Army OB-GYN faces court-martial on sexual assault charges

An Army doctor will face a court-martial for more than 270 specifications of crimes he committed primarily against his female patients at Fort Hood, Texas, and Honolulu, the service said Tuesday.

Maj. Blaine McGraw, 48, is accused of crimes against 93 women while serving as an OB-GYN at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii and then at Fort Hood’s Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center. At the latter, a patient’s husband in October caught McGraw recording video during a transvaginal ultrasound without consent. McGraw then agreed to have his phone searched, which uncovered evidence of sexual abuse against his patients.

He has been suspended from providing care since then and in December was placed in pretrial confinement at Bell County Jail near Fort Hood. His medical license is no longer active, according to online records.

The Office of Special Trial Counsel referred a total of nine charges with 272 specifications of crimes alleged to have occurred between 2021 and 2026. That includes 91 specifications of abusive sexual contact and sexual assault; one specification of attempted sexual assault; one specification of attempted subornation of perjury; one specification of solicitation to commit perjury; 66 specifications of indecent recording; 91 specifications of assault consummated by a battery; 18 specifications of conduct unbecoming an officer; one specification of extramarital sexual misconduct; one specification of willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer; and one specification of dereliction of duty.

Daniel Conway, an attorney for McGraw, said Tuesday that the doctor has said from Day 1 of this case that every physical examination of a patient was medically indicated.

“Next spring when this goes to trial, we will continue to maintain his innocence of those charges,” Conway said.

McGraw told criminal investigators that he made the video recordings of patients on his personal cellphone as a form of notetaking and that he did not know his phone could record audio only, according to evidence presented during a preliminary hearing in May. All but one of women he secretly recorded were patients.

One victim is an 18-year-old secretly recorded by McGraw 15 times in her shower at an off-post home, according to evidence from the hearing.

Lt. Col. Dixon Merkt, an Army Reserve lawyer, presided over the May hearing and found probable cause for the majority of the allegations presented and recommended court-martial. The Office of Special Trial Counsel concurred, and the next hearing scheduled will include arraignment.