Jury Clears McKinney of All but 1 Charge

FT. BELVOIR, Va. — Sgt. Maj. Gene C. McKinney, once the Army’s top-ranked enlisted soldier, was cleared Friday of all but one of 19 charges brought against him by women who said he groped them or pressured them for sex.

A military jury convicted him of obstruction of justice for trying to persuade one of his accusers to mislead investigators about their conversations.

McKinney, 47, stood straight as the verdicts were read and showed no emotion. His wife, Wilhemina, broke down and wept harder and harder, sobbing in relief as each “not guilty” verdict was read.

Five of McKinney’s six accusers were also in the courtroom sitting together behind McKinney’s wife. Several of the women blinked back tears and Sgt. Maj. Brenda Hoster, his initial accuser, shook her head in disbelief.

Some of the most arresting evidence presented at the five-weeklong court-martial at this Army base south of Washington was testimony from the six military women, including one commissioned officer, that McKinney aggressively sought sex from them and tried to intimidate them into silence.

McKinney, who was removed from his post as sergeant major of the Army last year, faces a maximum of five years in prison for the obstruction of justice conviction, a dishonorable discharge or reduction in rank when the jury returns Monday for the separate sentencing phase of the trial. Both sides are expected to call new witnesses and present arguments.

Had he been convicted on all 19 charges, he could have faced 55 years in prison.

The McKinney case embarrassed the Army and left it vulnerable to charges both of racism and insensitivity to women in the ranks. McKinney, a 29-year veteran of the service, was the first black to be named sergeant major of the Army.

McKinney was accused of groping or crudely pressuring the subordinates for sex since 1994.

His lawyers argued that all his accusers were lying. McKinney also has said the court-martial was racially biased. All his accusers are white.

In a tape played for the jury, McKinney was heard trying to persuade one of his accusers to tell Army investigators that their conversations were only about professional development.

Sgt. Christine Fetrow testified that McKinney pursued her for more than two years, trying several times to grab or kiss her, and calling her often at home.

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In a three-minute tape of one of those calls that was played for the jury, McKinney told Fetrow: “Well, all you have to do is tell them that we talked a lot. You call the office sometime because you want to talk about career development and that kind of stuff. That’s it.”

Fetrow responded: “Yeah.”

“That’s all they need to know,” he said.

The jury deliberated more than 20 hours before reaching its verdict.

An Army representative said no comment about the trial would be forthcoming.

McKinney’s defense attorney, Charles Gittins, was not immediately available for comment.

The scandal broke when Hoster, McKinney’s former speech writer, went public with her claim that McKinney came to her hotel room late one night during a business trip to Hawaii, picked her up and kissed her.

McKinney was acquitted on all of those charges.

Hoster said she decided to make her charges public after the Army appointed McKinney to a panel studying the problem of sexual harassment after a scandal at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

Five other women subsequently came forward to accuse McKinney of pressuring them for sex. Only one, Sgt. Christine Roy, alleged McKinney actually forced her to have sex at his home in October 1996 when she was nearly eight months’ pregnant, but McKinney was acquitted of that charge also.

Wilhemina McKinney supported her husband throughout the trial, sitting directly behind him each day and testifying as the first defense witness that he was a good soldier and a good father.

McKinney told jurors that as a minority, he had a special compassion for women striving to make it in the military, and denied ever harassing anyone.

“I committed none of those offenses,” he said.

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The McKinney case is one in a series of scandals that have plagued the U.S. military in recent years, starting with the Tailhook case in 1991, a convention of Navy and Marine fliers at which 80 military women said they had been groped and fondled.

This was followed by the allegations that drill instructors at Aberdeen Proving Ground had sexually mistreated young female recruits.

The verdict follows a decision by the Army, Navy and Air Force to continue to train and house female and male recruits together during basic training, despite a Pentagon panel recommendation that the sexes should be separated.