thedrifter
06-29-08, 08:09 AM
Delayed VA response triggers inquiry into handling of rape case
Veteran says after she reported she was raped, Dayton VA police didn't respond for nearly a month.
By Jim DeBrosse
Staff Writer
Sunday, June 29, 2008
DAYTON — The male veteran began pressing her for sex soon after his arrival March 17 at the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center residential facility where she also resided, the female veteran told VA police.
"He said, 'I want to pretend that we're married.' I said, "I don't want to be married to you, I don't want to pretend that," a transcript of her statement said. "He just kept wanting to have a relationship with me. I just kept pushing him away and I said, 'You've got to leave me alone'."
The man bragged to her that he was "dangerous" and was being treated at the VA for sex addiction, she said in a recent interview with a reporter. The 24-year-old female veteran, who has a service-connected injury, asked not to be named.
On March 25, not long after she had ended her work shift at midnight, the man knocked on her bedroom door and insisted on talking with her, she told police. When she insisted he go back to his own room, he forced his way into her room, pinned her to the bed and assaulted her, she told police.
The assault lasted about 15 minutes, she told police.
The interview with VA police didn't occur until April 25, almost a month after the female veteran reported the assault to VA staff, according to the veteran.
"No one at the VA even suggested rape counseling for her," said Candice Pickrel, the daughter of the veteran's vocational rehabilitation counselor at the VA, Mario Mancini. Mancini declined to be interviewed.
The veteran has filed formal complaints against five VA staff members for not taking her allegations seriously and for placing the man in the same facility when they allegedly knew that he had a sexual addiction and that she was recovering from the aftermath of an inappropriate relationship with a VA intern involved in her care.
A VA official from outside the Ohio VA system is now conducting an independent investigation into the case, Dayton VA Medical Director Guy B. Richardson confirmed June 16. He would not comment further while the investigation was ongoing.
Advocate for women
Pickrel, a former Dayton probation officer, has become an advocate for the veteran and helped her file the complaints against the Dayton VA. "There's no support for women veterans out there," Pickrel said. "Especially after this (Maria) Lauterbach incident, you'd think they would have done something about it."
The pregnant body of Lauterbach, a 20-year-old Vandalia native and Marine, was found Jan. 11 buried in the backyard barbecue pit of fellow Marine Cesar Armando Laurean near Camp Lejeune, N.C. The previous May, Lauterbach had reported that Laurean had raped her. However, the incident was never reported to civilian police and the restraining order against Laurean lapsed several times. He faces murder charges in the case.
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, has pressed the Marines on a number of unanswered questions in the Lauterbach case, including why it took the Marines seven days to question Laurean afer Lauterbach's allegations, why a military protective order against Laurean had been allowed to lapse from December 2007 to Jan. 7, 2008, and why the Marines did not give Lauterbach the opportunity to transfer to another base.
Like the Lauterbach case
Pickrel said the Dayton VA's handling of the veteran's case has parallels to the Lauterbach case. For example:
• The veteran said she reported the incident to VA staff March 26, the day after it occurred, but the man did not leave her residential facility until five days later. "I had to go out of my way to avoid him," the veteran said. "It was very difficult."
• No one suggested rape counseling for the veteran until she was interviewed by Dayton police investigators May 13, Pickrel said.
• The veteran was not interviewed by VA police until nearly a month after the alleged rape. The veteran said the officer's line of questioning was "uncomfortable, because she made many assumptions" about the case.
A report filed after the April 25 interview by VA Police Officer Christina M. Potter noted that the veteran told her the alleged rapist "did not harm her in any other physical way, nor did he make any verbal threats" and "that she never screamed or called for help, nor did she state why she did not scream or call for help."
Ohio rape law does not require that the victim prove physical resistance against an attacker, said Love Ali, a rape victim advocate for Women Helping Women in Cincinnati. "The burden of proof is on the defense," she said.
The veteran said she hasn't decided yet whether to file a criminal complaint against her alleged assailant. "I don't know if I want to repeat the story five or six times," she said. "It's a very personal issue."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2437 or jdebrosse@DaytonDaily
News.com.
Women in the military
The number of women in the military, and among U.S. veterans, has risen dramatically since the first Gulf War in 1991, and so has the number of reported in-service and post-service sexual assaults.
Women now comprise 7 percent, or almost one in 10, of all veterans nationally.
2,947 sexual assaults were reported in the military in 2006, an increase of 24 percent over 2005.
The lifetime prevalence of rape among Air Force women (28 percent) was more than twice as high as the prevalence in a national sample (13 percent), according to a 2007 Air Force survey.
Among female veterans seeking VA disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder, 69 percent of combat veterans and 87 percent of noncombat veterans reported in-service or post-service sexual assaults, according to a 2004 study by the U.S. Association of Military Surgeons.
The same military surgeons study found that VA mental health clinics often fail to screen their patients for military sexual trauma. As few as one-third of patients were screened in one clinic surveyed.
