McKinney Tells His Side of Sex Charges

The Army’s former top enlisted man insisted Wednesday that there was “nothing inappropriate” about his post-midnight visit to the hotel room of a female aide while he was wearing gym shorts.

Sgt. Maj. Gene C. McKinney, who is facing 19 charges of sexual misconduct, said he went to the room of then-Sgt. Maj. Brenda Hoster to tell her he was firing her as his speech writer and spokeswoman. The two were on a business trip in Hawaii at the time.

Hoster was the first of six women to come forward last year with accusations of sexual improprieties against McKinney. Hoster has said McKinney came to her room, propositioned her crudely and then lifted her up and threatened: “I could take you right here.”

She later retired from the Army.

McKinney, 47, who was removed from his post after the sexual charges were filed last year, continued to deny all the women’s claims during more than four hours of tense cross-examination Wednesday.

“You went to a female subordinate’s room after midnight, in your shorts, after you had been drinking . . . for a closed-door meeting to tell her it was time to move on?” Lt. Col. Michael Child, the chief prosecutor, asked McKinney.

“I found nothing inappropriate about that,” McKinney replied, adding that on business trips, hotel rooms double as offices.

He acknowledged that he had told no one else about his intention to fire Hoster and made no written record of their meeting.

Looking stern and tense but maintaining his composure, McKinney flashed angry glances at the prosecutor as Child bored in with persistent questions. The 29-year Army veteran sat bolt upright on the witness stand, looking resplendent in his olive dress uniform with a chest full of medals and ribbons.

McKinney bristled when Child suggested he had been struggling in his job and wanted to make Hoster the scapegoat for his failures. McKinney was the first African American to hold the Army’s top enlisted position.

“Isn’t it a fact you were in over your head in that assignment--not Sgt. Maj. Hoster?” Child demanded.

“I don’t agree with that, sir,” McKinney replied through clenched teeth.

Running through the list of McKinney’s accusers, the prosecutor wanted to know if he had told one woman “it’s important to keep our relationship secret” and told another “you loved her.”

“That is not true, that is not true,” McKinney insisted.

His court-martial, which began Feb. 2 and likely will end next week, is being conducted in a small flag-draped courtroom at Ft. Belvoir in the northern Virginia suburbs.

The accusations against McKinney include adultery, assault and obstruction of justice. If convicted, McKinney could face up to 55 years in prison.

The four officers and four enlisted personnel on the jury seemed attentive to McKinney’s testimony and carefully examined documents that were handed to them.

Perhaps the most serious allegation is that McKinney committed adultery with a pregnant soldier at his Ft. Myer, Va., quarters on the night of Oct. 30, 1996. The defense has submitted a sign-in sheet from an auto repair shop on the base to show that McKinney was changing the oil in his automobile about the time he was alleged to be having sex.

But, prosecutors contend, the record was doctored by McKinney, who retrieved it at a later date and made an Oct. 30 entry in ink different from that of the other entries.

Asked about this on cross-examination, McKinney acknowledged that he collected the document from the shop after he had been accused of sexual offenses. He said he did so at the request of his attorneys, who “told me to secure a copy before it disappeared.”

He flatly denied altering it in any way.

Earlier in the day, in concluding his direct testimony, McKinney disputed the account of Staff Sgt. Christine Fetrow, whose allegations account for 10 of the 19 charges against him.

Fetrow has said McKinney invited her to his hotel room at a conference in 1994 and told her: “I’m a powerful man who makes things happen, good and bad.”

But, McKinney testified, “I never, ever used my rank or position to boast in that type of manner. I never touched Sgt. Fetrow in any form or manner.”