Confidential reporting of sexual assault at the Air Force Academy has been back for about a month, but academy leaders have received no reports that confidential channels have been used.
“It’s really too new to have anything going yet,” academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker said.
The academy allowed confidential reporting until a sexual scandal broke in January 2003.
Since new leadership arrived at the academy in the spring of 2003, surveys show more cadets are willing to report sexual assault. As many as 35 percent of cadets said they would be willing to report sexual assault in 2004, compared with 18.6 percent in 2003. Nationally, about 16 percent of sexual assaults are reported.
A military task force recommended Thursday that cadets and midshipmen at West Point and Annapolis be allowed to confidentially report sexual assault.
The task force also said communication between specified care providers and victim’s advocates is privileged and should be considered confidential.
A Colorado Springs counselor, Jennifer Bier, made national headlines in June when a judge halted a rape case after Bier refused to turn over Jessica Brakey’s rape counseling records during a trial for Lt. Joseph Harding.
Brakey, a former academy cadet, accused Harding of raping her in the summer of 2000 during basic cadet training. This month, a military criminal appeals judge granted Harding’s request to go to trial. Harding wants to clear his name.
Bier cheered the decision by the task force to allow confidentiality for cadets and midshipmen.
“I applaud when one system can learn from another system’s mistakes and they can make changes before they have to damage anyone in their own system,” Bier said.
But Bier said the Air Force is sending out a mixed message: “There is the standard Air Force statement that keeps coming out: ‘We believe in confidentiality, we like confidentiality.’ Now, turn over your records.”‘
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
