NAHA, Okinawa — Okinawa police recommended Friday that a soldier assigned to the Patriot missile battery on Kadena Air Base be charged with rape involving an injury.
An Okinawa police spokesman identified the soldier as Sgt. Ronald Edward Hopstock Jr., 25, attached to the 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment. Hopstock is accused of raping a 21-year-old Philippine woman in an Okinawa City hotel Feb. 18.
Army officials could not be reached for comment as of late Friday.
Previously, however, they have confirmed that a soldier was being held at the brig on Camp Hansen, Okinawa, in connection with the case. Under the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement, the soldier can remain in military custody until an indictment is filed in a Japanese court.
A police spokesman Friday said no request for Hopstock’s custody has been made to military authorities.
Police said Hopstock and the woman checked into the hotel at 3 a.m. At 8 a.m. the woman appeared in the lobby bleeding and in apparent need of medical assistance, according to police reports.
She told officers she had been raped. Police said the woman was hospitalized for a week and was treated as an outpatient for another two weeks after the alleged attack.
Okinawa police would not discuss details of the woman’s injuries.
The police spokesman said Hopstock denied raping the woman, stating that he met her at a club where she was a dancer and took her to the hotel with the understanding that if he paid the club for her company it was understood that sex was involved.
The woman, who at the time had been in Japan for three days under an entertainer’s visa, said she did not know about any such arrangement and no money was exchanged with her, according to the police report.
The case is being closely watched in the Philippines, where Manny Villar, the president of the Philippine Senate, called for the Philippine Consulate on Okinawa to follow the case and aid the woman.
The alleged victim is being cared for by an unnamed Philippine organization on Okinawa.
