By Meghan Frank, Jamie Farnsworth, Sabrina Esposito and Jessica Hopper
Rock Center
From the time she was a little girl, Claire Russo knew she wanted to be a Marine.
“When I was 10 and when I was 18 and when I was 23, the reason never changed. They were the toughest,” said Russo in an interview with Natalie Morales broadcast Thursday on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.
The native of Washington, D.C., stuck to her dream, graduating No. 4 in her class from officer candidate school in 2003. Her father, Ken Wilkinsen, watched her commissioning with pride.
“This colonel came up,” Wilkinsen recalled. “He said, ‘If we had more of her type here... my job would be a lot easier.’”
Russo began what she thought would be a long career in the military, but her work as an intelligence officer was upended when she was sexually assaulted by a fellow Marine in November 2004.
“I love this country,” said the 32-year-old Russo. “But, you know, there’s a wound that will never heal. I gave the Marine Corps everything and it took from me something that I’m never going to get back.”
Russo is one of the thousands of members of the Armed Forces who have been sexually assaulted while serving their country. Last year, 3,192 service members across all branches of the military reported sexual assaults. Based on anonymous surveys of active-duty service members conducted in 2010, the Department of Defense says the number of incidents was closer to 19,000. Of the cases that are reported, only a fraction are prosecuted in the military justice system.
Attorney Susan Burke has filed several lawsuits against the top brass at the Department of Defense on behalf of sexual assault victims, charging they’ve been deprived of their due process.
“What all of us expect as Americans is an impartial system of justice. We don’t know the judge. We don’t know the jurors,” Burke said. “That’s not what is happening in the military. In the military, the commanders get to decide based on their own impressions of the two people coming forward who to believe. ”
Courtesy of Claire Russo
Claire Russo
Russo’s case was shut down by the Marine Corps, but since her assault happened off base, she was able to seek justice in the civilian court system. Recalling the November 2004 night she was assaulted is still upsetting to Russo. She attended the Marine Corps Ball at a San Diego, Calif., hotel with her cousin, Tom, a Navy F-18 aviator. Tom introduced her to a fellow marine, Doug Dowson. Dowson bought her a drink and said he’d take her to a room party.
Russo said that after accepting the drink from Dowson, things started “to get a little hazy.” Russo said that she felt like she’d been drugged. A drug test taken over 24 hours after the assault was inconclusive.
“The next thing I remember is being on the ground in the bathroom. He was holding me down and sodomizing me and at that point, I was just crying and begging him to stop,” said Russo through tears.
The day after the assault, she told her cousin. He reported it to his command and was ordered to take Russo to the naval hospital for a rape exam. As Russo was about to undergo the exam, her cousin received a phone call from the military criminal investigator assigned to the case, NCIS Special Agent Zach Paton.
“I told him to leave and come to me,” Paton said. Though Paton was the naval criminal investigator assigned to Russo’s case, he didn’t trust the military to handle it well. “The Naval Medical Center, they didn’t have appropriate personnel, training and material for doing rape kits," he said.
Paton took Russo to a civilian hospital for a sexual assault exam, waiting outside the hospital room as Russo was examined.
“You could hear her crying out in pain,” Paton recalled.
Since the assault had taken place off base, Paton could run a joint investigation with the local police. This proved pivotal in Russo’s pursuit of justice because although Paton would present the military with forensic evidence, testimony and photos, the Marine Corps ultimately decided not to charge Russo’s accused rapist.
“As the investigation progressed, as the command briefings and evidence and investigative reports were presented to the command of the accused, it was very apparent that they were going to take no action,” Paton said.
Paton broke the news to Russo, but neither of them was prepared to give up.
“Fortunately it was a joint investigation with the police department. So we explored that avenue of letting the D.A.’s office take a look at it,” Paton said.
The San Diego district attorney’s office wanted to prosecute, but Russo said she felt pressure from her command not to work with civilian authorities.
“They did say, you know, ‘This is a bad idea,’” Russo said. “Once this case goes to the district attorney’s office, Claire, we can’t help you. You know, we can’t protect you.”
“It felt as though there was a desire to sort of intimidate both me and the district attorney out of actually prosecuting this case,” Russo said.
Russo said the Marines also ignored her pleas for a transfer which meant that she had to endure an on base encounter with the man she knew had raped her.
“I broke down physically, emotionally and I actually like, I urinated on myself,” said Russo of one encounter with Dowson. “I was terrified.”
The district attorney obtained a search warrant for Dowson’s house. There, Paton said he and the police found hidden cameras and hundreds of hours of video of Dowson having sex with seemingly incapacitated women. Paton also discovered that just seven months prior to Russo’s assault, a female aviator had a similar incident with Dowson. She told her command but said she felt pressure not to file a formal report.
