KUNSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — An Air Force officer raped a female officer, tried to rape another and had unlawful consensual sex with a staff sergeant, prosecutors contended at an Article 32 hearing on Tuesday.
Capt. David T. Still of the 35th Fighter Squadron did not take the stand at the hearing. The session was conducted by investigating officer Maj. James Tripp, whose findings and 8th Wing command approval could send the case to a court-martial.
Prosecutors are seeking a rape charge against Still, citing an April 21 incident involving a first lieutenant who since has left South Korea. They say Still also tried to rape a second lieutenant in January, then committed indecent acts with her March 17.
He also is accused of repeatedly having consensual sex with a staff sergeant the night of Jan. 1-2 at the Dragon Hill Lodge, according to testimony.
The first lieutenant visited a gathering in Still’s room at 9:30 p.m. April 21, left, then returned at 2 a.m., according to testimony. She told the court she fell asleep on his couch but the next thing she remembered was lying in his bed next to him.
As he removed her clothes, she said, she pretended to sleep, hoping he’d stop — but told him “no” when he climbed atop her.
“I still thought he was going to stop because I was not responding,” she said. “If it got to the point when I’d have to step up and say ‘No,’ I knew I would.”
“What happened after you said, ‘No’?” asked prosecutor Maj. Jeff Ferguson, co-counsel with Capt. John Page.
She replied: “I said ‘No’ again. He continued.”
With tears in her eyes, she glared at Still while telling how she tried to push him away before he eventually rolled over, and how she later confronted him, asking, “Do you know that you really, really hurt me physically and emotionally in a way that I’ve never been hurt before?”
Still apologized, saying he never intended to hurt anyone, she said.
Later, a second lieutenant, since reassigned out of South Korea, said she’d had a physical relationship for a few months with Still but based on the understanding that they would not have intercourse.
She joined Still in his dorm room in late January after drinking with him at the 35th Fighter Squadron bar and intended to sleep in his bed with her clothes on, she said. Instead, Still took her clothes off and attempted to have sex, she said. She pushed him off her multiple times.
“He apologized,” she said. “He said that’s not what he’s trying to do — and then he’d do it again.”
The next day, “I told him if I hadn’t have known him so well, he would have gotten turned in for attempted rape.”
One of the second lieutenant’s sergeants testified that earlier that night at the 35th Fighter Squadron bar, she’d told the second lieutenant she’d had consensual sex with Still three times at the Dragon Hill Lodge the night of Jan. 1-2.
Additionally, prosecutors sought a charge against Still involving an accusation that he disrobed the second lieutenant as she slept on March 17, then left his dorm room door partially open. The second lieutenant said she’d fallen asleep clothed but a woke half-naked under a blanket.
After the investigation adjourned, civilian attorney and retired Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Spinner declined to comment on behalf of his client.