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Academy Rape Charges

Aired February 19, 2003 - 11:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: KMGH Investigative reporter John Ferrugia joins us now from Channel 7 in Denver.
John, good reporting there. Thank you very much for joining us.

JOHN FERRUGIA, KMGH INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Thank you, Carol. Glad to be here.

LIN: Tell us more about the women you featured in your piece, specifically what happened to them? How did they find themselves in the situation they were raped?

FERRUGIA: To give you some examples, first, one of the women you saw there, Marie, was a person, a freshman. Most of them were freshmen when it happened to them. They just came out of basic training. Their upper-class trainers are actually their military superiors. In her case, she was invited up to the room of a military superior. She thought she had to go. She thought she should. She was afraid not to. Once up there, he offered her alcohol. There were two other people in the room. After she had a couple of drinks, he raped her. She reported it. In fact, she did everything right. She went to the local hospital, got a rape kit, did all the things she needed to do.

The Office of Special Investigations of the Air Force conducted an investigation, and ended up charging her with having sex in the dorm.

LIN: That's amazing. We heard earlier on "AMERICAN MORNING" an interview with a woman named Dorothy Mackey. I think you're familiar with her. She claims she was raped not once, but three times, several times. She is now heading a group that actually tracks sexual assaults in the military, and this is what she told us this morning, John.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOROTHY MACKEY, ADVOCATE FOR MILITARY SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS: My first five years of service, I was raped three times. In my last year of service, I was actually tag team assaulted by two individuals, one who was an Air Force Academy cadet, graduate himself, and I couldn't find help inside the system, went outside to the Justice Department, who refused to help me, ended up going to the Supreme Court and learning that there were five laws on the U.S. books that give immunity to U.S. military members who rape, maim, murder their own or others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: John, from your investigation how much did the Air Force actually know or was actually aware of the problem?

FERRUGIA: Well, Carol, this problem has been going on for a number of years. Dorothy Mackey talked about outside the Air Force Academy. Inside the Air Force Academy, it's been going on for year. In 1993, after several sexual assaults in '92 and '93, the then superintendent came out and said we have a terrible problem, and what forced him to do that, was he did an informal survey of female cadets in the academy, and he found, essentially, 205 of 501 total female cadets said they'd either been sexually assaulted or knew someone who had. They started moving things in to place to deal with that.

But in 1994 and 1995, the General Accounting Office, the old GAO we always hear about, went in, looked at the program, and said, there was still a lot of unwanted activity, sexual activity going on, and said, in fact, that the Air Force Academy did not have data in place to even be able to track how big this problem was. That is exactly what we found today, and the fact is, is that the administration does not know how big the scope of the problem is, because they haven't asked.

As you saw in the earlier report we did, they don't even know how many people have reported. Now we're not talking about individual cases, because that's obviously private. But in terms of numbers, statistics, they have no idea how many people have reported to their medical staff.

They only know after we asked, and they pulled these statistics together, that nearly 100 women have called the hotline, the rape hotline since 1996. Of those women who said they were sexually assaulted, only 20 reported, because they're afraid. They know if they report, they'll get drummed out. They'll get investigated. They're going to get drummed out.

LIN: John, well, surely, the victims you spoke with must be at least relieved, if not pleased, that the investigation is continuing today. Investigators from the Pentagon and the Air Force coming to the Academy in Colorado Springs to review how cases have been handled.

Thanks to your reporting, John Ferrugia, KMGH.

FERRUGIA: Thanks, Carol.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 19, 2003 - 11:42   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: KMGH Investigative reporter John Ferrugia joins us now from Channel 7 in Denver.
John, good reporting there. Thank you very much for joining us.

JOHN FERRUGIA, KMGH INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Thank you, Carol. Glad to be here.

LIN: Tell us more about the women you featured in your piece, specifically what happened to them? How did they find themselves in the situation they were raped?

FERRUGIA: To give you some examples, first, one of the women you saw there, Marie, was a person, a freshman. Most of them were freshmen when it happened to them. They just came out of basic training. Their upper-class trainers are actually their military superiors. In her case, she was invited up to the room of a military superior. She thought she had to go. She thought she should. She was afraid not to. Once up there, he offered her alcohol. There were two other people in the room. After she had a couple of drinks, he raped her. She reported it. In fact, she did everything right. She went to the local hospital, got a rape kit, did all the things she needed to do.

The Office of Special Investigations of the Air Force conducted an investigation, and ended up charging her with having sex in the dorm.

LIN: That's amazing. We heard earlier on "AMERICAN MORNING" an interview with a woman named Dorothy Mackey. I think you're familiar with her. She claims she was raped not once, but three times, several times. She is now heading a group that actually tracks sexual assaults in the military, and this is what she told us this morning, John.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOROTHY MACKEY, ADVOCATE FOR MILITARY SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS: My first five years of service, I was raped three times. In my last year of service, I was actually tag team assaulted by two individuals, one who was an Air Force Academy cadet, graduate himself, and I couldn't find help inside the system, went outside to the Justice Department, who refused to help me, ended up going to the Supreme Court and learning that there were five laws on the U.S. books that give immunity to U.S. military members who rape, maim, murder their own or others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: John, from your investigation how much did the Air Force actually know or was actually aware of the problem?

FERRUGIA: Well, Carol, this problem has been going on for a number of years. Dorothy Mackey talked about outside the Air Force Academy. Inside the Air Force Academy, it's been going on for year. In 1993, after several sexual assaults in '92 and '93, the then superintendent came out and said we have a terrible problem, and what forced him to do that, was he did an informal survey of female cadets in the academy, and he found, essentially, 205 of 501 total female cadets said they'd either been sexually assaulted or knew someone who had. They started moving things in to place to deal with that.

But in 1994 and 1995, the General Accounting Office, the old GAO we always hear about, went in, looked at the program, and said, there was still a lot of unwanted activity, sexual activity going on, and said, in fact, that the Air Force Academy did not have data in place to even be able to track how big this problem was. That is exactly what we found today, and the fact is, is that the administration does not know how big the scope of the problem is, because they haven't asked.

As you saw in the earlier report we did, they don't even know how many people have reported. Now we're not talking about individual cases, because that's obviously private. But in terms of numbers, statistics, they have no idea how many people have reported to their medical staff.

They only know after we asked, and they pulled these statistics together, that nearly 100 women have called the hotline, the rape hotline since 1996. Of those women who said they were sexually assaulted, only 20 reported, because they're afraid. They know if they report, they'll get drummed out. They'll get investigated. They're going to get drummed out.

LIN: John, well, surely, the victims you spoke with must be at least relieved, if not pleased, that the investigation is continuing today. Investigators from the Pentagon and the Air Force coming to the Academy in Colorado Springs to review how cases have been handled.

Thanks to your reporting, John Ferrugia, KMGH.

FERRUGIA: Thanks, Carol.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com