“A UVA should never be part of an investigation of one of their clients, especially since they are often called upon to provide ongoing support to the victim after the incident. The uniformed victim advocate’s role is “to provide ongoing support to service members who have been sexually assaulted and making a UVA part of an investigation of a victim, even if it is on an unrelated matter, destroys the trust victim’s place on their UVA to be looking out for their best interest when they report an assault,” Watts told Marine Corps Times in an emailed statement. Watts, who heads the Service Women’s Action Network.

It’s highly unusual and inappropriate for the same person to be assigned to both support a sexual assault victim while also investigating that victim for unrelated misconduct, said Lydia C. It turns out that her unformed victim’s advocate eventually became one of her interrogators during the land navigation investigation. She was assigned a uniformed victims advocate, another Marine who is trained and assigned to provide support to sexual assault victims. Delta had filed a restricted sexual assault allegation, in November 2017. Kaleb Martin/Marine Corps)īefore the entire land navigation situation happened, Lt.

One female lieutenant said she was kept in illegal pretrail confinement for nearly 24 hours. Delta and her lawyer, Mike Hanzel, argue that the confinement wasn’t even the most egregious act against her. Yet the command did find some fault with how those captains handled the incident and took administrative action by giving them NPLOCs, according to the command investigation.īut Lt. Training command says, “An investigating officer concluded that the staff members should have personally ensured these two students were informed that they were properly dismissed and secured for the evening.” Delta said the failure of any unauthorized absence reports from evening formation means the captains were aware she was still in the conference room when they secured for the evening. She claims that the two captains who ordered her to stay in the conference room likely informed her unit of her absence from evening formation, otherwise she would have been marked an unauthorized absence. Delta pushed back on the assertion that her confinement was merely a miscommunication. However, in an interview with Marine Corps Times, Lt. The command investigation “concluded that it was only coincidental that the two neglected students were female,” according to the document. “The doors to these conference rooms were not locked.” “A staff member from The Basic School failed to notify these two students they could secure for the evening, and both remained in the conference room overnight, leaving only to use the restroom and retrieve food or have it delivered,” Training Command said. Two of the accused land nav students - both females - were “directed to sit in separate conference rooms by a TBS staff member and await to be questioned about the allegations of misconduct,” Training Command said in a statement to Marine Corps Times.Īnd one of those female officers was left in the conference rooms all night. Delta eventually filed an equal opportunity complaint over the alleged mistreatment, prompting the Marine Corps to launch a separate investigation into how the cheating investigation was handled. She alleges that led to her giving a statement under duress to investigators admitting that she received grid coordinates to the land nav event. She said she was kept in illegal pretrial confinement for nearly 24 hours. Delta, accused other TBS officers of gender discrimination during the investigation. One of the two female officers ensnared in the cheating scandal, Lt. They are highlighting what they view as wrongdoings carried out by TBS during the investigation. Several students are still fighting to clear their names. Six officers accused of cheating at The Basic School night land navigation course now face administrative separation.

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