Sources: U.S. Dept. of Defense and U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
Ellie
Veteran says after she reported she was raped, Dayton VA police didn't respond for nearly a month.
By Jim DeBrosse
Staff Writer
Sunday, June 29, 2008
DAYTON — The male veteran began pressing her for sex soon after his arrival March 17 at the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center residential facility where she also resided, the female veteran told VA police.
"He said, 'I want to pretend that we're married.' I said, "I don't want to be married to you, I don't want to pretend that," a transcript of her statement said. "He just kept wanting to have a relationship with me. I just kept pushing him away and I said, 'You've got to leave me alone'."
The man bragged to her that he was "dangerous" and was being treated at the VA for sex addiction, she said in a recent interview with a reporter. The 24-year-old female veteran, who has a service-connected injury, asked not to be named.
On March 25, not long after she had ended her work shift at midnight, the man knocked on her bedroom door and insisted on talking with her, she told police. When she insisted he go back to his own room, he forced his way into her room, pinned her to the bed and assaulted her, she told police.
The assault lasted about 15 minutes, she told police.
The interview with VA police didn't occur until April 25, almost a month after the female veteran reported the assault to VA staff, according to the veteran.
"No one at the VA even suggested rape counseling for her," said Candice Pickrel, the daughter of the veteran's vocational rehabilitation counselor at the VA, Mario Mancini. Mancini declined to be interviewed.
The veteran has filed formal complaints against five VA staff members for not taking her allegations seriously and for placing the man in the same facility when they allegedly knew that he had a sexual addiction and that she was recovering from the aftermath of an inappropriate relationship with a VA intern involved in her care.
A VA official from outside the Ohio VA system is now conducting an independent investigation into the case, Dayton VA Medical Director Guy B. Richardson confirmed June 16. He would not comment further while the investigation was ongoing.
Advocate for women
Pickrel, a former Dayton probation officer, has become an advocate for the veteran and helped her file the complaints against the Dayton VA. "There's no support for women veterans out there," Pickrel said. "Especially after this (Maria) Lauterbach incident, you'd think they would have done something about it."
The pregnant body of Lauterbach, a 20-year-old Vandalia native and Marine, was found Jan. 11 buried in the backyard barbecue pit of fellow Marine Cesar Armando Laurean near Camp Lejeune, N.C. The previous May, Lauterbach had reported that Laurean had raped her. However, the incident was never reported to civilian police and the restraining order against Laurean lapsed several times. He faces murder charges in the case.
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, has pressed the Marines on a number of unanswered questions in the Lauterbach case, including why it took the Marines seven days to question Laurean afer Lauterbach's allegations, why a military protective order against Laurean had been allowed to lapse from December 2007 to Jan. 7, 2008, and why the Marines did not give Lauterbach the opportunity to transfer to another base.
Like the Lauterbach case
Pickrel said the Dayton VA's handling of the veteran's case has parallels to the Lauterbach case. For example:
• The veteran said she reported the incident to VA staff March 26, the day after it occurred, but the man did not leave her residential facility until five days later. "I had to go out of my way to avoid him," the veteran said. "It was very difficult."
• No one suggested rape counseling for the veteran until she was interviewed by Dayton police investigators May 13, Pickrel said.
• The veteran was not interviewed by VA police until nearly a month after the alleged rape. The veteran said the officer's line of questioning was "uncomfortable, because she made many assumptions" about the case.
A report filed after the April 25 interview by VA Police Officer Christina M. Potter noted that the veteran told her the alleged rapist "did not harm her in any other physical way, nor did he make any verbal threats" and "that she never screamed or called for help, nor did she state why she did not scream or call for help."
Ohio rape law does not require that the victim prove physical resistance against an attacker, said Love Ali, a rape victim advocate for Women Helping Women in Cincinnati. "The burden of proof is on the defense," she said.
The veteran said she hasn't decided yet whether to file a criminal complaint against her alleged assailant. "I don't know if I want to repeat the story five or six times," she said. "It's a very personal issue."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2437 or jdebrosse@DaytonDaily
News.com.
Women in the military
The number of women in the military, and among U.S. veterans, has risen dramatically since the first Gulf War in 1991, and so has the number of reported in-service and post-service sexual assaults.
Women now comprise 7 percent, or almost one in 10, of all veterans nationally.
2,947 sexual assaults were reported in the military in 2006, an increase of 24 percent over 2005.
The lifetime prevalence of rape among Air Force women (28 percent) was more than twice as high as the prevalence in a national sample (13 percent), according to a 2007 Air Force survey.
Among female veterans seeking VA disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder, 69 percent of combat veterans and 87 percent of noncombat veterans reported in-service or post-service sexual assaults, according to a 2004 study by the U.S. Association of Military Surgeons.
The same military surgeons study found that VA mental health clinics often fail to screen their patients for military sexual trauma. As few as one-third of patients were screened in one clinic surveyed.
Sources: U.S. Dept. of Defense and U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
Ellie