the woman wrote.
Drohan said military rules prohibit other discussion of the case but said “the Air Force is not attempting to cover up any wrong doing.”
A court-martial has been scheduled for Sept. 24 at the air base adjacent to Fort Bragg, Drohan said.
If convicted on both counts, the woman could face up to a year in jail, reduction in rank, a cut in pay in allowances, a possible bad conduct discharge and registration as a sex offender, her defense lawyers said. Drohan said he didn’t know the maximum sentence.
“This is the wrong message to send to women in the military,” said Capt. Omar S. Ashmawy, one of her military defense attorneys.
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