Army Reveals More Details of Sex Inquiry

Two drill sergeants who are at the center of a sex-abuse investigation at an Army training school threatened their victims, according to newly released documents, with one telling a young female recruit: “If anyone finds out about me having sex with you, I’ll kill you.”

He reportedly warned another recruit: “I’m going to knock your teeth out and get away with it.”

The threats were disclosed Sunday in 14 pages of partially blacked-out legal papers released by officials at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground. They offer the first detailed accounting of allegations of rape, sodomy and other sexual misdeeds that have washed over this 94-year-old school.

And while Aberdeen’s top brass have promised to get to the bottom of the reported incidents at their post, Army Secretary Togo West vowed to answer a larger question: Does the situation at Aberdeen reflect a broad pattern of sexual harassment that exists wherever young soldiers are trained?

“That question is of importance to us,” West said on CNN’s “Late Edition” on Sunday, “so we’re going to look at every training facility across the Army’s training and doctrine command. . . . There is enough concern on our part that we should look and see.”

So far, 20 soldiers at the Aberdeen Ordnance Center and School have been suspended. Three--a captain and two drill sergeants--have been charged; the military “charge sheets” released Sunday describe those criminal counts.

At worst, they paint a portrait of a post at which a number of young Army women--fresh out of boot camp and ready for military career training--were raped or sodomized by their superiors and then instructed to keep quiet.

At minimum, they detail an atmosphere in which a cardinal rule--the ban against “fraternization” between soldiers of different ranks--was repeatedly violated. One sergeant is accused of having consensual sex with seven recruits. Another reportedly had a relationship with a student, then asked her to write his research paper for a noncommissioned officer course he was taking.

“The fact that this has happened is an embarrassment to our corps within the Army,” said Lt. Col. Johnnie Allen, the deputy commander of the training center. “We know that this is not a good-news story . . . but I’m not willing to throw in the towel. We have a very proud corps and a very proud tradition.”

The most egregious accusations at Aberdeen have been levied against Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson, who arrived at the base in 1995. In addition to allegedly engaging in consensual sex with seven women, Simpson is accused of nine counts of rape involving three recruits. One of his victims, the Army alleges, was raped five times.

He is also accused of threatening three women. In addition to threatening to kill one and to knock out the teeth of the other, he reportedly told a third, “If you ever tell anyone about this, I’ll hurt you,” the documents said. They said all of the attacks occurred in July, August and September.

The charges say that Simpson, in other cases, grabbed women’s buttocks, grabbed their hair and ran his hands across their backs. The charge sheets provide no other details on those circumstances.

Army officials said that Simpson has been placed in pretrial confinement in the Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Va.

The other sergeant charged in the case, Nathanael Beach, is accused of adultery, making a false statement, threatening a soldier, fraternization and disobeying orders not to associate with trainees while the investigation of him was underway.

According to the charge sheets, he had a personal conversation with a trainee about his religious views after he had been ordered to stay away from her. He also allegedly asked a female student to write his term paper, threatened a woman and lied to investigators about his contacts with recruits.

He remains at the school but has been reassigned to a nonteaching job.

The only officer charged in the probe, Capt. Derrick Robertson, is accused of rape, sodomy, unbecoming conduct, adultery, indecent assault and obstruction of justice. In interviews with reporters, he has acknowledged having an improper relationship with a recruit but has said that it was consensual.

The charge sheets provided no details of his alleged offenses, other than to say the rape did not occur on the post but at Joppatowne, Md., on Sept. 14.

Lawyers for the three could not be reached Sunday.

In addition to the three, two other soldiers face lesser, nonjudicial charges of breaking Army rules, which carry such penalties as reprimands or docking of pay.

So far, 550 women have been interviewed by Army investigators, and 19 have come forward to say they were victimized. Investigators are still working on tracking down 500 other women at military installations throughout the world.

Meanwhile, telephone calls continued to flow into the toll-free hotline the Army has set up. As of Sunday, 117 new complaints of sexual harassment had come in on the hotline. But not all of them involved the Army, and fewer than half--48--involved Aberdeen. The rest pertained to other military bases scattered all over the world.

“It’s eye-opening,” said Allen, the deputy commander at the Aberdeen school. “It certainly gives you the indication that problems are not just limited.”