The Citadel Accused in Lawsuits of Sex Abuse Cover-up

By Harriet McLeod

Charlston - Three young men who say they were molested by a former youth coach filed lawsuits on Monday against The Citadel and its president, accusing both of covering up alleged sexual abuse by the man when he was a camp counselor at the military college.

But an attorney for the school took issue with several of the allegations made in the suits and said the school would defend itself "vigorously" in all of the cases.

Louis "Skip" ReVille, 32, was working as a school principal in South Carolina when he was arrested last fall.

A grand jury in Charleston County indicted him earlier this month on 22 counts of child sex crimes involving 15 boys, including former Citadel summer campers. Police said he admitted to the crimes, but he has not yet entered a formal plea.

ReVille's case first drew national attention when The Citadel announced shortly after the Penn State University sex abuse scandal erupted in November that it had erred in failing to tell police about the allegations against ReVille in 2007.

The case was among a number of sex abuse accusations involving university or youth coaches across the country in recent months.

The military college released documents showing that a former camper told them in 2007 that, five years earlier, ReVille had taken the then 14-year-old camper to his room multiple times, showed him pornographic material, masturbated and encouraged him to masturbate.

Citadel President John W. Rosa said in November that the college's attorney conducted an internal investigation but took no further action. Rosa said he was sorry the college did not report the abuse to authorities.

According to a series of lawsuits filed Monday in state and federal court, ReVille confessed to campus police in 2002 that he had sexually abused children attending the camp and asked for help from the school.
ReVille, a graduate of The Citadel, worked as a counselor at the school's camp for three summers between 2001 and 2003. The lawsuits also said he was employed as a faculty member at the college in 2007 when the abuse was reported, but left shortly after with months to go on his contract.

He went on to become a principal and sports coach at several high schools and community recreation centers in South Carolina. The Citadel's internal policies and procedures required officials to report the abuse, said attorney W. Mullins McLeod Jr., who filed the lawsuits on behalf of one former summer camper and two other young men who allege later abuse by ReVille at other locations.

"The abuse was terrible," McLeod said in a news conference on Monday. "After he left The Citadel, ReVille formed a fraternity of victims called 'The Killers,' and he had nicknames for them based on the size and shape of their penises."

Initiation into 'The Killers' required performing oral sex on ReVille, the lawsuit said. The college engaged in a conspiracy to protect itself, McLeod said. Had The Citadel stopped ReVille in 2007, two of the other alleged victims would not have been abused in the following years, the lawsuit said.

One of those young men said ReVille sexually abused him hundreds of times starting at age 12, and the other reported that ReVille began abusing him when the alleged victim was 10.

Citadel attorney Dawes Cooke Jr. said several of the allegations made in the lawsuits were false. He said Rosa did not conspire to cover-up accusations against ReVille and disputed that ReVille previously tried to turn himself in to police.

Cooke said ReVille was a temporary employee in 2007 and had submitted his resignation before the abuse claims were made that year.

"We intend to vigorously defend all three of these cases," Cooke said, adding the school denies any negligence in the case of the former camper.

The suits seek unspecified damages for "severe and irreparable emotional harm," McLeod said.

In 2006, the school paid a $3.8 million judgment in a civil suit filed by five former campers who said they were sexually assaulted by Marine officer and camp counselor Michael Arpaio. Arpaio was court-martialed for the crimes by the U.S. Marine Corps and served time in Charleston's Navy Brig.

Eight Women Allege Rape, Assault in Military Suit

By Ian Simpson

United States - Eight current and former U.S. service members alleged in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday they were raped, assaulted or sexually harassed while in the military and were retaliated against when they complained.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington accuses military leaders of having a "high tolerance for sexual predators in their ranks, and 'zero tolerance' for those who report rape, sexual assault and harassment."
The eight women include a Marine on active duty and seven veterans of the Marine Corps and Navy. Seven allege that a fellow service member raped or tried to sexually assault them, and an eighth said she was harassed while deployed outside the United States.

The suit says the Pentagon has failed to take enough steps to deal with the problem despite avowals to do so.
Defendants include Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, and former Defense and Navy secretaries and Marine commandants.

