ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 11, 1996 TAG: 9611110074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The Boston Globe
Army documents obtained Sunday charge that after he raped or sexually assaulted three female recruits in his command, Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson brutally threatened each young woman. The documents detail chilling assertions about a widening sex scandal at a military training center in Maryland.
``If anyone finds out about me having sex with you,'' Simpson is said to have told one young private at the Army Ordnance Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, ``I'll kill you.''
To another woman recruit, Simpson is accused of saying, ``If you ever tell anyone about this, I'll hurt you.''
The Army quoted Simpson as telling a third recruit, ``Now I am going to knock your teeth out and get away with it.''
The allegations immediately quelled speculation among some in the military that the scandal - one of the worst in Army history - sprang from impressionable young recruits who engaged in consensual sex with their supervisors and later, with tainted motives, filed complaints.
A captain and 19 sergeants already have been suspended amid complaints from 19 young women fresh out of boot camp that their male supervisors committed a range of abuses ranging from sending them harassing love letters to raping them.
And Army officials said they expect the number of suspects and alleged victims to increase markedly as investigators field hundreds of calls a day on a national hot line and interview hundreds of other women who have attended the school in the last two years.
As news of the allegations against Simpson swirled Sunday at the school, Maj. Gen. Robert Shadley, the center's commander, was ``very visibly upset'' during a brief visit to the Army hot-line center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, according to a spokeswoman, Rachel McDonald.
Since the Army launched the hot line, operators have answered 1,697 calls and logged nearly 170 new sexual harassment complaints, about half of them from current or former trainees at the Army Ordnance Center. The remaining complaints involve alleged sexual harassment at Army bases worldwide, authorities said.
About 80 percent of the callers have expressed opinions praising or criticizing the Army or have asked operators to ``please give our thoughts and prayers to the recruits'' at the school, McDonald said.
Simpson, 31, who is in pretrial confinement in Quantico, Va., was a drill sergeant responsible for the physical, social and ethical training of recruits at the school. He faces nine counts of rape involving three female soldiers, three counts of forcible sodomy involving two recruits, and four counts of committing indecent acts on four soldiers. He faces 19 additional charges ranging from adultery to indecent assault.
Two other suspects face criminal charges - Capt. Derrick Robertson, 30, and Staff Sgt. Nathaniel C. Beach, 32.
Army officials said the average age of the alleged victims in the scandal is 21. Several were teen-agers.
``They are America's sons and daughters,'' said Maj. Susan Gibson, the school's deputy staff judge advocate, ``and it's our responsibility to take care of them.''
The Army's toll-free number for anyone with information on the investigation is (800)903-4241.
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