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A Department of Defense report of initial findings released on August 21 confirmed the claims of former cadets that sexual assault is a widespread problem at the Air Force Academy. According to the report, 18.8 percent of female cadets (109) indicated that they had been the victims of at least one sexual assault or attempted sexual assault while at the academy, 7.4 percent of which (43) indicated they had been the victims of at least one rape or attempted rape. The percentages are even larger for the graduating class of 2003, with 24.2 percent (31) indicating they had been the victim of at least one instance of sexual assault or attempted sexual assault and 11.7 percent (15) saying they had been the victim of at least one rape or attempted rape.

Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, commandant of the academy, told cadets on Friday that the misconduct had tarnished the reputation of the Air Force Academy, the Los Angeles Times reports. “If you think this problem has been blown out of proportion by the media, you are wrong,” he told the LA Times. The Associated Press reported that Lt. Gen. John A. Rosa, the superintendent currently in charge of the academy after top commanders were replaced in April, criticized previous commanders, saying, “I don’t buy that nobody knew what was going on.” A majority of the female cadets surveyed denoted that they did not believe that the previous command had made “honest and reasonable efforts” to prevent sexual harassment, but 96 percent had faith so far in the present command’s efforts. The DOD plans to conduct a more thorough survey of all three service academies in the fall of 2003.

LEARN MORE: Read the Ms. Magazine article about the continuing problems at the Air Force Academy

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A federal judge recently found part of the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) unconstitutional. US District Court Judge Kenneth Hoyt dismissed charges against a Houston, Texas man who crashed a van through the doors of the Houston Planned Parenthood Clinic in March, according to the Houston Chronicle. Anti-abortion advocates believe the decision will allow greater access to the clinics. In light of a series of decisions upholding the FACE Act, “this decision is 180 degrees in the opposite direction. This worries me a lot,” Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood, told the New York Times. Judge Hoyt ruled that the federal FACE Act went beyond Congress’s constitutional duty to regulate interstate commerce, according to the Times. He based his decision on a 2000 US Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the Violence Against Women Act that found that Congress had no authority to “regulate non-economic, violent criminal conduct based solely on that conduct’s aggregate effect on interstate commerce,” the Chronicle reports. The Department of Justice announced that it would appeal the decision and defend the landmark law in court, according to the New York Times. The FACE Act prohibits not only violence against abortion providers, clinic staff, patients, and volunteers, but also threats of violence. “In light of the adverse decision in NOW v. Scheidler, FACE is needed more than ever to stem anti-abortion violence and threats of violence plaguing our nation’s clinics today,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. LEARN MORE Read the 2002 National Clinic Violence Survey DONATE to the Feminist Majority Foundation and support our National Clinic Access Project

As a new academic year begins, troubles continue to plague two of the nation’s prestigious military academies already embroiled in sexual assault scandals. Last weekend, police cited three US Air Force Academy cadets for underage drinking with two high school girls in a Colorado Springs hotel. On Monday, an arrest affidavit was released for David Phillip Hawkins, 21, a senior cadet charged with raping a nearly unconscious, drunken woman in his pickup truck. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for September 26. This Thursday, junior cadet Robert C. Graham II will face a court-martial for allegedly using and distributing Ecstasy and a similar hallucinogenic drug, the Associated Press reported. Graham faces academy dismissal and a maximum 25-year prison sentence should he be convicted.

Meanwhile two midshipmen at the US Naval Academy have resigned, under allegations of raping two female classmates last year. Todd Thurston, 20, and Eric Bailey, 23, are accused of serving alcohol to minors and raping one woman and two women, respectively in their dormitory. Their attorney, William Ferris, told the AP the Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt has recommended acceptance of their resignations.

LEARN MORE Read an article about the continuing problems at the Air Force Academy in Ms. Magazine

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Washington DC Police Chief Charles Ramsey announced yesterday the district is under a crime emergency, following the recent onslaught of violence, including the murder of two trangendered women this week. The heightened status waives the two-week notice typically required for commanders to change officers’ hours and duties.

Early Thursday morning, authorities discovered the body of an unnamed transgender murder victim in a Southeast DC field. The finding came less than 24 hours after another transgendered woman was shot and injured on Wednesday and a third– Bella Evangelista- was killed last weekend. Police arrested Antonie Jacobs, 22, on charges of first-degree murder and a gender-bias hate crime, reported the Advocate. Jacobs purportedly became angered after he paid Evangelista, a drag show entertainer, for oral sex and then discovered her biological sex.

