DATE: Wednesday, May 7, 1997                TAG: 9705070469

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JACKIE SPINNER and DANA PRIEST, THE WASHINGTON POST 

DATELINE: ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD.      LENGTH:  116 lines

SERGEANT GETS 25 YEARS IN ABERDEEN RAPE CASES HE ALSO WILL BE REDUCED IN RANK AND DISHONORABLY DISCHARGED.

A military jury Tuesday sentenced Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson to 25 years in prison for raping six female trainees, and moments later an Aberdeen Proving Ground official said local commanders were not to blame for the rampant sexual activity at the post that came to light during the trial.

Meanwhile, the Army today plans to criminally charge its top enlisted man, Army Sgt. Maj. Gene C. McKinney, with sexual misconduct involving as many as four female current and former service members, sources close to the case said.

At Aberdeen, when Lt. Col. Gabriel Riesco, chief of staff for the U.S. Army Ordnance Center and School, was asked whether commanders were part of the problem at this scandal-plagued base, he answered, ``Absolutely not.''

Instead, Army officials at the northern Maryland installation concluded that the root of the problem was the quality of trainees entering the Army, staff shortages and inadequate background checks on drill sergeants.

Simpson, the first soldier to go through a full court-martial, could have been sentenced to life in prison.

Nevertheless, Riesco said the outcome should be a ``flare in the night'' warning to other instructors. ``Those drill sergeants and instructors trolling instead of training should think twice,'' he said.

Defense attorneys and others said Aberdeen commanders are partly to blame and cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for the sex abuse that arose out of the Aberdeen environment.

``To me it's clearly a problem of moral leadership,'' said Frank J. Spinner, one of Simpson's attorneys. ``Why weren't the officers, the leadership at Aberdeen, passing on to their subordinates the fundamental values that make an Army not only a strong fighting force but a moral fighting force?''

The larger question of the Aberdeen chain of command's responsibility in creating or condoning an atmosphere where 12 school staff members have been charged with sexual crimes will be the subject of an Army inspector general's report that may be released in June. But Army officials in charge of Aberdeen are weighing whether to take disciplinary action against any officers there.

The jury, which last week convicted the 32-year-old Simpson of 18 counts of rape and 29 other offenses, deliberated 2 1/2 hours Tuesday before sentencing him to a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and ordering that he be reduced in rank to a private and dishonorably discharged.

Simpson will be eligible for parole after eight years. The case is appealed automatically to the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals.

He is the second Aberdeen soldier charged criminally to be sentenced to prison. Capt. Derrick Robertson, Simpson's company commander, is serving a four-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to having consensual sex with a trainee in a plea-agreement in which the Army agreed to drop rape charges.

``The Army has got a problem and no one wants to admit it,'' Capt. Ed Brady, a lawyer for Simpson, said after the trial ended. ``They've got a gender-integrated environment for the training and it's just not working. It's a catastrophe.''

Eugene R. Fidell, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Institute of Military Justice, said the 25-year sentence for Simpson was ``very serious.''

``It was a strong sentence for the government,'' Fidell said. ``There were those of us who had worried that the Army was throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this guy. They obviously proved their case.''

In closing arguments, Capt. Dave Thomas, an Army prosecutor, called Simpson a ``sexual predator. Just like an animal, he scans the herd, he finds the weakest ones and when he gets them alone, he jumps on them.''

But Brady said Simpson was a ``broken and humbled man'' who deserved compassion.

``There isn't any denying the fact that somewhere along the way, he got lost, very very lost,'' Brady said.

Col. Paul Johnston, the presiding judge, gave Simpson about 14 months of credit for the time he already has served since being incarcerated in September and for the harsh conditions his lawyers said he endured at a detention facility at the Quantico Marine Corps base.

Spinner said Simpson was not surprised by his sentence.

``He understood what was going on here, that he was being held up as an example to other drill sergeants,'' Spinner said.

Simpson's defense team blamed the verdict on false claims by the female trainees - saying the sex was consensual - and undue influence by top Army commanders. They also suggested racial bias played a role, although race was barely mentioned during the court-martial.

``If you're an African-American drill sergeant in the Army, you're an endangered species,'' Spinner said. ``If you're an African-American drill sergeant, any woman who you go behind closed doors with can turn into a rape claim.''

Simpson is black and most of his accusers are white. Most of the drill sergeants at Aberdeen, 30 miles northeast of Baltimore, are black, as are 11 other staff members charged with sexual misconduct.

The jury that convicted and sentenced him was made up of two black men, three white men and one white woman.

Simpson, a slender, 6-foot-4 soldier, showed no emotion when the sentence was read. After the packed courtroom began to clear, he turned to his wife, who sat behind him, and winked. He hugged his mother, Edna, and kissed her.

On Monday night, Simpson apologized at a sentencing hearing to all Army drill sergeants.

``My actions have brought dishonor to a most honorable calling,'' he said.

In other matters, Army Sgt. Major McKinney, who was suspended from his job in February pending the investigation, has been accused by a former female aide of propositioning her last year, making lewd remarks to her and physically assaulting her during a business trip.

Brenda Hoster, a public-affairs specialist who retired from the Army last year after 22 years of service, also alleges that her boss, Col. Robert Gaylord, failed to report the information up the chain of command when she brought it to his attention.

Three other women who allege McKinney acted inappropriately with them have been questioned extensively by Army investigators. MEMO: The Associated Press also contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

Delmar Simpson, who could have been sentenced to life, will be

eligible for parole after eight years. KEYWORDS: SENTENCING SEXUAL MISCONDUCT SEX SCANDAL ARMY

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

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