AF Academy Cadet: Assault deemed 'my fault' - general brushed off rape case

There was a face behind the paperwork of the rape case. And Lisa Ballas wanted Gen. S. Taco Gilbert, commandant of cadets at the Air Force Academy, to see that face clearly across his large black office table. It was April 8, 2002, Ballas recalled, and she had asked to talk with him about court-martialing her alleged attacker, a senior cadet who she said raped her at a party.

After only a couple of minutes, however, her hopes evaporated. "Any other man would have done the same that night," Gilbert told her, she said. "You need to take responsibility for your actions."

And for the next 90 minutes, Gilbert pressed that theme, saying her attacker never could be prosecuted, she says.

Ballas' account is the second allegation from an alleged rape victim that Gilbert or officers under his command were unsympathetic to sexual-assault victims and that the cases were deliberately derailed as a result. Although criticism of leadership at the Air Force Academy has been mounting in recent days because of the growing scandal, Ballas documented her account of the Gilbert meeting in an e-mail to a friend roughly six months ago.

"I couldn't believe a general officer in this day and age could actually still have this type of philosophy," Ballas wrote in the e-mail, obtained by The Denver Post.

Her story echoes the message an alleged rape victim at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware claims she heard from Gilbert's office two years ago, when he was her wing commander. The Post reported Friday that Denise Arroyo said Gilbert's staff threatened to punish her after she came forward for drinking before the attack. Her assailant never went to trial.

Gilbert's handling of sexual-assault allegations at the academy has been criticized by two members of the Colorado congressional delegation as the scope of the problem has mushroomed.

Air Force Secretary James Roche told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee late last week that as many as 54 cases of sexual assault involving cadets had been reported in the past 10 years. Cadets have said the academy ignored their accusations and even tried to discourage them from coming forward, sometimes by focusing on rules they broke before the alleged incidents.

Sen. Wayne Allard, a Loveland Republican, calls Gilbert the "common thread" linking many cadet rape cases that were never prosecuted at the academy. U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, who like Allard notified the Pentagon of rapes, has called on Gilbert and Lt. Gen. John Dallager, the academy superintendent, to resign.

Academy officials said Friday that Gilbert would not comment about rape cases handled under his command. Gilbert did not respond to Ballas' account of her meeting with him.

Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff, said during a news conference at the academy Friday that if the academy has problems, they "didn't start with this group of people that are here now." Gilbert has been in command at Colorado Springs about 18 months, having spent two years at Dover.

Jumper added that the academy must change its approach by putting its priority on investigating the crime of rape, not circumstances or infractions that might have preceded an assault.

Gilbert's actions "absolutely" will be part of the Air Force's investigation into the assaults, Jumper said, speaking generally and not about the Ballas case. He added: "I am not aware of any decision that Gen. Gilbert made with regard to assault or dealing with assault that would be interpreted in any other way than to go after those that had been accused, as vigorously as possible. Nor have I seen any actions that would indicate otherwise."

In fact, Gilbert said in a previous interview: "If there is any victim out there that feels that they have not been treated in a fair manner and a professional manner and a supportive manner, I hope they'll come to me, because that's my charter, that's my dedication. I have three little girls, and I view each of these assaults as if it happened to one of them."

Ballas, who will graduate from the academy this summer, characterizes his treatment of potential victims in starkly different terms. The Michigan woman said she was raped by academy senior Maximiliano Rodriguez in a bathroom during an October 2001 party at an Aurora home.

During an evidentiary hearing the following March, Rodriguez's lawyer attacked her credibility, noting that she had participated in a strip-poker game in which she removed most of her clothing. She admitted she had been drinking during the evening.

In the hearing, she testified that she went into a bathroom with Rodriguez after putting her clothes back on. They kissed. Then, she said, Rodriguez pushed her against a countertop and mirror. She said she vigorously resisted and told him she did not want to have sex, but that he raped her.

As the academy evaluated her accusation, she asked to meet with Gilbert, who was to decide whether the case would go to a court-martial. "I wanted the appointment so he could look at a face instead of just reading the paperwork," Ballas said in an interview Friday. "I was completely optimistic about going in there. "Less than two minutes into the conversation, I knew it was no use, there was no hope; it was like talking to a brick wall. I couldn't believe my commander would speak to me like that, let alone speak to a woman like that, let alone speak to a victim like that."

In her written account, Ballas admits parts of the 90-minute conversation with Gilbert were "fuzzy," but that "some parts of this conversation I remember verbatim, I will probably never forget."

Gilbert, she recalled, would not allow her two victim advocates into his office for the meeting, despite that they had been allowed into meetings with other academy officials. The only other person present was a lawyer for the academy, she said.

Her hopes for a court-martial quickly were dashed. "I knew his mind-set the second I walked into his office," Ballas said. "It was somehow my fault this happened to me - full or partial blame. He never said that in those exact words, but he didn't have to. He said it in the way he looked at me and with everything else he said that morning."

"I have three sisters and three daughters, and they would never behave like this," she recalled Gilbert as saying. She said Gilbert told her that any other man would have done the same that night and that her behavior "implied consent."

Then, she said, Gilbert told her: "You didn't have to go to that party. You didn't have to drink that night. You didn't have to play the card game. And you didn't have to follow him back into that bathroom."

Gilbert called Ballas emotional, and urged her to take an "objective" look at the situation, she said. Then, she said, he told her there was "absolutely no chance" for her case in a court-martial. "We will handle it administratively, here, within the system," she said he told her.

