Victims Using Unusual Legal Tactics

Dissatisfied with the military’s handling of sexual assault cases involving recruiters, some local prosecutors and victims are challenging the misconduct on their own.

Most such cases are handled administratively by the military -- for example, 13 of the 19 Air Force recruiters whose misconduct was confirmed since 2004 received letters of reprimand in their personnel files and fines that ranged from $200 to $1,200.

In seeking greater penalties, victims and local authorities have taken unusual tacks.

In South Dakota, a young Oglala Sioux woman, Laveeta Elk, is suing the federal government under an 1868 treaty which says that if “bad men” among government officials commit “any wrong” upon the person or property of any Sioux, the United States will reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained.

Elk chose to have her name released when she filed her lawsuit. She says she was assaulted by Army recruiter Sgt. Joseph Kopf in his government car, when he stopped in a remote area while driving her to a military evaluation center. Kopf has been demoted and reassigned within the Army, officials said. Kopf could not be reached for comment.

“I decided to file a lawsuit because I know I’m not the only girl he did this to. I want to put a stop to it,” Elk said. “He has no excuse for what he did. It shouldn’t happen to anybody.”

Her attorney, Adam Horowitz, said this was the first time this law had been tested. In April, a federal judge denied the government’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.

In another case, prosecutor Barbara Trathen of Hamilton County, Ind., has charged National Guard recruiter Sgt. Eric Vetesy -- accused of assaulting seven young women -- with racketeering along with 31 charges of rape and sexual battery. His trial is scheduled for later this summer.

Vetesy, a married father of three, met most of his alleged victims, ages 16 to 20, while recruiting at Indianapolis-area high schools, according to the indictment. Victims told the grand jury he threw them against a wall of the armory, raped them on a countertop and forced them to fondle him.

Trathen said she charged him with racketeering under the section that bans corrupt business influence and official misconduct. “It’s rape, yes, and it’s sexual assault. But it’s more than that. He had a pattern of misusing his position of power,” she said.

In another case, two teenage women who say a pair of former Marine Corps sergeants raped them in a recruiting office sued the military in federal court in San Francisco in May. They’re seeking a requirement that all Marine Corps recruiters receive proper training and supervision.

One of the victims, 17, shared portions of her handwritten journal with the AP.

“I lost my virginity to [the recruiter] ... in the back room on the sofa. I didn’t want to have sex but I didn’t want him to be upset with me and make me go all the way back to my old recruiter. He was also the type of guy to bad-mouth a person if he didn’t get what he wanted,” she wrote about their first encounter.

Both recruiters were demoted after court-martial proceedings, but acquitted of the most serious charges they faced. Both have since left the military.