A Few Bad Men: How the Marine Corps fails to punish senior officer misconduct, time and again
“Instead they hold junior officers and enlisted to a higher standard. It sends the wrong message."
BY PAUL SZOLDRA | PUBLISHED MAY 11, 2020 5:52 PM
Editor's note: This story includes graphic descriptions of rape.
There is little dispute over what her commander did to her, but Rebecca Cooper is certain she is leaving the Marine Corps because of it.
It was November 2019 when Cooper, a Marine captain, alleged that Col. Lawrence “Larry” Miller had sexually harassed her repeatedly after she had joined his staff the year before. Miller, 52, often told sexually-charged stories in the office, she claimed, and had blamed her for her own rape moments after she reported it to him. After she submitted a sworn statement, things moved rather quickly: Miller was transferred, an investigation was opened, Cooper and others were interviewed. It was over by January of this year, though Cooper didn’t learn the results until March.
Remarkably, Miller did not deny many of Cooper’s claims, and the Marine investigator assigned to look into the matter substantiated much of what Cooper had told him, according to the investigation report. Yet what the Marine Corps decided to do next was perhaps unremarkable: Almost nothing.
Though soon after Cooper submitted her complaint, Miller was relieved of command — an administrative action that is not considered an official punishment — the general who oversaw the inquiry settled the matter with a page 11 entry in Miller’s service record, a non-punitive counseling designed to correct poor performance.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/usmc-senior-misconduct/
