Military fails to advise victims of sexual assault of civilian court option, advocates say

Tom Vanden Brook | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Sen. Gillibrand: 'No accountability' for military sexual assaults Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand criticized the U.S. Armed Forces, saying, "The military still does not take these cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment seriously."

WASHINGTON – Thousands of victims of sexual assault in the military have not been advised of their right to request civilian prosecution of their cases, according to research by an advocacy group.

Civilian prosecutors and courts often have more experience and expertise in handling sexual assault cases than military lawyers and are better equipped to try them, said Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders and the former chief prosecutor for the Air Force.

The group petitioned the military services for their records on compliance with the 2015 law, sued for documents and surveyed survivors.

“Literally every survivor whose case came out has said they haven’t been told,” Christensen said. “Some of them were told that civilians won’t take it seriously, that they’re too busy. Some were talked out of it. Thousands have not been told or have been poorly advised.”

The Pentagon maintains that it has followed the 2015 law and advises victims appropriately but that it is not required to track compliance. The law has been incorporated into court-martial manuals, and the military services train personnel to emphasize it, said Air Force Maj. Carla Gleason, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

“If the victim expresses a preference for civilian prosecution, all military departments convey that preference to the appropriate civilian prosecutorial authority,” Gleason said.

The Army is the only service that has collected data on counseling victims about the option of civilian prosecution. It has done so since November 2017 for a small portion of its sexual assault cases. In 38 notifications to victims, 35 victims preferred military prosecution, two had no preference and one preferred civilian prosecution.

The Army is the only service that has a form that notifies victims of their right to seek a civilian court.

The 38 notifications by the Army represent a fraction of the 1,564 sexual assault cases it completed in 2017. The Navy completed 701 cases, the Air Force 594 and the Marine Corps 390.

Christensen speculated that the failure to track notifications, apart from the Army’s effort, reflects the fact that the services do not consider them a priority.

Adrian Perry said she wishes she’d been told about option of civilian court after her daughter was sexually molested by a Marine colonel.

“I had no clue that there was the option to go through local law enforcement,” she said. “I had no idea. That was never mentioned. I didn’t know until after the trial.”

Col. Daniel Wilson was court-martialed and sentenced in 2017 to five-and-a-half years in the brig by an all-male panel of officers.

Perry said she believes that in a civilian court, a jury would have had women and been more sympathetic to her daughter.

“He would have had a much harsher sentence,” Perry said.