Prosecutors charged Dowson with raping Russo. He pleaded guilty to sodomy before his civilian trial began and was sentenced to three years in prison. He was released after serving 18 months.
Courtesy of Darchelle Mitchell
Darchelle Mitchell
When asked if her case is an exception within the military, Russo said, “The only thing that makes my story extraordinary is that I got justice.”
Rock Center interviewed several women who claim they were raped by fellow military members. Unlike Russo, many of them never received justice. Some didn’t report their assaults because they feared it would destroy their careers.
In Darchelle Mitchell’s case, the petty officer she says raped her was acquitted and her Navy career suffered. When Mitchell tried to re-enlist as active duty in the Navy her request was denied. She has since joined the Navy reserves.
“I knew joining the military was going to be a sacrifice. This wasn’t the intended sacrifice that I was willing to make,” she said.
Former Air Force Sgt. Laura Sellinger said that she attempted suicide after her command announced to her squadron that she had been raped while at a training exercise in South Korea.
“Everybody knew at work,” Sellinger said. “And they’re calling me all kinds of things and I’m sitting here and I just went to Iraq and through hell and now I’m dealing with this, ‘I’m a slut, I’m a whore. I deserved it,’ and all this kind of stuff. I give up. I absolutely give up. I’ve never been so hollow.”
Courtesy of Laura Sellinger
Laura Sellinger
Another veteran told Rock Center she was threatened with adultery charges from her commander after she pushed for her rapists to be prosecuted. Victims say this culture of blaming them and not punishing their rapists leads to more assaults.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the military is trying to do a better job of prosecuting these crimes.
“I think we owe all of those who’ve been impacted not just an apology, but we owe them the effort to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Panetta said.
Since taking over as secretary of defense in 2011, Panetta said that tackling the issue has been a top priority.
“It’s an outrage that we aren’t prosecuting the people involved here,” Panetta said.
Panetta pointed to a number of changes including moving victims away from their assailants, new special victims units and pushing reporting higher up the chain of command. Still, he admitted that for decades this has been a problem the military has been sweeping under the rug.
“We need to improve the investigations. We need to make sure we have these special victims units that do the investigations and we need to ensure that we have prosecutors who are willing to bring these cases to court and make sure that these people don’t get away,” Panetta said.
Editor’s Note: Natalie Morales’ full report aired Thursday, Sept. 27 on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.
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She should have had the good common sense to keep here hole(s) shut. they want to be like the men, they should keep themselves out of danger like the men. If she couldn't take care of herself, what does that say about the guy whose back she's supposed to be covering???
Wow! And what a pitiful attitude toward a fellow human. Aren't you missing the point about the wink and nod the military have afforded the guy who actually committed a crime?
i agree stu..wow! some people just don't get it..lol.
you ma'am are uneducated apparently and don't realize that these guys are our brothers/sisters in arms, we shouldn't feel the need to feel threatened by them. We shouldn't have to worry about have a knife on our body at all times in order to keep a person or persons from attacking us. I would like to hear the stories of the 4 other females that was interviewed. If you heard them, you might change your tune. (I know one of the females personally)
If ever there were a crime that deserved instant death to the offender, this is it. The women (and men in some cases) don't get to erase what happened; it taints every day of the rest of their lives, no matter how much therapy is involved. It is murder of a sort, and the animals who engage in it are a cancer that should be cut out of our society. The fact that the military sweeps so much of it under the rug makes those who do so no different than those who created the rape camps in Bosnia, and those who traffic in enslaved teenage prostitutes. Semper Fi....
I feel sorry for this fine marine officer whose career had been ruined by rape. What kind of military is this when women whose life calling is to serve the country through the military are pushed away whenever they are violated. Something needs to be done. Criminal acts in the military needs to be prosecuted.
I can't believe all of this! I honestly thought I was the only one who went through this... And very recently (last year). I served 7 years in the military. The person who raped me also raped another female while TDY. The process takes so long that the person involved often ends up not wanting to press charges any more b/c they just want to get on with their lives... I tried to pursue it but while under investigation the guy was allowed to PCS to a different command who's legal office didn't feel our case was a strong enough case to go to trial. This is why most people don't even come forward with it..
Pink, i am so sorry to hear that you also had to endure this crap! :( THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SERVICE! i hope you are doing okay!
As a military wife this is beyond disgraceful to hear and my heart goes out to those who have been victimized and betrayed by their own Country! The fact that these rapes are being swept under a rug is asinine and it needs to stop immediately! PULL IT TOGETHER U.S. MILITARY & MAN UP!
