Follow Up To “Air Force Woman Could Be Convicted in Her Own Rape”

I have done a little more research into the article on Feminist.org and have taken some excerpts from the articles that I found on the incident. The links are to the complete article that I took the excerpts from.

Sexually assaulted airman is the one facing charges

11:39 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 1, 2007

By Jeff McShan / 11 New

Sexual assaults in the military are on the rise said Christine Hansen, the Executive Director of the Miles Foundation, a non-profit group that helps rape victims.

“The prevalence of sexual assaults in the military is quite extensive at this point in time,” said Hansen. “In fact there has been an increase of assaults in the military in some cases increases of 25-to-40-percent from one year to another year.”

From Congress.org web-site and open letter to Representative Stark

To:
Rep. Fortney Stark

August 8, 2007

Dear Representative Stark,

I'm writing to ask for help in the case of Cassandra Hernandez, a member of the Air Force and recent rape victim. She was raped by three other Air Force airmen at a party earlier this year. She reported the assault and went to the hospital, but after continual badgering and harassment by her superiors and peers, she decided not to testify in court.

From the “Military Times” forum….

Factual inconsistencies and the accuser’s unwillingness to testify caused Pope Air Force Base to dismiss charges in her rape case, base officials said in a statement.

The officials would not say whether the inconsistencies alone would have led to a dismissal of charges against one of the three airmen whom the woman accused of raping her in a dorm room in May 2006.

“If the victim decides not to cooperate with the prosecution and declines to testify, prosecution is extremely difficult and generally not feasible,” the officials said in the statement, released Thursday.

From the Navy Times

Woman who alleged rape faces court-martial

By Erik Holmes - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Aug 14, 2007 5:47:23 EDT

There was beer. There were many shots of liquor. And there was sex.

But that’s about all the four young airmen from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., can agree on.

Airman 1st Class Cassandra Hernandez, 20, said she got drunk at a party the night of May 12, 2006, and she admits that her memories of the evening are fuzzy at best. Airman 1st Class Jerrel Apache, Airman Russell Basile and Airman Rotez Butler also admit they had been drinking for several hours.

But fuzzy memories alone can’t explain the discrepancies between what they say and what she says happened after the party, in the early-morning hours of May 13, 2006.

Hernandez told investigators that the men gang-raped her in a dorm room. The men say Hernandez consented to have sex with each of them, and that she instigated the sex.

So what is the true story I do not know but I do know that it is very wrong for the Air Force to court martial her. That sends a chilling message to any other woman in the military who has been raped.