As a new academic year begins, troubles continue to plague two of the nation's prestigious military academies already embroiled in sexual assault scandals. Last weekend, police cited three US Air Force Academy cadets for underage drinking with two high school girls in a Colorado Springs hotel. On Monday, an arrest affidavit was released for David Phillip Hawkins, 21, a senior cadet charged with raping a nearly unconscious, drunken woman in his pickup truck. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for September 26. This Thursday, junior cadet Robert C. Graham II will face a court-martial for allegedly using and distributing Ecstasy and a similar hallucinogenic drug, the Associated Press reported. Graham faces academy dismissal and a maximum 25-year prison sentence should he be convicted.
Meanwhile two midshipmen at the US Naval Academy have resigned, under allegations of raping two female classmates last year. Todd Thurston, 20, and Eric Bailey, 23, are accused of serving alcohol to minors and raping one woman and two women, respectively in their dormitory. Their attorney, William Ferris, told the AP the Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt has recommended acceptance of their resignations.
5/22/2013 Immigration Reform Bill Advances In Senate - Last night, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a sweeping immigration reform bill in a bipartisan vote of 13 to 5. . . .
5/22/2013 Afghan Women Arrested for 'Moral Crimes' Increases 50% - A new report by the Human Rights Watch shows that in the past 18 months the number of women in Afghanistan incarcerated for 'moral crimes' has increased from 400 to 600, a 50% growth.
Many of the women imprisoned for moral crimes were arrested running away from forced or abusive marriages and families, even though there is no law against leaving. . . .
5/22/2013 Army Commander Suspended for Adultery Amid Wave of Sexual Assaults - On Tuesday, Brigadier General Bryan T Roberts was suspended from his position as commander of the Fort Jackson, South Carolina training camp which trains approximately 60% of incoming female recruits pending an investigation into allegations of adultery.
Roberts was suspended following allegations of "adultery and a physical altercation." Colonel Christian Kubik, an Army spokesperson for the Training and Doctrine Command, told reporters "We don't have any evidence of any sexual assault. . . .
