Pressure Stays on Army

Criminal cases decided largely on the basis of equivocal evidence inevitably leave dissatisfaction in their wake. The military trial of Sgt. Maj. Gene C. McKinney on sexual harassment and related charges brought by six servicewomen ended with the acquittal of the Army’s former top enlisted man on 18 of 19 counts. McKinney had vehemently denied the charges, and his attorney once suggested that the prosecution of the African American was racially inspired.

The response to the verdicts from those of his accusers who have spoken out is one of shock and hurt. Their feeling is that they have now been twice victimized, once as the targets of McKinney’s alleged uninvited sexual advances and again by having their testimony disbelieved by enough of the eight members of the court panel to make acquittal possible.

Women’s advocates have been quick to charge that the verdict shows that the military culture stacks the deck against the accuser in cases of alleged sexual harassment. Such a perception, they argue, can only discourage servicewomen who are similarly preyed upon from complaining or testifying. That troubling possibility exists.

What can’t be ignored, though, is that institutionally all of the military services are now more sensitized than ever to the problem of sexual harassment and--as the vigorous prosecution in the McKinney case suggests--ready to seek punishment when it appears military law has been violated.

When all is said and done, the McKinney verdicts rest, as they would in a civilian court, on the issue of reasonable doubt. All of the accusers waited until some time after the alleged incidents to register complaints and the prosecution could offer little corroboration for their separate claims. Many, of course, are sure to find it unbelievable that six women who did not know each other would independently accuse one man of similar offenses. But judicial findings must rest on hard evidence, not on what some would see as simple common sense.

McKinney could have been sent to prison for five years on his single conviction of obstructing justice. He was instead given a reprimand and a modest reduction in rank, in deference no doubt to his 29 years of honorable service.

Everyone who followed this case will have his or her own idea of whether justice was done or demeaned. The important thing now is for the military to move forward in its efforts to curb harassment and to broaden opportunities for women--including as trainers and recruiters, as Defense Secretary William S. Cohen has called for. The military can have only zero tolerance for sexual predation. That must be understood by all, would-be predators as well as their potential victims.