Meanwhile, the DC shooting deaths last year of Ukea Davis and Stephanie Thomas– each sprayed with more than 10 bullets– remain unsolved. Transgender rights activists throughout the country are calling for stronger efforts– particularly from the gay and lesbian community– to boost media attention on transgender hate-crimes. Transgender rights activist Jessica Xavier, told the Washington Post, “There’s a war against transgendered women going on in this country…It’s a pandemic of violence.” According to a 1999 study by Xavier, DC is home to 4,000 transgender people-three-fourths of whom are men living as women and 26 percent of whom say they have been intimidated, reported the Post.

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Two accomplices of James Kopp, the convicted assassin of Barnett Slepian, MD, were released yesterday. Loretta Marra and Dennis Malvasi, both active in the extremist anti-abortion movement and Army of God network, pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy in helping Kopp avoid capture. In exchange for their guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to a deal that would have reduced the maximum sentences they faced, from 10 years to five years. Although the prosecutors argued for the full five years, in the end US District Court Judge Carol Amon sentenced them to the 29 months served and ordered their release.

“This ruling sends a disturbing message – that those individuals who provide assistance to anti-abortion extremists terrorizing our nation’s clinics will not face serious consequences,” said Katherine Spillar, executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. “We have long believed that a network around Kopp aided and abetted him both during his two-and-a-half years on the run from authorities and in planning and carrying out the murder itself.”

Both Marra and Malvasi have extensive ties to the extremist anti-abortion movement, including the Army of God, which is a proponent of justifiable homicide. Malvasi was previously convicted for three clinic bombings and one attempted bombing of clinics in New York in the 1980s. Marra had been arrested many times in clinic blockades, including with James Kopp. The plea deal the couple accepted had been previously rejected by the former judge in this trial, US District Court Judge Richard Arcara in Buffalo. The trial was moved from his court to Brooklyn over his protests. Evidence was presented to Judge Arcara that contradicted Marra and Malvasi’s claim that they did not know that Kopp had committed the murder, including correspondence from Kopp to Marra making references to “returning to the field” and “committing a Ronald Reagan.” The US Attorney explained that Kopp’s statement meant “returning to the field to shoot additional abortion providers.” In ruling against the plea deal, Judge Arcara stated that if they knew Kopp was guilty, that Marra and Malvasi should be considered accessories to Dr. Slepian’s murder. The US Attorney, however, persisted having the charges dismissed in the federal district court in Buffalo and moved to Brooklyn.

At the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, evidence in the form of a government-recorded conversation suggested Marra and Malvasi were planning to approach Michael Bray, also a member of the Army of God and a convicted clinic bomber, to elicit his support in bringing Kopp back to the US so he could start working again, but that Kopp needed a partner “to move around.”

“It is tragic that two people with such extensive and documented backgrounds in anti-abortion terrorism and aiding a convicted murderer are now free,” Spillar said. “A plea deal should never have been accepted, and the case should never have been moved out of Judge Arcara’s courtroom. In this age of terrorism we had hoped for a tougher treatment of domestic terrorists.”

Kopp was convicted of the intentional murder of Dr. Slepian and sentenced to 25 years to life. He still faces additional federal charges for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). Kopp has also been indicted for the 1995 shooting of Ontario abortion provider Dr. Hugh Short. He is the primary suspect in three separate shootings

With the September 3 execution date for anti-abortion terrorist Paul Hill drawing near, the Feminist Majority Foundation and other groups working to stop anti-abortion violence have urged clinics to take extra security measures, fearing that Hill’s death could trigger violent incidents. Hill, 50, was convicted for murdering Florida abortion provider Dr. John Bayard Britton,69, and his volunteer escort James Barrett, 74, outside a Pensacola clinic in 1994. One anti-abortion website has already published a lengthy and detailed fictional account of Hill’s execution, imagining that more murders of abortion doctors would follow.

The death penalty opposition group Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) last Friday submitted a letter to Governor Jeb Bush urging that he commute the death sentence. “By helping Paul Hill to martyr himself, you will give Hill and his followers a platform to encourage others to copy the crime… The martyrdom of Paul Hill will be a prime example of how the death penalty can actually encourage more murder and violence,” wrote FADP Director Abe Bonowitz, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, earlier this week Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, Corrections Secretary James Crosby and Prison Warden Joseph Thompson received death-threat letters from unknown sources containing bullets and opposing Hill’s execution. State law enforcement officials have launched an investigation of the letters and bullets.

