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U.S. Army via Reuters
Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair, a U.S. Army general facing charges of forcible sodomy and engaging in inappropriate relationships stemming from allegations that got him sent home from Afghanistan this year, is seen in this handout photo received September 26, 2012.
Updated at 12:39 p.m. ET: FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A former subordinate to an Army general facing sex crimes charges testified Tuesday that the general started an affair with her in Iraq and later threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone.
The woman said she was honored at first by the attention from Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair, who she said was highly regarded. They first had sex in 2008 at a forward operating base in Iraq, she said.
"I was extremely intimidated by him. Everybody in the brigade spoke about him like he was a god," she said. NBC News and The Associated Press do not identify victims of alleged sexual assaults.
Now a captain, she testified on the second day of a military hearing at Fort Bragg on whether there was enough evidence to court-martial Sinclair on charges including forcible sodomy, wrongful sexual conduct and engaging in inappropriate relationships.
It is a rare criminal case against a general and the details from the hearing are the first public narrative of the alleged offenses that prosecutors say involved a total of five women: four of them military subordinates and one a civilian.
The Fort Bragg-based general is accused of 26 violations of military law including forcible sodomy, wrongful sexual conduct, possessing pornography while deployed and conduct unbecoming of an officer.
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Prosecutors said the alleged sexual contacts took place in Afghanistan, Iraq and Germany, as well as at military bases in the United States. Sinclair was sent home in May from Afghanistan, where he had served as a deputy commander for support, officials said.
During testimony on Tuesday, Sinclair repeatedly rolled his eyes, sighed audibly and stared at his former aide from the defense table. She did not look at him.
The captain testified that she believed Sinclair's threats because he had gone through special forces training, knew how to kill with his hands and had a reputation as a killer in battle.
Sinclair was deputy commander in charge of logistics and support for the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan before being abruptly relieved in May amid a criminal probe. He has been on special assignment since then at Fort Bragg, the sprawling post that is home to the 82nd Airborne.
Sinclair's former commanding officer, Maj. Gen. James Huggins, testified Monday that he launched the criminal investigation that led to the charges after the female captain told him Sinclair forced her to have sex.
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Huggins said that on March 19, the captain came to his office late at night in tears. She reported that she had been involved in a three-year sexual affair with Sinclair, then her direct commander and a married man. Adultery is a crime under the military code of justice.
According to Huggins, the captain said Sinclair had once forced her to perform oral sex on him, but that she also had sex willingly with her boss at Army bases in the United States and on deployments to Germany, Iraq and at the airborne division's headquarters in Afghanistan.
When she had tried to end the affair, Sinclair had threatened her and persisted in pushing for sex, according to Huggins' testimony. But she also told Huggins she finally decided to report Sinclair after finding emails exchanged with other women in his account.
The captain testified that Sinclair could be cold and demeaning to her and other women in the brigade, calling some of the other women degrading names.
She testified she told him he shouldn't talk about female officers that way.
"He said, 'He was a general and he could say whatever the (expletive) he wanted," she testified.
She said Sinclair was extremely controlling, even telling her when and where she could use the bathroom.
She described two instances where he forced her to perform oral sex. Prosecutors asked if he would have been able to determine that she did not want to participate and she responded: "Yes, I was crying."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Well, at least he wasn't gay.
GET OUT & VOTE!
He will be, by the time he gets out of prison. He'll be gettin' his FREAK ON with his dirty hairy stinky cellmate, Bubba.
Bubba, meet your new boy. Y'all have fun, now!
antiqueannie
Because being gay is worse than being a rapist? Seriously? Unless you're being sarcastic, you've got a twisted view of morality.
antiqueannie - rape is rape, regardless of sexual orientation. Rape, by its own definition, is FORCED sexual relations by one against another. I think you should look into entering the 21st Century at some point, but at least you are aptly named.
Good Ship Enterprise, Aircraft Carrier, leaves Norfolk for the the Gulf. Round numbers 5,000 crew/squadrons. About 1,000 female. By the end of an 8 month cruise, over 300 females are pregnant. All that rape? Mostly using the gifts you were given.. LIVE WITH IT.
