Judge Rules Sexual Assault Case Against the Military’s No. 2 Officer Can Proceed

A federal judge ruled Thursday that a retired officer’s sexual assault case against Air Force Gen. John Hyten, the military’s second-highest ranking officer, can proceed to the next phase.

The ruling, issued by Judge Michael Fitzgerald of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, is a major win for retired Army Col. Kathryn Spletstoser after the Air Force last year said it could not corroborate her accusations against Hyten. At the time, Spletstoser had accused Hyten, then President Donald Trump’s nominee for vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of unwanted sexual advances and sexual assault in a hotel room at a conference in 2017.

Hyten has denied Spletstoser’s accusations and argued she couldn’t sue him because the alleged assault was “incident to military service,” a key element of the Feres Doctrine, which prohibits service members from being sued in civil court and has generally prevented troops from suing their superior officers. . .

“Regardless of whether General Hyten came to Plaintiff’s hotel room under the pretense of work-related purposes, it is not conceivable that his military duties would require him to sexually assault Plaintiff, or that such an assault would advance any conceivable military objective,” according to the ruling. (Read more from “Judge Rules Sexual Assault Case Against the Military’s No. 2 Officer Can Proceed” HERE)

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