The latest accounts come from nearly a half-dozen women who say soldiers at the base have been committing crimes for years. Maria Valentine says she was just months into her training at Fort Hood in when a sergeant with a history of alleged harassment toward other soldiers wrote her up after she complained that she didn't want him touching her during body mass measurements. She said authorities promised the disciplinary report would be wiped from her record if she didn't make a formal complaint.
Valentine's decision not to file one would haunt her years later when she learned another woman -- Spc. Vanessa Guillen -- had accused the same sergeant of rape. Valentine is one of five women — two active duty soldiers, two veterans and one civilian — who spoke to The Associated Press about experiencing harassment, assault or rape by soldiers at Fort Hood, the other four since Current and former soldiers have taken to social media with their own accounts of sexual assault and harassment at the base following the disappearance and slaying this year of Spc.
Guillen, whose family members say was sexually harassed by the soldier who eventually killed her. I live with the regret that I did not go through with the complaint. Elder Fernandes was found dead on Aug. Guillen and Fernandes are among 28 soldiers at the base to have died this year, including five homicides and six suicides, according to Army data. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy says that based on Fort Hood's average of violent crimes between and , it has one of the highest violent crime rates among Army installations.
The Associated Press typically doesn't publish the names of sex abuse victims, but two women who said they were sexually assaulted by soldiers at Fort Hood decided to speak on the record to describe what they say is a disturbing culture at the base. Roberto Jimenez, Valentine said harassed her more than a decade earlier. Urquidez said her relationship with Jimenez in began consensually, but that later he raped her while a friend desperately tried to break into the room to stop him.
Then came months of stalking, threatening messages and a lengthy battle in military court in which he was found not guilty, according to court documents obtained by the AP.
