Inquiry Urged on Air Force Academy’s Handling of Sexual Assault Cases
The New York Times reports:
Two senators called Wednesday for an independent investigation into the handling of sexual assault cases at the Air Force Academy, saying they were concerned about “very serious allegations of wrongdoing.”
In a letter to the Office of Special Counsel, the two senators, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, and John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, asked the watchdog agency to investigate claims that academy officials retaliated against an Air Force investigator and the cadet informant who helped him investigate drug use and sexual assault among football players. The senators sent the same request to the Defense Department inspector general’s office, asking it to investigate.
The investigator, Sgt. Brandon Enos, said in a letter sent this month to members of Congress that after a spate of successful prosecutions of football players for sexual assault and drug use in 2013, superiors shut down his investigation. After that, Sergeant Enos said, he had his badge taken away and was told that he would be kicked out of the Air Force. The details of the letter were reported Aug. 9 in The New York Times.