FMF’s National Clinic Access Project is the largest of its kind in the U.S., leading efforts to keep women’s health clinics open in the face of a war of attrition waged by abortion opponents.

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Several Florida State University officials face possible charges after evidence was revealed that suggests at least one official had discouraged an alleged rape victim from reporting the incident to the police. Notes taken by FSU Vice President of Student Affairs Mary Coburn and obtained by the Orlando Sentinel suggest that Associate Athletic Director Pam Overton advised the rape victim not to go to the police. School officials also attempted to broker an agreement between the accused football player and the woman in which the male student would admit to no wrongdoing but leave school until August, according to the Sentinel. FSU officials say that the agreement was requested by the woman and the football player, but the agreement was emailed to the woman five days after she decided to report the alleged assault to the police, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. The football player was acquitted of all charges on Thursday by a jury in Tallahassee.

Leon County State Attorney William Meggs noted last week that the involvement of both Coburn and FSU President T.K. Wetherall was unusual, but the school insists they were not giving the case any special treatment just because it involved a starting football player, the Sentinel reports. FSU has received increased scrutiny recently because earlier this year a law enforcement investigation concluded that coaches and administrators were lax in a campus gambling investigation involving a former quarterback. In June, a university investigation found that “investigations were not properly documented” and there are “serious questions about the investigative processes within the [athletic] department,” according to the Miami Herald.

Meggs told the Herald that at this time, he has no plans to file charges against any school official in this case. He is waiting to discuss the matter with senior prosecutors in the state, according to the Sentinel.

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Jefferson County Circuit Judge Helen Shores Lee on Wednesday awarded Emily Lyons, the nurse who was seriously injured in the 1998 Birmingham abortion clinic bombing, and her husband Jeff, $115 million in damages. The civil suit, filed in 2000 while bomb suspect Eric Robert Rudolph was a fugitive, returned to active status at the county’s docket when Rudolph was captured in May. Increasing the awarded figure from the $110 million sought to $115 million, Judge Lee wrote, “Placing a bomb or incendiary device in a public place with the expectation that it will detonate and cause severe injury to all persons in its proximity is a depraved and repugnant act fully deserving of society’s moral outrage,” reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Associated Press. Though the Lyons’ do not expect to receive money from Rudolph, they were pleased with the outcome. Attorney Scott Powell told the AJC/AP, “Eric Rudolph now will never be able to profit from his participation in any future book or movie deal.”

Rudolph is charged with the January 1998 bombing of the New Woman All Women Health Care clinic that killed off-duty police officer Robert “Sande” Sanderson and injured Lyons, who has undergone 20 surgeries to remove bomb shrapnel from her face and body and also became blind in her left eye. Rudolph is also charged with the 1996 Olympic Park bombing and the bombing of a lesbian and gay nightclub in Atlanta.

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New York City yesterday unveiled an innovative project allowing indictments against DNA profiles matching biological evidence collected from unsolved sex crimes. Under the John Doe Indictment Project, investigators and prosecutors must indict the rapist’s DNA profile before the state’s 10-year statute of limitations expires. However, once a match to an individual is made, officials have the ability to prosecute any time following, New York Times reported. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg applauded the Project, saying it will stop “rapists from profiting from the statute of limitations,” reported the Times. A $350,000 federal grant will fund the review of unsolved sex cases by one prosecutor and one investigator in each of the city’s five DA offices. The project will commence, focusing on approximately 600 cases from attacks in 1994, now nearing the statute of limitations.

Mayor Bloomberg’s criminal justice coordinator John Feinblatt told the Times, “Of course, when we were dependent on people’s memories to identify somebody, the statute of limitations made sense… We no longer live in that world. In rape cases, defendants leave their identity behind. That makes a world of difference, and what we’re saying is that practice has to catch up with science.”

Introduced last March by Rep. Mark Green (R-WI), the Debbie Smith Act of 2003 requires health officials to test rape victim DNA samples within 10 days of receipt and allocates federal funding for comprehensive training of hospital examiners working with rape victims and standardization and facilitation of DNA evidence collection and testing. Debbie Smith, for whom the bill is named, is a Virginia woman who was raped in 1989. Her collected DNA samples sat on laboratory shelves, untested for six years. Consequently, her attacker remained free until DNA evidence helped imprison him in 1995. Last month, Smith testified before the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

In late April, President Bush signed into the law the Protect Act, including a section authorizing John Doe indictments.