"Men and women should not have to check their constitutional rights at the door. No one should have to submit to being raped to be able to serve," Susan Burke, the women's attorney, told Reuters on the margins of a news conference.

Cynthia Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a statement that it would be inappropriate to comment on pending litigation but that sexual assault had no place in the Defense Department.

Under a policy announced in December, service members who report a sexual assault can quickly transfer from their unit or base, she said.

The Defense Department has boosted funding for investigators and judges to get training in sexual assault cases and is putting together a database to track cases, Smith said.

"One sexual assault is one too many," she said.

U.N. "Outraged" at Sexual Abuse by Peacekeepers in Haiti

By Thalif Deen

United Nations - The Caribbean nation of Haiti, still struggling to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake, is once again trying to cope with the sexual abuse of minors by U.N. peacekeepers - for the third time in five years.

The two cases of "sexual exploitation and abuse involving minors", reported last week, are traced to U.N. police officers serving with the U.N. Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

"The United Nations is outraged by these allegations and takes its responsibility to deal with them extremely seriously," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters Monday.

In view of the gravity of the situation - and the recurrence of sexual abuse by peacekeepers in Haiti - the United Nations has already dispatched a team of officials to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince "to investigate these allegations with the utmost determination".

MINUSTAH is emphasising the responsibility and accountability of the chain of command in both preventing and taking prompt action when such allegations arise, Nesirky said.

The mission will take action to support the alleged victims, he added. But he did not disclose the nationalities of the police officers involved.

Unlike cases involving U.N. military personnel - who are answerable only to their home countries - investigations into allegations involving U.N. Police fall under the responsibility of the United Nations.

The civilian and police personnel serving in peacekeeping missions are treated as international civil servants under the authority of the United Nations.

Mariano Fernandez, the secretary-general's special representative and head of MINUSTAH, said: "I want to reiterate my commitment to uphold the policy of zero tolerance of abuse by the staff of the Mission."

Each member of the U.N. personnel, whether he or she is a civilian, member of the military or police, must observe a standard of exemplary conduct, he added.

"This is a commitment that is required when joining the United Nations, anywhere in the world."

"We will continue to take the strictest measures to ensure, where appropriate, that the perpetrators of such acts are punished with the utmost severity," he added.

Back in November 2007, about 108 military personnel from Sri Lanka serving in Haiti were deported to their home country after being accused of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of minors.

One of the expelled peacekeepers was quoted in a local newspaper as saying, rather defiantly, "What do you expect us to do when the U.N. is providing us with free condoms?"

Since the United Nations has no political or legal authority to penalise military personnel, most of them escape punishment for their criminal activities because national governments have either refused or have been slow in meting out justice within their own court systems.

Last year, five U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay were accused of sexually assaulting a Haitian teenager, which was caught on tape, triggering public demonstrations and anti-U.N. protests in the streets of Port-au-Prince.

But early this month, all five were freed by a Uruguayan military court because the 18-year-old Haitian victim could not be traced.

The Uruguayans have promised to re-open the case if the youth appears in court.

In 2007, it was reported that girls as young as 13 were having sex with U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti for as little as a dollar, Ezili Dant, president of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN), said in a letter to the United Nations.

The continued sexual abuse of minors in Haiti - and also in other peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Cote d'Ivoire - has alarmed the United Nations.

Allegations of abuse have dogged U.N. peacekeeping missions since their inception over 50 years ago.

The issue was thrust into the spotlight after the United Nations found, in early 2005, that peacekeepers in Congo had sex with Congolese women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money.

The U.N. peacekeeping department instituted a "zero tolerance" policy toward sexual abuse, a new code of conduct for its more than 110,000 peacekeepers deployed around the world, and new training for officers and all U.N. personnel.

But that has not deterred the continued sexual abuse of women and minors in peacekeeping missions worldwide.

The United Nations says it has done much to confront the problem since 1999, when U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia were reported to have been involved in a sex-trafficking ring.

In 2003, the United Nations issued a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual exploitation and abuse.

Currently, all peacekeepers undergo extensive training with a major focus on sexual conduct.