Military Drops Charge vs. Air Force Grad
By ELIZABETH WHITE, The Associated Press | Friday, September 29, 2006; 8:58 PM
SAN ANTONIO – The military on Friday dismissed a rape charge against an Air Force Academy graduate whose case was on hold because
of a therapist's refusal to turn over the accuser's medical records.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Marc E. Rogers issued the dismissal against Capt. Joseph Harding, who had been accused of raping the woman at the
Colorado academy in 2000. He maintains his innocence.
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1st Lt. Joseph Harding departs a hearing at Randolph Air Force Base in San
Antonio, in this file photo from Friday, June 24, 2005. A military
judge halted the court-martial of Harding, accused of raping an Air
Force Academy cadet whose civilian rape counselor has refused to hand
over records of their conversations. The military on Friday, Sept. 29,
2006, dismissed the rape charge against Harding whose case was on hold
because of a therapist's refusal to turn over the accuser's medical
records.
(AP Photo/Eric Gay, file)
(Eric Gay - AP)
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Rogers is the commander of 19th Air Force at Randolph Air Force Base near San Antonio, where the court proceedings were being held.
A military judge had halted Harding's court-martial in June 2005 because Jennifer Bier, the accuser's civilian therapist, would not hand
over the documents. The court-martial reconvened this summer, but was again shelved after military judge Col. David Brash did not get Bier's
records of her sessions with the accuser, as he had ordered.
Harding's attorney, David Sheldon, said Bier's actions and those of the accuser prevented the trial from moving forward and “did a disservice
not only to Capt. Harding but also the administration of fair justice.”
Bier called the military's actions “unconscionable.”
“It sends a clear message to therapists: We have the right to assert confidentiality rights. But it sends another clear message back to
victims: Do it and we're not going to prosecute your cases,” she said.
Wendy Murphy, attorney for the therapist and the accuser, said she was not surprised.
“They have been trying really hard to find a palatable justification to make the whole thing go away which won't cause them any political
problems,” she said of the Air Force.
Murphy said she hopes a civilian prosecutor in Colorado will take up the case.
Prosecutors did not return a phone call or respond to an e-mail seeking comment sent after hours Friday. An Air Force spokesman said he
had no comment.
Harding, now married, had been placed on administrative hold at a Mississippi base and was unable to finish his pilot training. It was
not clear Friday whether the hold had been lifted. But Sheldon said he hoped Harding would be reinstated for pilot training.
The case grew out of the academy's 2003 assault scandal, which prompted several investigations and toppled the school's top commanders.
Associated Press writer Catherine Tsai in Denver contributed to this report.
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