Across the table, Ballas pleaded for a jury trial, saying a judge and jury, not Gilbert, should decide whether Rodriguez should be punished.

Ballas wrote that she told Gilbert she wanted the academy and its cadets to realize sexual assaults did happen there. "I have faith in the academy and in the Air Force that it will take care of its people and not allow criminals like this to serve," she said she told Gilbert.

Gilbert replied that he wanted to send a message that her behavior was inappropriate and should not be tolerated, Ballas said. He said that under other circumstances she would be penalized because she had been drinking, according to Ballas.

"I kept saying over and over again that it was not my fault, that it is never the victim's fault," she wrote.

At one point, she said, Gilbert said her case was the same as if he had gone to Israel and been killed. "Now no one would ever say that I wanted to be shot or even that I deserved to be shot," Gilbert said, according to the e-mail. "But," he added, sighing and smacking his forehead with his palm, "what did I think was going to happen?" Ballas wrote.

Gilbert did use similar language to what Ballas describes when he recently defended the academy in published reports. "When you put yourself in situations with increased risk, you have to take increased precautions to mitigate those risks.... For example, if I walk down a dark alley with hundred-dollar bills hanging out of my pockets, it doesn't justify my being attacked or robbed, but I certainly increased the risk by doing what I did," he said.

The next day she heard on the TV news that Rodriguez had been cleared. The case was closed. Rodriguez could not be reached for comment.

"I fell to my knees in utter disbelief," she said. Nobody from the academy, she told The Post, ever called to notify her.

BRIGADIER GENERAL S. TACO GILBERT III

Brig. Gen. S. Taco Gilbert III is Commandant of Cadets and Commander, 34th Training Wing, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo. General Gilbert commands and administers the 4,000-member cadet wing, and 930 Air Force support people. His responsibilities include cadet military training and airmanship education, supervising cadet life activities, and providing support to facilities and logistics.

General Gilbert graduated with honors from the academy in 1978. After completing undergraduate pilot training at Reese Air Force Base, Texas, as a distinguished graduate, he remained there as a T-38A instructor pilot and flight examiner. General Gilbert left flight duty in 1982 to study the Chinese language at the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, Calif. The following year he went to Fudan University in the Peoples Republic of China as an Olmsted Scholar, and completed graduate studies in modern economics in 1985. Since then, the general has earned master’s degrees in public administration, airpower strategy and national security strategy.

General Gilbert returned to flying in 1986 as a FB-111A aircraft commander, instructor pilot and wing executive officer assigned to Plattsburgh AFB, N.Y. The general’s subsequent tours included two at the Pentagon, and command of a refueling squadron, operations group and airlift wing. While stationed at Dover AFB, Del., with the 436th Airlift Wing, General Gilbert commanded the largest and busiest aerial port in the Department of Defense, comprising of 36 C-5B Galaxy aircraft.

General Gilbert is a command pilot with more than 3,000 flying hours in various aircraft.

EDUCATION:
1978 Bachelor of science degree in civil engineering, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.
1982 Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
1986 Master's degree in public administration, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
1990 Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
1991 Master’s degree in airpower strategy, Air University, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
1996 Master’s degree in national security strategy, National War College, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C.

ASSIGNMENTS:
1. July 1978 - June 1979, student, undergraduate pilot training, Reese AFB, Texas
2. July 1979 - October 1982, T-38A instructor pilot and flight examiner, Reese AFB, Texas
3. November 1982 - May 1983, student, Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, Calif.
4. June 1983 - July 1985, Olmsted scholar, Central Minorities Institute, Beijing, and Fudan University, Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China
5. July 1985 - June 1986, graduate student, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
6. July 1986 - July 1990, FB-111A aircraft commander, instructor pilot and chief of scheduling, 528th Bomb Squadron, later, assistant operations officer and wing executive officer, 530th Combat Crew Training Squadron, Plattsburgh AFB, N.Y.
7. August 1990 - June 1992, student, Air Command and Staff College, and graduate student, School of Advanced Airpower Studies, Air University, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
8. June 1992 - October 1993, staff officer, Air Force Chief of Staff’s Operations Group, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C.
9. October 1993 - July 1995, Commander, 91st Air Refueling Squadron, Malmstrom AFB, Mont.
10. August 1995 - June 1996, graduate student, National War College, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C.
11. August 1996 - August 1997, Commander, 22nd Operations Group, McConnell AFB, Kan.
12. September 1997 - June 1999, Special Assistant to the Assistant of the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington, D.C.
13. July 1999 – July 2001, Commander, 436th Airlift Wing, Dover AFB, Del.
14. August 2001 - present, Commandant of Cadets and Commander, 34th Training Wing, USAFA, Colorado Springs, Colo.

FLIGHT INFORMATION:
Rating: Command pilot, parachutist
Flight hours: More than 3,000
Aircraft flown: T-38A, FB-111A, KC-135 R/T/RT, C-5A/B and TG-7

MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS:
Defense Superior Service Medal
Legion of Merit
Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters
Air Medal
Aerial Achievement Medal
Combat Readiness Medal
National Defense Service Medal with service star
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
Southwest Asia Service Medal
Humanitarian Service Medal

EFFECTIVE DATES OF PROMOTION:
Second Lieutenant May 31, 1978
First Lieutenant May 31, 1980
Captain May 31, 1982
Major Oct 1, 1989
Lieutenant Colonel Apr 1, 1992
Colonel Oct 1, 1996
Brigadier General Feb 1, 2003

(Current as of February 2003)

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