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Following the widely publicized suicide-murder committed by Tacoma police chief David Brame, the Seattle-area police have fallen under investigation for minimizing domestic abuse charges brought against their own officers. A Seattle Post-Intelligencer investigation found that police officers routinely escaped arrest after charges of domestic violence and were allowed to keep their weapons. These officers also usually return to duty, sometimes within hours of police arriving at the crime scene.

Victims often recant charges against officers for fear of their own safety, leaving abusers free of charges, the Post-Intelligencer reports. Victims also take back claims of abuse for fear that their own credibility will be undermined when the abuser uses his knowledge and connections within the police community to protect himself. Experts told the Post-Intelligencer that police officers have the training to be able to restrain and intimidate victims without leaving any marks, which hurts the victims’ credibility. When victims call the police to report abuse, responding officers often work to protect their fellow officers by failing to take photographs of the scene or collect evidence that could be used against a colleague, the Post-Intelligencer reports.

Dottie Davis, director of the Fort Wayne, Indiana police academy, told the Post-Intelligencer that “rather than protect our own, we need to do a better job of weeding them out, [but] most departments would rather keep their heads in the sand.”

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A federal judge has delayed the trial of Eric Robert Rudolph, a suspect in bombings of two abortion clinics, a lesbian and gay nightclub, and Centennial Park in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics, until 2004. Rudolph’s trial in the bombing of a Birmingham women’s clinic was originally scheduled for August 4, and federal prosecutors had asked for a delay in order to prepare for the case. Prosecutors must look through 100,000 files relating to the Birmingham case alone, in addition to 600,000 files from the other three bombings, all in the Atlanta area, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Rudolph was captured on June 1 in Murphy, NC, after five years on the run from authorities. Rudolph, a Christian Identity adherent with connections to the violent anti-abortion group the Army of God, had eluded authorities for close to five years. The bombing of the New Woman All Woman Heath Care clinic killed an off-duty police officer and permanently injured a clinic nurse. Rudolph’s alleged bombing of the Centennial Park left one person dead and over 100 injured.

In a related ruling, Judge C. Lynwood Smith ordered that future documents pertaining to the Rudolph case be published on the Internet, according to CNN. Though this ruling goes against federal judicial policy, both sides signed agreements allowing these documents to be made publicly available online, CNN reports.

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The ordered release of internal documents dating from 1995 to 2001 at the Pennsylvania State Police Department earlier this month revealed several reported incidents of sexual indiscretions committed by state troopers. The information made public details troopers having sex in police cars and barracks, soliciting sex from prostitutes and informants, watching pornography while on duty, and dropping traffic violations for sex, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer. The reports, which name 13 troopers guilty of offenses, are part of a federal civil suit investigation involving former trooper Michael K. Evans, who is currently serving a 5 to 10-year sentence on 11 counts of criminal solicitation, corrupting the morals of a minor, official oppression and indecent assault and exposure, according to the Tribune-Review. In total, of 163 allegations of sexual misconduct filed during 1995 and 2001, 68 were substantiated, leading to the firing of 14 troopers. Plaintiff attorney Thomas Sheridan insists the records indicate a “widespread and longstanding pattern of sexual harassment and misconduct.” He told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “I think it demonstrates the fact that the state police don’t take serious allegations of sexual misconduct.”

Law enforcement expert Penny Harrington, the former Chief of the Portland Police Bureau and co-founder of the National Center for Women & Policing (NCWP), a project of the Feminist Majority Foundation, attributes the hostile behavior in part to the paucity of women in law enforcement. Pennsylvania has among the lowest percentage of female state troopers in the US, with only 167 women (4.02 percent) in a force over 4,000-strong. The national average for state police is 6.47 percent, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. “As we get more and more women in policing, these kinds of harassment complaints just don’t exist… Just a few women won’t matter. They’re marginalized and isolated,” Harrington said, according to the Inquirer. NCWP co-founder and executive vice president Kathy Spillar said women must account for at least 25 percent in order for the treatment of female troopers within the force to improve dramatically. Pennsylvania state police officials are stepping up efforts to recruit female troopers.

