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 The junior officer testified that Brigadier General Jeffrey
Sinclair grabbed her by the back of the neck and sexually assaulted
her after she tried to explain she was fed up with their adulterous
affair and needed to move on.
"He pushed me down," she said through tears. "I felt like I had no
control at all over my own body."
Her allegations are the basis of a forcible sodomy charge that could
send the 51-year-old general to prison for life. Sinclair is also
accused of grabbing her genitalia against her will and of having sex
with her in public places, including a parking lot in Germany and
military offices in Afghanistan.
The general, who is married, denies sexually assaulting the captain
17 years his junior and says the relationship was consensual,
although inappropriate by military standards.
The rare court-martial of a high-ranking U.S. military official is
unfolding in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, amid a growing debate among
U.S. lawmakers over how best to curb sexual assault in the military.
A government prosecutor told a jury panel of five two-star generals
that Sinclair abused his rank and power to threaten the captain to
stay in an intimate relationship that spanned three years and two
war zones.
"It involves a lot of consensual sex," the lead prosecutor,
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Stelle, said during opening statements on
Friday. But "this is a case where non-consensual sex was used as an
instrument of control."
Defense attorney Ellen Brotman read aloud excerpts from the female
captain's journal that the lawyer said help prove the liaison was
based on mutual affection, not coercion, and remained consensual
from beginning to end.
"You will see that this case is nothing more than a workplace
affair," Brotman told jurors, adding the captain's fear was that
Sinclair would never leave his wife.
The identity of the captain, a military intelligence officer, is
being withheld by Reuters due to the nature of the charges.
INITIAL ENCOUNTER
The captain, 34, recalled on the witness stand her first physical
encounter with Sinclair, saying he invited her into his private
quarters in Iraq in 2009, asked her to take down her hair and
caressed her face.
"I had developed a very strong attraction for him," she said. "On
the one hand, I'm thinking how amazing it feels, but on the other
hand, this is my brigade commander."
The captain, now stationed in Arizona, did not meet Sinclair's gaze
during her testimony, during which the general sometimes shook his
head and looked annoyed.
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The relationship went through volatile highs and lows, and the
captain said her frustration and mistrust grew. She said Sinclair
once threatened, after they had sex, to kill her if she told his
wife or anyone else about the affair.
Another time, at a hotel in Arizona, they had sex against her will
on a balcony and Sinclair later grabbed her by the throat when she
became upset and tried to leave, she testified.
After court, Sinclair's attorneys said that account contradicted her
previous descriptions of the hotel meeting. In a journal entry, she
wrote that they had a huge fight over a change in his travel plans
but said, "It was so wonderful to be with him again though."
The captain testified that she stayed involved with Sinclair because
she felt emotionally connected and worried about how ending it would
affect her military career. She did not immediately report him to
superior officers after the alleged sex crimes.
"I knew if I said anything that it would be my word against his and
nobody would believe me," she said. "I had no way out."
When she told Sinclair of her desperation, she said he texted her,
"Get a grip."
On Thursday, Sinclair, a one-star general, pleaded guilty to lesser
offenses that carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and
possible dismissal from the Army.
He admitted to having an extramarital affair with the captain as
well as asking other junior female officers for nude photos and
viewing pornography while deployed.
The charges saw him stripped of command in southern Afghanistan in
May 2012 and sent back to Fort Bragg, where he remains on active
duty. His wife is not attending the trial.
Sinclair's attorneys said the captain's testimony provided new
fodder for their cross-examination of her on Monday.
"It was an interesting story we heard," said lead defense attorney
Richard Scheff. "Unfortunately, it's fiction."
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; editing by Lisa Shumaker, Gunna
Dickson and Ken Wills)
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