Washington Post: Alleged military sex assault victims seek to block use of counseling records
The Washington Post reports:
The sexual assault case at the U.S. Naval Academy that began at an off-campus party nearly two years ago has turned a microscope on otherwise routine aspects of military legal procedure. Both the broad authority of commanders to charge and to punish and the cross-examination of alleged victims before trial has become fodder for critics of the military’s handling of sexual assault claims.
Now, another standard practice in military sexual assault cases is quietly being challenged in courtrooms across the country: the review and release of an accuser’s mental health records.
Over the past several months, lawyers for the alleged victim in the Naval Academy case have been trying to block a judge from reviewing years of counseling records. Their latest appeal is still pending, but Col. Daniel Daugherty, the judge in the trial of defendant Joshua Tate, has already reviewed some of them, and agreed to release portions to the defense.
