TIME: The Military’s Latest Rape-Case Mess
TIME Magazine reports:
The hearing was brutal. While the defense lawyers attacked her with graphic, repetitive questions, the accuser sometimes gripped her meditation beads, a gift from her sexual-assault counselor. The lawyers wanted to know if she wore underwear to the party, how wide she opens her mouth during oral sex and if she “grinds” when dancing. They asked her if she “felt like a ho” the morning after (although Commander Robert Monahan Jr., the hearing officer, drew the line when a defendant’s lawyer asked if she carried condoms in her purse). “This is harassment,” Susan Burke, her civilian attorney, told military prosecutors during a break. “It has to stop!”
The inquisition took place during an Article 32 hearing. That’s the section of the Uniform Code of Military Justice requiring a “thorough and impartial investigation” into any charge that could lead to a court-martial. Unlike civilian proceedings, which are presented in secret by prosecutors, Article 32 hearings are public, and defense lawyers can cross-examine accusers, sometimes harshly. Intended to keep military prosecutors from steamrolling defendants, it can force sexual-assault victims to endure long rounds of intensely personal questioning before the trial.