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Notorious anti-abortion extremist Flip Benham and three others were arrested in Charlotte, NC this weekend during eight days of protests against abortion rights, Islam and homosexuality that were staged by Benham’s group Operation Save America. Benham and Michael Stanley Warren were charged with careless burning when they burned abortion-related court documents in front of a federal courthouse. Benham and Warren were released Monday on a $2,500 bond.

“Protestors have the right to burn the flag of the United States yet Christians and Pastors are not allowed to burn wicked decrees that defy the laws of Almighty God,” Operation Save America wrote in a release. “America needs to take a good long hard look at when our nation protects murderers who rip apart little babies in their mothers wombs, defends the perversion of sodomy and then jails men of God for standing for righteousness. Our cup of iniquity is getting full.”

Samuel Gibbs also was arrested during the weeklong protests for trespassing at an abortion clinic. Barbara Joy Brooks, 19, was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon at a protest after police found a large knife on her as she stood outside another area clinic. Gibbs was held on a $500 bond and Brooks was held on an $800 bond.

In addition to the protests, Operation Save America held classes for participants that addressed such topics as “Homosexuality vs. Christianity” and “Why Are All Terrorists Muslim,” according to the Charlotte Observer.

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A criminal defense consultant recently completed a 45-day federal prison sentence for exposing a pattern of domestic violence and cover-up by officers in the Los Angeles Police Department. Bob Mullally was officially charged with contempt of court for violating a 1997 civil court order by leaking 79 confidential files that detailed domestic violence complaints filed against LAPD officers to a California reporter. Mullally had discovered in the files evidence that “[k]ids were being beaten. Women were being beaten and raped. Their organs were ruptured. Bones were broken. It was hard cold-fisted brutality by police officers, and nothing was being done to protect their family members,” he told LA Weekly.

“It was clear there was a double standard. Civilians were being prosecuted but not police officers,” said Gregory Yates, an attorney who hired Mullally to look into domestic violence in the LAPD for a case he was working on, according to LA Weekly. “The LAPD was covering up and whitewashing cases involving domestic abuse by their officers.” Mullally was charged with contempt of court in 2001 by US District Judge William Keller and sentenced to 60 days in jail. Mullally appealed, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals asked Keller to reconsider the jail sentence. Keller reduced it to 45 days.

Following Mullally’s whistle-blowing, the Feminist Majority Foundation and its National Center for Women and Policing pushed for and won an investigation of LAPD practices involving police officers guilty of domestic abuse. The review of 227 domestic violence cases involving LAPD officers confirmed that these cases were being severely mishandled, according to the LAPD Inspector-General. In more than 75 percent of confirmed cases, the personnel file omitted or downplayed the domestic abuse. Of those accused of domestic violence, 29 percent were later promoted and 30 percent were repeat offenders. The review and the revelation led to significant reforms in the LAPD’s handling on police officer-involved domestic violence.

LEARN MORE For more on police officer domestic violence and its consequences, visit the National Center for Women and Policing online

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Federal prosecutors earlier this month filed a motion to delay the trial date of Eric Rudolph, seeking additional time to review evidence and submit the case to the Justice Department for death penalty authorization, reported the Birmingham News. The motion stated, “This case, while large in amount of evidence, is also complex and it is unreasonable to expect counsel to be adequately prepared for pretrial proceedings and the trial itself within the current limits,” according to Kaisernetwork.org.

Rudolph was captured on June 1 in Murphy, NC, after five years on the run from authorities. He is believed to be the perpetrator in bombings of two abortion clinics, a lesbian and gay nightclub, and Centennial Park in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics. These bombings left two people dead and over 100 injured. Rudolph is a Christian Identity adherent with ties to the Army of God.

Rudolph’s trial, currently scheduled for August 4, could be delayed by several months while Attorney General John Ashcroft decides whether the Justice Department will seek the death penalty. Last Friday, appearing before Chief Magistrate Judge T. Michael Putnam of Birmingham’s federal court, Rudolph pleaded not guilty to the updated two-count indictment that outlines why prosecutors could call for the death penalty.

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An anti-abortion activist who in February fired a shotgun into an abortion clinic faces a possible indictment for helping anti-abortion extremist and bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph escape capture. Brenda Kay Phillips is being held in a North Carolina jail for firing multiple shots at an abortion clinic in Asheville, NC, in the middle of the night, incurring no injuries. She is also charged with making threatening phone calls to the clinic as well as to a Birmingham, AL, clinic that had earlier been the site of a deadly explosion believed to be Rudolph’s work. During the phone calls, Phillips identified herself as a member of the Army of God, the most violent wing of the anti-abortion extremist movement.

