Key Witness Appears in Army Sex Case

The first of the five women to bring sexual-misconduct charges against the Army’s highest-ranking enlisted man finally appeared in a makeshift military courtroom Friday to give her account of the night 15 months ago when she says Sergeant Major of the Army Gene C. McKinney pressured her for sex.

Retired Sgt. Maj. Brenda L. Hoster said McKinney kissed her, lifted her off her feet, talked about her body and told her to look at his crotch “to see what you’ve done to me.” She said they did not ever have intercourse.

“I felt dirty,” she said under friendly questioning from a military prosecutor. “I was embarrassed. . . . I felt disgusted . . . degraded.”

She said the incident took place in a hotel room in Hawaii on April 10, 1996. Hoster, who was McKinney’s public affairs advisor, had accompanied him to Hawaii on an official trip. McKinney’s wife also accompanied him.

Hours of cross-examination from McKinney’s military lawyer, Lt. Col. V. Montgomery Forrester, did not succeed in getting Hoster to alter her account. She answered defense questions in a quiet monotone, seldom going much beyond “yes” or “no.”

McKinney seemed to stare at Hoster as she testified.

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Hoster’s allegations shook the once promising career of McKinney, 47, the first African American to hold the Army’s top enlisted post, when she sent a detailed statement to the Army’s criminal investigation division on Jan. 30, more than nine months after the incident. Later, three more enlisted women and an officer accused McKinney of misconduct.

The other three enlisted women have already testified in the hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury investigation. The officer has not been identified.

Hoster, 40, said she complained of the incident through the Army’s chain of command but received no help. She said she concluded that the system was protecting McKinney. She retired Nov. 1, and now works for a dentist in El Paso, Texas.

Hoster said she went to Army criminal investigators after the sex scandal at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland raised the profile of the issue. Even then, she said, she called an Army hotline three times before she agreed to give her name and detail her charges.

Hoster testified that before the Hawaii incident, McKinney had humiliated her by criticizing her work in front of a subordinate during a visit to Ft. Bragg, N.C.

When she complained to McKinney about it later, she said, he told her to “lighten up” and pushed her down on a couch with a pillow. She said he told her that she deserved “a good butt-whipping.” Although she said he did not pressure her for sex on that occasion, she concluded that the incident was sexual in nature.

Under cross-examination, Hoster acknowledged that she accompanied McKinney on several business trips after the Hawaii incident. She said he did not again directly proposition her, although there was some sexual innuendo.

Forrester also ran through a long list of Hoster’s military acquaintances, asking her in each case if the person was honest, loyal and trustworthy. Except for a few she said she did not know well, Hoster said each one was of good character.

After each name, Forrester asked some variation of the question: “Do you know any reason why he would make up anything about you?” Each time, Hoster said she did not.

Although Forrester did not elaborate, he seemed to be laying the groundwork for derogatory testimony about Hoster later in the hearing.

Hoster was wary of appearing as a witness and agreed to testify only after military prosecutors assured her and her civilian lawyer, Susan Barnes of Denver, that they would object if McKinney’s lawyers tried to raise questions about Hoster’s sexual history. Barnes said that in spite of the fact that such questions are prohibited by military court rules, McKinney’s lawyers got away with asking objectionable questions of the three enlisted women who preceded Hoster to the stand.

The hearing is being conducted in a converted mess hall at Ft. Leslie J. McNair, the Army installation on the banks of the Potomac River that is home to many of the top officers assigned to the Pentagon.