Cadet Says Classmate Raped, Stalked Her

A 19-year-old West Point cadet went public Monday with charges that she had been stalked and raped by a classmate at the military academy. She urged the Army to reopen its investigation, which had concluded the pair had engaged in consensual sex.

“I was lured to the assailant’s barracks room and sexually assaulted,” Cadet Su Jin Collier told a news conference. “Under no circumstances was this consensual sex, as the Army is asserting.

“We are requesting that Secretary of the Army Togo West direct the appointment of an investigation team experienced in sexual assault cases,” Collier said.

A private investigator hired by lawyers for the second-year student from El Paso charged that the Army’s inquiry was incomplete and flawed--a characterization disputed by an Army spokesman.

Jay Salpeter, a former New York City detective, called upon West Point officials to postpone a hearing set for later this week to determine whether the two cadets should be dismissed for violating rules forbidding sexual relations.

The private investigator said Collier was never asked by West Point authorities to take a lie detector test and a threatening letter she reported receiving was never checked for fingerprints. He said blood samples taken from her wound after the incident were lost by the military and her roommate was improperly interviewed.

Salpeter also said Collier had passed a private polygraph test administered by a licensed New York state examiner while military investigators tested her accused assailant twice with inconclusive results.

Only Collier, and not her accused assailant, was asked to provide a handwriting sample, Salpeter said, adding that saliva samples taken from both cadets were never scientifically analyzed.

However, Capt. John Cornelio, a West Point spokesman, said: “An extensive criminal investigation regarding an allegation of rape was conducted by the criminal investigation division.

“That allegation arose from a November incident that took place in the cadet barracks. That allegation has been determined unfounded.

“There was insufficient evidence to substantiate a charge of rape. Additionally, there was insufficient evidence to indicate stalking had occurred,” Cornelio said.

Collier said she was sexually assaulted last November by a male cadet after a friendship that ended in May 1996. After the attack, she said, she went to the room of a female friend, where she collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. She filed rape charges that evening.

Her lawyer, Alen Beerman, said Collier had broken off the relationship after the cadet “became sexually aggressive and abusive.”

He said the cadet continued to harass her, and at one point Collier had to hide in her closet to avoid the cadet, who had entered her room uninvited.

“The harassment even continued after the rape, when Cadet Collier received a threatening message stating: ‘You went too far this time, and you’ll pay this time. Everywhere is a danger zone,’ ” the lawyer said.

“The academy,” Beerman charged, “is encouraging an atmosphere where some men feel free to force themselves on women cadets with impunity.”