While confessing to firing shots at the Asheville clinic in order to “bring attention to abortion and to the unborn children,” as she explained to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Phillips claimed to have helped Rudolph while he was on the run from authorities. FBI agents at the time dismissed her claims, but now her attorney says they are showing “renewed interest” in her story, the AJC reports. Since her initial confession, Phillips has refused to provide details about her claim, according to the Associated Press.

Eric Rudolph was captured on June 1 in Murphy, NC, after five years on the run from authorities. He is believed to be the perpetrator in bombings of two abortion clinics, and lesbian and gay nightclub, and Centennial Park in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics. These bombings have left two people dead and over 100 injured. Rudolph is a Christian Identity adherent with ties to the Army of God.

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The Pentagon on Thursday appointed a sexual assault expert to a panel investigating the recent rape scandal at the Air Force Academy. Anita Carpenter, the chief executive officer of the Indiana Coalition Against Sexual Assault, is the only sexual assault expert or victim advocate appointed to the panel. Carpenter was appointed shortly after panelist Amy McCarthy resigned under heavy criticism for blaming the female cadets for being raped because they were engaging in “high-risk behaviors.” In fact, Carpenter told the Denver Post that one of her biggest challenges would be in dispelling myths, such as “if she went back to his room, she must have wanted intercourse. … Or [people] say, ‘Well, she shouldn’t have been drinking’.” In addition, the panel’s executive director Anita Blair, a former vice president of the ultraconservative Independent Women’s Forum and outspoken opponent of women in the military, was removed.

Women’s rights advocates hail Carpenter’s appointment as an important step in ensuring that the review of rape and sexual assault allegations at the Air Force Academy is fair and thorough. The National Organization for Women has issued on its website a call for all future national investigations into sexual violence automatically include sexual violence experts and victim advocates.

Documents released Thursday show that dozens of cases of sexual assault and rape have been investigated by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations since 1993. A report issued in late June by the Air Force Working Group found that though first-year cadets make up only 29 percent of the school’s population, they made up 53 percent of the alleged victims, according to the Associated Press. The Air Force documents note several incidents involving first-year women and senior men.

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A 25-year veteran of the Massachusetts State Police and the first woman to be promoted to major in the state has filed a suit claiming she was the victim of sex discrimination. Kathleen Stefani filed the complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the 7th filed by women in the state police in the past year-and-a-half, according to the Boston Globe. Stefani was demoted to the rank of captain in March and received a large pay cut after she allowed a women’s advocacy group to recommend her as well as other women to Republican Gov. Mitt Romney for high-level appointment, according to the Associated Press.

Colonel Thomas J. Foley, the state police superintendent, told Stefani she “should never have sent [her] resume to the Governor’s Committee” and that she “was ‘disloyal’ for doing so,” Stefani alleged in her complaint, according to the Globe. Stefani was one of the applicants for the state police superintendent position when Foley was appointed in 2001. Diane Skoog, executive director of the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, suggested that Foley may have seen Stefani as a “threat.” “She’s very qualified and if she’s a viable candidate, maybe [Foley] is nervous about his own job,” she told the Globe. Her most recent job evaluation, from April 2002, was very favorable.

Stefani was replaced by the only eligible female commanding officer, which Stefani alleges is an attempt by Foley to maintain a “token” system under which no more than one woman holds the rank of captain or major at one time, the Globe reports.

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Despite the release last week of an Air Force panel’s report clearing Academy officials of “systemic mistreatment” or mishandling of sexual abuse complaints, critics remain unconvinced. “I thought that the Air Force tried to use language that didn’t hold the academy and the academy officials fully responsible, and I was disappointed in that regard,” Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) told the Associated Press.

The 13-member panel, led by Air Force general counsel Mary Walker, wrote that despite the adoption of programs to handle incidents of sexual assault, actual coordination and attention by academy officials diminished since the mid 1990s. Among the report’s recommendations were a review of cadet hierarchy (over half of the alleged victims were first-year students), improved gender training, and the elimination of confidentiality in sexual assault reporting.

Investigations by the Air Force inspector general and a panel created by Congress are pending. Meanwhile, the AP reported that Amy McCarthy, one of seven panelists appointed to examine reports of mishandling of at least 57 alleged sexual assault incidents in the last decade, resigned last week amidst criticism for her remarks questioning the veracity of victim allegations.

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