Army prosecutors preferred four charges with 61 counts against Maj. Blaine McGraw, 47, who was assigned to Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Texas. (Rodney Jackson/Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center)
A Fort Hood OB-GYN was charged Tuesday with more than 50 counts of secretly recording dozens of women he saw as patients at the on-post hospital, the Army said.
Army prosecutors preferred four charges with 61 counts against Maj. Blaine McGraw, 47, who was assigned to Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Texas, until his suspension Oct. 17 for similar allegations. He has been under criminal investigation since then as investigators combed through digital evidence.
He is charged with 54 counts of indecent visual recording, five counts of conduct unbecoming an officer, willful disobedience of a superior officer and making a false official statement, according to the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel, which will prosecute the case.
The next step will be a preliminary hearing to review the evidence and determine whether the charges will move to a court-martial. The hearing is similar to the grand jury process for an indictment in civilian courts.
The alleged criminal offenses occurred between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1 and involve 44 women, according to prosecutors. All but one were patients of McGraw. One victim was secretly recorded at a home in a civilian community near Fort Hood.
“Through close collaboration with Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division investigators, [Office of Special Trial Counsel] thoroughly evaluated the evidence and carefully considered all the facts before preferring charges in this case,” the office said in a statement. “As this case remains an open investigation, OSTC prosecutors will continue to coordinate with Army CID as the case progresses to determine if additional charges are warranted.”
McGraw was placed last week into pretrial confinement at Bell County Jail after violating orders from his commander. Prior to that he was in an inpatient treatment facility, according to Bell County court records.
McGraw also faces a lawsuit in Bell County court from a patient who filed the complaint under the name Jane Doe. The woman described how McGraw pretended to take a call on his phone, then placed the phone in the breast pocket of his clothing. From there, his phone recorded a breast and pelvic exam he conducted on the woman, according to the 13-page lawsuit.
The Army contacted roughly 3,000 former patients of McGraw’s to notify them of the investigation and encouraged them to fill out a questionnaire about their experiences with him. Those patients saw McGraw at Fort Hood as well as his previous duty station, Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii.
Fort Hood hospital officials first received a report about McGraw on Oct. 17, and he was immediately suspended, according to base officials. Army Criminal Investigation Division arrived within hours to begin its investigation, which has included sifting through more than half a terabyte of digital media.
