Sex Misconduct Charges Hit Army’s Top Enlisted Soldier

WASHINGTON — The Army’s sexual misconduct scandal reached higher into the service Wednesday as the top-ranking enlisted soldier was formally charged with 18 violations alleging sexual misconduct with four women.

Coming one day after an Army drill sergeant was sentenced to 25 years in prison for rape and other sexual misconduct with female trainees, the case against Sergeant Major of the Army Gene C. McKinney promises to be another explosive mixture of sex and race. McKinney is accused of seeking sex from three female soldiers and one sailor, and with committing adultery with one of the soldiers.

McKinney, 46, one of the Army’s most prominent figures until he was suspended from duty three months ago, declared in a brief but emotional press conference on the steps of his attorney’s office that “I want the American people to know that I have done none of these things.”

For the Army, which is already reeling from the impact of cases against lower-ranking soldiers at Aberdeen Proving Ground and elsewhere, the allegations against McKinney have been especially painful because of his prominence and his record as a crusader against sexual harassment.

Charles W. Gittins, McKinney’s attorney, echoing allegations that arose in the Aberdeen cases, suggested that McKinney’s four accusers--all white--may have gone after McKinney because he is black. Gittins denounced Army investigators for abusing their powers and said that the Army leadership, responding to political pressures, had assumed McKinney’s guilt.

“One day he’s innocent until proven guilty and the next day he’s suspended from duty,” Gittins said.

The charges against McKinney arose after former Sgt. Maj. Brenda L. Hoster, who worked for him as a public relations aide, charged publicly in February that McKinney had harassed her on several occasions. In a sworn statement, she said that he grabbed her, kissed her and pressured her for sex during a business trip to Hawaii in April 1995.

Specifically, McKinney is charged with four counts of indecent assault, three counts of soliciting adultery, one count of adultery, four counts of maltreatment of a subordinate, two counts of assault consummated by battery, two counts of wrongfully communicating a threat and two counts of obstructing justice.

Though the Army has now lodged charges after a three-month investigation, the case is still in a preliminary stage, officials stressed. It will now be considered in a so-called Article 32 proceeding, the Army equivalent of a grand jury hearing.

The counts could then be referred by McKinney’s commanding officer for court-martial, but they could also be handled behind closed doors as an administrative matter--or dismissed outright. In this respect, the military justice system leaves far more to the discretion of commanders and judges than the civilian system.

According to a source close to the case, McKinney is accused, besides Hoster, by:

* A female soldier who alleges that McKinney “chased her around his office” one weekend seeking sex from her after she sought his advice on how to cope with the Army’s sexist “old guard.” The defense is expected to contend that McKinney, in fact, has done much to help the woman.

* A female sailor who met McKinney in Colorado at a three-day seminar on the Pentagon’s health service system. She says that McKinney solicited sex from her.

* A female soldier who applied for a job with McKinney and ended up in a brief adulterous encounter with him at his home while his wife, Wilhelmina, was on a business trip in Europe. The woman was eight months pregnant at the time, the source said.

In an interview, Gittins suggested that McKinney’s accusers may have a racial motive, or could be seeking money or fame in a high-profile case.

Gittins criticized the Army leadership, noting that Army Secretary Togo West Jr. declared McKinney “innocent until proven guilty” on one day in February and the next day suspended him from his duties. The suspension came the day after Hoster complained on network television that lower-ranking soldiers would be suspended from duty for such an allegation.

McKinney, who formerly advised the Army chief of staff from an office in the Pentagon’s prestigious E-ring, now reports to work at Ft. Meyer, Va., not far from the Pentagon.

Gittins saved his sharpest comments for the Army’s criminal investigation unit.

In every interview, he contended, the investigators had asked witnesses whether McKinney was “only interested in white women.”

He suggested that in trying to protect the credibility of Hoster, an important witness, they had refused to investigate a sworn statement from a former sergeant major that she had seen Hoster in a lesbian encounter with another soldier on an Army installation.

The statement, from recently retired Sgt. Maj. Elizabeth D. McCullum, could impeach Hoster’s credibility by suggesting that she had violated the military’s restrictions on homosexual conduct, Gittins said.

Gittins contended that in their zeal to assemble a case, investigators were reflecting the Army leadership’s desire to prove that they will punish men accused of sexual misconduct.

Susan Barnes, an attorney representing Hoster, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.