Military Rape Speech 13 by Congresswoman Jackie Speier.wmv

Today, I want to share the story of Petty Officer Amber De Roche. Petty Officer De Roche served in the Navy from December 2000 to December 2005.
In August, 2001, Petty De Roche was raped by two shipmates in a hotel while on port of call in Thailand. One assailant ripped off Petty Officer De Roche's clothes and held her down while the other assailant raped her. The assailants repeatedly took turns holding her down while the other would rape her. After they had their way with her, one of the rapists threw her in the shower in an attempt to wash away the evidence. They then kicked her out of the room and onto the unfamiliar streets of Thailand.
The following day, Petty Officer De Roche, with the help of a friend, went to get a medical exam. Petty Officer De Roche was bruised and injured to such a degree during the assault, the physician stopped the exam and began to cry.
Petty Officer De Roche decided to report her horrific experience to her Command. Her reward? She became the target of severe harassment, was imprisoned in the medical ward and denied food.
When she was released from the medical ward her Command refused to let her leave the ship and forced her to be on call 24 hours a day without receiving any counseling to help her cope with being raped.
Petty Officer De Roche sought out the Ship's chaplain, and told him she was suicidal as a result of the rapes and her subsequent mistreatment. Petty Officer De Roche was finally permitted to leave her ship and serve out the remainder of her duty on another ship.
As if the horrifying assault and following mistreatment of Petty Officer De Roche is not heartbreaking enough - her predators didn't get the punishment they deserved, in fact nowhere close.
Instead of court martialing the predators, her Command decided to handle the rapes with so-called non-judicial punishments. The punishment required the rapists to admit their crimes, six months docked pay and a reduced rank for one of the rapists.
Both of the rapists were permitted to remain on active duty.




When Command informed Petty Officer De Roche of the outcome, they also advised her to "accept the situation" and refrain from speaking out against the lack of punishment or accountability.
Petty Officer De Roche suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Petty Officer De Roche's story like many others highlights a system that is unimaginable to many of us, and a system that is so clearly broken.

In the military, a base commander has complete authority and discretion over how a degrading and violent assault under his command is handled. The Commander can issue virtually any punishment, for any reason- if they don't want a black mark on their record, or their friends with the accused, or if they simply don't know the correct way of dealing with a case they can issue a slap on the wrist.
Unfortunately, often times Commanders decide to go the slap on the wrist rout, a non-judicial punishment rather than sending the accused through the courts martial process.
My bill H.R. 3435, the Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act, or STOP Act takes sexual assaults out of the hands of commanders and places the jurisdiction in the hands of an impartial office staffed by experts -- both military and civilian.

I have become painfully aware that that Command structure of dealing with sexual assaults is broken and sets up a dynamic fraught with conflict of interest and potential for abuse of power.
I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to fix it.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Congresswoman Jackie Speier
• military rape
• assault
• harassment
• STOP ACT
• H.R. 3435
• petty officer Amber De Roche
• navy
• Thailand