The republican party supports this type of behavior by refusing to pass the violence aganist women act and by using terms like legitimate rape.
Nope. Romney is a wimp. Cannot say what Obama is because I would go to jail. However, Ron Paul is a good man.
Proves that bad apples are everywhere, even wearing a general's stars.
Zero pension, zero Tricare, bust him down to private, dishonorable discharge.
What confuses me is this: "possessing pornography while deployed"
I think we have better things to prohibit than porn, but...
That man is 27 years old? He looks 57! I guess "evil" make you look older.
Long nights pumping. Makes one old in a hurry.
He is a 27 year army veteran, not 27 years old. If he joined the military at 18, he'd be at least 45 but odds are he is a bit older than that.
He is NOT 27, he served 27 yrs in the military, hes probably closer to 50 or more! The nasty skunk
Jeff, you ol' FREAK, you.
I'm assuming a long jail term and loss of pension, reduction in rank to private and the Army must pay damages to his victims.
This is just one of the many problematic issues that would be minimized by comprehensive mandatory service. Americans aren't engaged with thier military.
jakeeufarly,
How do you figure? Do you think people are really going to behave better when they're forced to be there?
Sounds like he can point to Bill Clinton as his role model.
I wonder how many people he sent to a certain death because they refused to comply.
The Catholic archdiocese has NOTHING on the American military when it comes to protecting their own. The main difference is that the military is better suited to intimidating victims into silence, having total control over literally EVERY aspect of their lives. That's one of the reasons I don't really agree with gays serving in the military, but it's really no different either way. Gay OR straight, anytime an individual with questionable sexual integrity gets placed into a position of authority over others, abuses are all but inevitable.
And the military engages in many other unethical and illicit policies with regard to their service members. The bottom line is that the "Loyalty" that is so important in the Armed services is pretty much a one way street. They demand the soldiers' loyalty...who him/herself receives virtually NONE in return. And until that changes, our military will always be substandard.
Since he is a general he was likely 21 or 22 when he first showed up. So he'd be at least 48.
What a pathetic, little man.
what a fK@!ng SOAB, I hate these kinda fellaws that use their rank to abuse other sub-ordinates and in this case to use them as sexual toys.
If you folks don't know it by now, the Military is a GIANT Penn State.....Those in power abuse their authority and are covered by each other. Unfortunately, those in the lower ranks don't usually have a reliable agency or person to turn to. It's all about power and contempt. Generals are usually just discharged.
Whether U.S. Navy, Cmdr. Joseph R. Darlak, or this General Sinclair, it seems to be the American way of life.......... Look at the reported and unreported rapes and assaults of women in the U.S. Armed Services......... But, then again look at Congress, or McCord who was to be Ambassador to Iraq ....... Good Luck in our Modern World...
Riley...men taking advantage of women is not (nor has it ever been) uniquely American. It has been the way of the world for centuries.
Best line in the article: "Sinclair had forcibly sodomized her after grabbing her by the neck, and threatened her career if she backed out of the relationship,". War is heck! Journalism can be fun!
Obviously a republican.
Oh, for the love of God, "Sexual predator" is not specific to one party.
Before they send him off to jail, Let him have a "crack" at Bi-barry Hussein. They'll both be unemployed soon.
Grow up.
Let's put him in a regular prison with Big Mo!
This guy might have a bright future in the federal bureaucracy.
That's what you get when no one has the power to guard the hen house. The military leadership has been able to get away with abusing both men and women for sex because they are dealing a volunteer military made up of the the poor and court ordered enlistees of uneducated to die for the 1% who never have members of their families on the front lines. No one can stop this and no one will. The supreme court has absolute power and look what at the corruptions that dollars can buy.
You mean they even have to think about this? The guy should be on trail NOW, not when some military committee thinks its ok. If they had any integrity they'd convene a court martial now and get started.
bust him to private and send him to Leavenworth for life....or let him shoot himself...
All he needs to do is claim he is a converted muslim, grow a beard and they will delay the courts martial for another 5 to 6 years all the while he will draw a paycheck and eventually the Army will promote him out of trouble. It is the way of the military/federal government.
Ah c'mon, he is kinda cute! :)