Army brass, led by future Joint Chiefs head Martin Dempsey, gave amorous general a pass
Tom Vanden Brook , USA TODAY Published 12:30 p.m. ET March 9, 2017 | Updated 17 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — The Army inspector general was unsparing: The two-star general had an inappropriate relationship with a woman and lied to investigators about it, made his staff buy sexy clothing for her, subjected his underlings to racist and sexist emails and allowed himself to be photographed with another woman licking the medals on his formal dress uniform.
After the report was received and signed by top Army officials in September 2010, Maj. Gen. John Custer, commander of the Army’s intelligence school at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., faced public shaming and the loss of rank.
That’s when Gen. Martin Dempsey intervened. Dempsey, then the four-star in charge of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, struck from the record the substantiated finding of Custer’s inappropriate relationship. That left the board of three generals deciding Custer’s fate with two relatively minor charges and the letter of reprimand that Dempsey had issued.
Custer's case, and Dempsey's intervention, were kept in the dark by the Army for years. The matter came to light only after a whistle-blower complained to USA TODAY, which then obtained the report through a Freedom of Information Act request. The military’s lack of transparency in meting out punishment allows favoritism to go unchecked, said Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders.
Continued: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/09/general-martin-dempsey-major-general-john-custer-military-sexual-harassment-abuse/98686906/
Posting in the scandal forum. Outrageous conduct.
