BY MEGAN ARNEY
Air Force prosecutors plan to argue May 20 that Air Force Lieut. Kelly Flinn committed a crime when she had an affair with a married civilian. The charges include adultery, fraternization, disobeying an order, making a false statement, and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, adultery, sodomy, and fraternization are forbidden. These acts are not crimes under civilian law.

The charges against Flinn come after accusations of widespread rape and harassment of female cadets by officers at an Army training base in Maryland set off a broad investigation of sexual abuse in the military. The step-up in prosecutions for adultery is portrayed as an outgrowth of this investigation. Flinn, the first female B-52 bomber pilot, will be court-martialed. If found guilty she could face a fine, loss of benefits, discharge from military service, forced retirement, and prison time. The military brass has wide latitude in what sanctions, if any, to apply to charges such as adultery. In many cases, male officers accused of such offenses received reprimands or early retirement.

In Flinn's case, as in others, the military investigators' files are filled with graphic details of her sex life, habits, and interests. According to Tod Ensign, director of the group Citizen Soldier, in another recent case, a 23-year-old lieutenant recently charged with having sex with an enlisted man was interrogated for five hours in court. She was asked "things like what kind of music was playing, how were you lying on the bed, did you talk about your sexual fantasies... I believe it's a form of sexual harassment," Ensign said.

Meanwhile, a military judge sentenced Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson to a 25-year prison sentence on May 6. Simpson was found guilty on April 29 of 18 rape charges involving six female trainees, and 47 counts of assault at Aberdeen Proving Ground, a military training center.

Simpson was sentenced, demoted to the rank of private, and dishonorably discharged. Prosecutors had asked for the maximum sentence, a lifetime in prison. The case will automatically be turned over to the Army Court of Appeals.

Simpson is appealing his conviction based on racial bias. He is one of 12 Black drill sergeants charged with sexual assault at Aberdeen. Overall, about 60 percent of the 42 drill sergeants at the base are Black. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Congressional Black Caucus, have called for an independent investigation of the Army's handling of the cases.

The brass claims only low-ranking officers were involved in sexual abuse at Aberdeen. When the top base official, Lt. Col. Gabriel Riesco, was asked whether commanders were part of the problem there, he declared, "Absolutely not."

Meanwhile, other cases continue to crop up. The Army's top enlisted soldier, Sgt. Major Gene McKinney, has been criminally charged with making lewd remarks and physically assaulting a former aide, Brenda Hoster. McKinney stepped down from the armed services committee investigating the recent sexual charges. Since Hoster, three other women have come forward with charges that McKinney had also acted inappropriately with them.

Veterans Affairs officials announced April 17 that seven of nine senior VA Department executives accused of sexually harassing their employees in the past four years were allowed to retire. One was given a $25,000 buyout, while another was simply transferred to a $106,000-a-year post at a Florida hospital.

And Su Jin Collier, a female cadet at West Point Military Academy, may be expelled on charges of having consensual sex with another cadet. Collier said the classmate raped her last November. After finding the man not guilty, Army investigators recommended that Collier be expelled from West Point for lying about being raped, as well as having consensual sex. The investigator recommended the male cadet be suspended for his involvement.

The charges by Collier comes only three months after another male cadet at West Point was acquitted in military court of raping another female cadet at an off-campus party.  
 
 
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