U.S. to court martial soldier accused of rape after Japanese authorities drop charges

Where does the american defence ministry recruit their personnel from? Prisoners on release? Elementary school dropouts? Narcotics anonymous meetings? Im being serious, no offence intended to all the career-minded professionals serving in the american military reading this... .

Army specialist Ronald Hopstock

What, he specializes in "army"? Dumb job title.

What I don't like is the manner that they (AP) relate this "crime" to other "crimes" that came out as no Japanese punishment for lack of evidence, but the US side doing all of the work. This is just PR for the military, to show that they are (forgive the phrase) "hard on their own".

Addiu

It was also reported in the Stars & Stripes articles on this case, that the victim had also lied about her working status. It seems that before she/he came to Okinawa, she had worked as a hostess in Hong Kong.

Not that it's an excuse, but I think the defense will probably try to cite this as evidence to try to discredit her account of the incident.

No matter what, this guy's turkey is cooked. Not only for just the rape, but when he finds out that he has thrown it all away for someone who is "chromoznially a man" probably adds more to his mental misery.

What a lot of talk from experts here. The girl says she was raped, the guy says not so. He has a history of prostitute visits and stands accused of other violations. He is of course likely to go down for this. The military doesn't want these guys and will deal with this character, whether the girl embellished her testimony or not. The Japanese judiciary is well rid of this case; the USAF are capable enough to deal with this.

This soldier has thrown away for the rest of his life his own future. And now he is 'Devil in Detail' without US flag. However, I'm not so sure about this young girl. I don't believe that rape was a real reason/motive. There is something else that has constracted this case.

nagoyait: Found it! http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57892

second paragrahp from the bottom, is that bizzare or what?

I've said this before, even if the girl, guy, or whatever was engaged in consensual sex for money, if she/he/it says ow, stop. The guy had better pull out right then because that next "downstroke" is rape.

Here's a report on the condition He/She has:

Testifying by telephone, Cmdr. Elizabeth Tipton said she examined Hazel in August and found the young woman had "androgen insensitivity syndrome." She said Hazel had the outward appearance of a woman, except she had no cervix.

"She is someone who is chromosomally a male," Tipton said. However, the condition made her resistant to testosterone and she developed female genitalia.

It was in another news paper article. I'm trying to find it again so I can post a link.

techall - "This is why the J-police did not charge Hopstock." How do you know this??

mcheeky: Believe me, the U.S. DOD is never going to set "rules of engagement" for use of prostitution. Granted, the world's oldest profession is not going to go away but the Department of Defence (and any other U.S. Government entity) is going to disuade their personnel from engaging in it either as procurers or suppliers.

techall, sounds like a great way to make a bad situation worse. Prostitution is not going to disappear, and military men stationed overseas will either have their prostitutes or get up to worse business.

Far better to set up some "rules of engagement". They sure would have averted this particular disaster.

If you are not handing the money straight to the prostitute.

Being party to prositution, whether as a customer, pimp or brothel owner, is Trafficing in Persons. This is one of the biggest social issues of the day as it is estimated that close to 1,000,000 people are trafficed each year. Whether the prositute is there willingly or not it is still creating the market and the shortage of willing prostitutes will be filled by un-willing ones. Working with the U.S. military we were required to take TIPs training every month. I believe Mr. Hopstock knew this and all the other service men using "hooker hill" had better get the message or they will face serious consequences.

All I will say on the matter is that if the Soldier is convicted, it certainly will say a lot about "Japanese justice" for non-Japanese.

Taka

LocalBoy - I can definitely believe that from the things I have heard too.

I used to work with the Marine Corp as a lead investigator in these cases and you would not believe how many bogus rape charges are leveled against servicemen. My associate who was in Japanese law enforcement and I had to wade through girls who wanted to party and have sex with the service man, until daddy and mommy found out and threatened to disown them for sleeping with a black man or Gaijin. Two of my subordinates were female and we found it disheartening how cold these women were even when it was discovered that the charges were bogus.

Okay, maybe I am wrong about the surgery.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57939

Let me explain: what I found and read today said that his/her parts were small and created by surgery. They were weak and could not take the stress.

Without knowing that, I thought Hopstock had brutalized him/her. That made rape seem a lot more likely. It now seems that may not be the case. It now seems like the sex was consensual, thought I may have forgotten some details.

I can't remember what his/her excuses were for going into a hotel room with Hopstock, but that question is huge.

Anyway, it seems that he/she was unaware that she had been rented out by the club owner. That plus the brutalization made me think Hopstock took what he paid for by force (he still may have). But if the bleeding was caused by sex with an artificial orifice, then maybe Hopstock did not brutalize him/her after all.

What I got is coming up inconclusive.

But I have to say this: If you are not handing the money straight to the prostitute, then you deserve to get smacked. However, Hopstock might be getting smacked a little too hard.

Since she was not a Japanese national they didn't care. However, he still has to face the music with the US.

Notginger: Sodomy is illegal under the UCMJ.

mcheeky: The victim was not "surgically" enhanced. He/She has a rare genetic condition and has female genetilia but no uteris. This is why the J-police did not charge Hopstock. I guess under Japanese law, one of the participants has to be a female in rape cases (strange).

ultradodgy: The victim is a Philipine national.

Hopstock paid the usual "bar fine" which is normally understood to be procuring a prostitute. This is also illegal under the UCMJ as it is a TIPS (Trafficing in Persons) violation.

Ahhh, insufficient evidence. In that they found insufficient evidence that the woman was Japanese.

palsunstar - Maybe the evidence that Mcheeky found wasn't fraudulent.

Soldave - Read RJD Jr's post again...Reading is fundamental

Mcheeky - Perhaps the information that you found is fraudulent? In any case, whether or not a rape victim is male or female shouldn't matter. If someone is raped & the person who committed the rape is found guilty, then the criminal needs to be prosecuted.

What the bloody heck is going on today?

I checked, and yes, it turns out that she is biologically a he. And the fact that his surgically granted female sex parts were apparently not up to the task can explain what caused the bleeding. And it also seems that he/she did not go to a hospital for many reasons which explains the sorry state he/she was found in in the morning.

I was very against Hopstock until this information was posted here. All I read about the case and I never heard that. Now its gone.

rjd - so I take it you're not waiting for the results of the court martial before you pass judgement?

Yeah they need to ship the troublemakers back home, they're just too much a liability to station abroad.

In a lot of militaries, if you're in public you wear your uniform 100% of the time. It actually prevents crime, and if you are dumb enough to commit the penalties are harsh.

Is sodomy illegal?!?!

If guilty let these pukes fry, disgracing the uniform like that. Despicable.