Andy Pierotti

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El Paso, Texas (wangfu) — Nicole Graham proudly shows off a room in her house that rarely lets visitors inside. Full of photos and memories dedicated to her late daughter Asia Graham.

“She loved the military. There is an American flag with the name of

Her daughter enlisted in the US Army in 2019, right after graduating from high school. At her swearing-in ceremony, Asia pledged to uphold the constitution and protect it from all enemies, but she didn’t know that months later she would need to defend herself against dangers within the military. .

“Asia called it an ‘incident.’ She couldn’t tell me her pain. He said in an interview at home.

Asia had a hard time saying that her mother had been sexually assaulted by fellow soldier Christian Alvarado about the incident. Both were stationed at Fort Her Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

According to a confession obtained from the Army, Alvarado told Army investigators, “She was drunk, so was I. We had sex and she passed out.”

When asked why he continued to have sex with Asia, Alvarado told investigators, “I was in that moment.”

During the same interrogation, a 20-year-old woman was questioned about a second sexual assault allegation involving another woman. Alvarado told military investigators that sex with her was “wrong for her because of how drunk she was.”

Had Alvarado been a civilian, the county prosecutor would likely have charged him with the crime. A judge would have put him in jail to await his day in court if he couldn’t afford bail.

Military commanders decide whether soldiers accused of crimes are to be placed in pretrial detention. This is similar to a county jail used for civilians.

Despite Alvarado’s confession, the army commander let Alvarado go.

A month later, a third woman accused Alvarado of sexual assault.

“I should have locked him up as soon as Asia said anything,” Graham said. Instead, Alvarado’s commander later gave him permission to leave the base.

Some military law experts say Alvarado’s commanders acted wrongly.

“Why give this man vacation privileges when you know he has three allegations of being a sexual predator?” Director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University Law School Jeffrey Cohn said: He served as a military prosecutor and public defender.

“From what I know about the incident at Fort Bliss, I would have recommended pretrial confinement,” Cohn said.

A study by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune uncovered the potential problem, analyzing nearly 8,400 common court-martial cases at 29 Army bases across the country over the past decade.

Analyzes show that soldiers accused of sexual assault are less than half as likely to be in pretrial detention than those accused of other crimes, such as drug use or distribution, disobedience to police officers, and robbery. It turns out that

It’s happening at army bases in Georgia and across the country.

At Fort Stewart, near Savannah, soldiers accused of other crimes had a 16% chance of being placed in pretrial detention. That’s nearly three times his 6% when he’s accused of sexual assault. At Fort Gordon, near Augusta, he was nearly twice as likely, at 9% versus 5%.

In Fort Riley, Kansas, soldiers charged with other crimes were 16.7% likely to be in pretrial detention. That’s more than twice as much as he was 8.3% if he was accused of sexual assault.

At Fort Belvoir, Virginia, it was more than three times that.

ProPublica and the Texas Tribune analyzed thousands of common court-martial cases at 29 Army bases nationwide. Learn how ProPublica and the Texas Tribune tracked pretrial detention rates here.

Olivia Ochoa understands the ramifications of the wide discretion military commanders have in pretrial detention.

While stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the U.S. military charged her with drug possession and violating orders. A 19-year-old boy spent 103 days in pretrial confinement. He spent most of that time alone.

“I kind of fell apart, but every day I was like, ‘Okay, okay,'” Ochoa said in an interview at his family’s home in San Antonio.

During her confinement, the San Antonio native stopped eating, slept very little, and her hair began to fall out.

Ochoa doesn’t believe she was treated fairly after learning that commanders didn’t immediately put Alvarado into pretrial confinement following multiple sexual assault allegations.

“I was like, ‘How did you see me on the same level as this guy?'” Ochoa said. “I feel like smoking a little cannabis is never quite the equivalent.”

Before she left the Army, Ochoa reported that a fellow soldier raped her off base. We were both drinking. she fainted.

“When I woke up, he was on me. He was trying to rape me,” Ochoa said.

The military found no justification for prosecuting her defendant. Ochoa felt that no one believed her.

“I think they thought she was just a drug addict trying to get sympathy, trying to get away with my guilt,” she said.

A spokesperson for Fort Huachuca said the Army takes the sexual assault allegations seriously and has conducted a thorough and independent investigation into the Ochoa incident.

Fort Bliss commanders held Alvarado in pretrial custody in March 2021 after two more women filed sexual assault allegations.

A military judge found Alvarado guilty of sexually assaulting Asia and another woman. He has served 18 years in a military prison.

A former Fort Bliss spokesperson told ProPublica and Texas Tribune partners that the conditions justifying Alvarado’s placement in pretrial confinement were initially not met, but have since been made clearer. Refused to convert.

Army officials defended the pretrial detention system. It states that the nature of a soldier’s crime is one factor, but not the only factor, to consider in the decision to place someone in pretrial confinement. said to be a factor.

“What this story makes clear is that only one small part of this whole broader sexual assault response effort has been overlooked: pretrial detention,” Cohn said. I got

Asia couldn’t see her room filled with compliments. She died of an accidental overdose on her New Year’s Eve 2020.

Her mother believes Asia was self-medicating to numb the trauma from the sexual assault.

“I gave the Army a healthy, strong 19-year-old girl and got back a box with a flag on it,” Graham said.

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