Raped Cadet among Witnesses Expected on the Hill Today

A former U.S. Air Force cadet, who says she was punished after reporting that she was raped at the academy, is among the witnesses expected to testify today on Capitol Hill regarding issues of sexual violence in the military and at the academies.

Former U.S. Air Force cadet, Beth Davis, left the academy as a junior in 2002 after she says she was repeatedly raped by an upperclassman.

Davis went to the Office of Special Investigations, the Air Force’s internal rules enforcer, with her allegations. She says she was told the case would be taken to court, but in the end there were never any charges filed against the man who she says raped her violently five times.

Instead, Davis herself was issued a demerit for having sex in a dorm room.

After Davis and over 100 other cadets reported that they had been raped while at the Air Force Academy, the Air Force vowed to investigate and two years later released a report saying that top officers failed to realize how serious the problem was and that the academy’s policies had discouraged women to report sexual crimes. That didn’t satisfy Davis and others who wanted to see their assailants prosecuted.

Davis’ story and others will be the subject of a hearing this afternoon by the House Government Reform Committee. The hearing will focus on whether or not the Department of Defense has addressed recommendations made by the Defense Task Force on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the military service academies.