I am stunned that the US public is just now become outraged regarding sexual harassment and rape in the military . . . excuse me . . . I was in the US Army 39 years ago . . . sexual harassment was an everyday occurrence . . . God help ya if your immediate supervisior ran with the "sexual harrassment" crowd . . . rape??? . . . are you kidding me . . . in Basic Training we were "encouraged" to use Birth Control Pills . . . even if we did not have a boyfriend . . . why??? . . . oh yeah . . . rape was frequent . . . I personally was aware of at least one rape a month . . . until males can act like men . . . the above will continue!!!!
Hey . . . buddy . . . I was there . . . I could shoot . . . run . . . and I certainly did my job as well as any guy in my unit . . . and yeah . . . I sexually harassed every last day I was in the US Army!!!
Admitting that you sexually harrassed your fellow soldiers every last day in the army doesn't speak well for you.
And you would prefer untruthful denail?
You, sir, are a coward of the lowest type. Hopefully you no longer serve if you ever did. You have no honor.
The U.S military sucks. It is no diffrent then a scum prison!
When I made an accusation of a sexual assault, a 15-6 investigation into an "inappropriate relationship" was initiated and I was called into the Commander's office to be told in front of him and Top that I had been "flagged" because of the investigation. Later, my unit would claim no such thing took place. To my knowledge, there was never an investigation into an assault, simply an investigation into a "relationship." Thankfully, Congresswoman Tsongas office was able to remove me from my unit as I had to drill for four months in close proximity with the person and with the other soldiers who supported him in this ordeal. Were it not for her and the special people in her office, I would have been left to my unit's punitive punishments and torture.
After watching the show, " DISHONORED", last night with awe, I am obliged to let you know that there is a patented invention to solve the rape problem in the military. I hope the DOD will read this comment and take action.
THIS IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE...MEN ARE RAPED IN OUR ARMED FORCES TOO!
REGARDING MILITARY SEXUAL TRAUMA PLEASE!!!
don't leave out the men,
don't leave out the older vet male and female
don't leave out the disabled vet
consider vets of different ethnicities,
consider vets regardless of sexual preference
Please search for the forensic examiner com L archive L spring09 L 15 (in case urls are not permitted, for excellent explanations of what the meaning of false rape, "unfounded" rape and so on. Statistics can say anything and are meaningless without correct interpretation of these colloquial terms.
I was gang-raped (no alcohol nor drugs) the first week at my duty station in 1966. I never told a soul, had a horrible life, and in 2003 a VA doctor asked me if anything had happened. My whole life has changed. I am getting good treatment and have come to know a nation-wide collection of MST survivors from WWII to the present.
The majority of these crimes are, of course, committed in private. They are difficult to prosecute just as child molestation and rape. Male victims are the last frontier of the willing to come forward because the shame factor is informed by how women are treated.
Military service is, just like the Church, a place where serial rapists/sociopaths get to ply their evil trade. And zoom they move to another duty station. Eventually they are out in the civilian world with no sign that they are rapists. Is one teaching your kids?
How would you know. It is more than a Military problem. Also it is a Public Safety problem.
I looked at the Department of Justice crime statistics over the past 5 years show that most rape is committed against those in the 34-52 age range. You'll have to negotiate that site with patience.
To all survivors out there, press on and get the help that fits and change the therapy or therapist if that is not working for you. New knowledge will take you further than hurting and hiding with shame that belongs to the perpetrators.
Your VetSister S/F
Please search for the forensic examiner com L archive L spring09 L 15 (in case urls are not permitted) for excellent explanations of what the meaning of false rape, "unfounded" rape and so on. Statistics can say anything and are meaningless without correct interpretation of these colloquial terms.
I was gang-raped (no alcohol nor drugs) the first week at my duty station in 1966. I never told a soul, had a horrible life, and in 2003 a VA doctor asked me if anything had happened. My whole life has changed. I am getting good treatment and have come to know a nation-wide collection of MST survivors from WWII to the present.
The majority of these crimes are, of course, committed in private. They are difficult to prosecute just as child molestation and rape. Male victims are the last frontier of the willing to come forward because the shame factor is informed by how women are treated.
Military service is, just like the Church, a place where serial rapists/sociopaths get to ply their evil trade. And zoom they move to another duty station. Eventually they are out in the civilian world with no sign that they are rapists. Is one teaching your kids?
How would you know. It is more than a Military problem. Also it is a Public Safety problem.
I looked at the Department of Justice crime statistics over the past 5 years show that most rape is committed against those in the 34-52 age range. You'll have to negotiate that site with patience.
To all survivors out there, press on and get the help that fits and change the therapy or therapist if that is not working for you. New knowledge will take you further than hurting and hiding with shame that belongs to the perpetrators.
Your VetSister S/
Please search for the forensic examiner com L archive L spring09 L 15 (in case urls are not permitted, for excellent explanations of what the meaning of false rape, "unfounded" rape and so on. Statistics can say anything and are meaningless without correct interpretation of these colloquial terms.
I was gang-raped (no alcohol nor drugs) the first week at my duty station in 1966. I never told a soul, had a horrible life, and in 2003 a VA doctor asked me if anything had happened. My whole life has changed. I am getting good treatment and have come to know a nation-wide collection of MST survivors from WWII to the present.
The majority of these crimes are, of course, committed in private. They are difficult to prosecute just as child molestation and rape. Male victims are the last frontier of the willing to come forward because the shame factor is informed by how women are treated.
Military service is, just like the Church, a place where serial rapists/sociopaths get to ply their evil trade. And zoom they move to another duty station. Eventually they are out in the civilian world with no sign that they are rapists. Is one teaching your kids?
How would you know. It is more than a Military problem. Also it is a Public Safety problem.
I looked at the Department of Justice crime statistics over the past 5 years show that most rape is committed against those in the 34-52 age range. You'll have to negotiate that site with patience.
To all survivors out there, press on and get the help that fits and change the therapy or therapist if that is not working for you. New knowledge will take you further than hurting and hiding with shame that belongs to the perpetrators.
Your VetSister S/
Truly disappointing that sodiers would rape their fellows.
And no, Obama was not there, not should he be.
The true test of the DoD's convictions will be in the handling of Brig Gen Jeffrey Sinclair's case.
Rape is still legal in the Air Force. They do it all the time
The Air Force has a Gang culture. The more crimes you commit the higher you are promoted Exspecially in the So called Dirtboy Career field.
I too have had a similar experience. But worsed of all, I went to a 7 week PTSD residental program this past summer for a military sexual asault and was hit on by a male therapist the first initial week. I was not believed by the director and was accused of hitting on her staff. I was threatened to be kicked out. Two weeks later another female came forward with the same story. I was never apologized too and nothing was done to him thus far as aI know. I reported it right way but therapists appeared to be fearful of getting involve (This director is a Bully). I have lost faith in my recovery. I cry myself to sleep every night.
This is all too common. It happened to me. But worse of all, I went to a 7 week residental treatment center this summer for military sexual assault. The first week there I was hit on by a male staff therapist. I reported it and the Director not only didn't believe me but threatened to kick me out and accused me of unappropriate behavior with her staff. Two weeks later a fellow female resident reported the same male and same type of incident and I was never apoplogized too and revictimized by those claiming to help. I cry myself to sleep every night and I have lost faith in recovery.
That is just disgusting to allow all of this to continue - I would never allow my children to join the military - my daughter wanted to sign and when recruitment officers came to my door to speak to her I shut the door in their faces - yeh it was rude but as the daughter of an abusive dead beat father who was in the Army and the many things I have seen and heard from the past and present I couldn't allow it - they lie to those young men and ladies. Also the rampant drug use among the military should be looked into - the military doctors give out ocycotin like candy and the soldier gets hooked and searches out other means of getting high the most used is heroin - then when the soldier looks to the military to get help they throw them in a 30 day gentle rehab and toss them out of the military on their a$$es with a dishonorable discharge - yeh the good ole' military . . . they don't take care of their current soldiers nor their vets!!!!
I have been in the military for 27 years and although I can say it has gotten better for females, the military is still very much a good ol boys club...I have always spoken my mind and had to get tough to deal with a lot of the men I worked with, and I know it cost me promotions, no one will say it, but I know it...women in the military already have a hard time having to prove themselves...your either a whore or a bitch, sorry to say that, but it's the truth 90% of the time...as for women putting themselves in dangerous situations...it shouldn't matter!!!! All the people saying they watch everytime someone pours them a drink, I say you don't leave your house much, do you? The enviorment the Marine was in, at a Marine Corp Ball, you are surrounded by people you know and trust, and her cousin introduced her to the fellow Marine, why would you think twice about accepting a drink? People who have never been in the military don't understand the common bond you feel with fellow military people, and some predetors use that to victimize people...the military justice system has been broken well before I joined and DOES NEED A MAJOR OVERHAUL!! It doesn't work now...and the victims are re-vitimized on a regular basis...I know too many incidents of violations that never got reported because of this....it's sad.
Alot of folks in the military hate their Goverment. And will do anything to destory it.
There is a connection with Domestic terrorism and the military, BECAUSE IT IS PROMOTE IN THE MILITARY. ALSO THE MILITARY does NOT have a Civilian police force. If you like to hurt people, rape people. The military is the place to be. Shoot the hire people stright from prision.