Governor Deval Patrick placed the head of the Massachusetts National Guard on leave Thursday night after learning that he is under investigation in the alleged rape of a subordinate on a Florida beach 28 years ago while the two were on maneuvers with a military police unit.
The explosive charges against Adjutant General Joseph C. Carter were originally investigated several months after the alleged 1984 assault. The investigating officer recommended that the alleged victim, Susan Pelletier, take the matter to police, but Pelletier told the Globe she was afraid to press charges.
Pelletier’s allegations resurfaced late last year as Carter was under consideration for promotion from one-star to two-star general. It put a freeze on the promotion while military investigators questioned Pelletier and others involved.
“He raped and beat me and left me,’’ said Pelletier, who was a 23-year-old secretary at the time and now lives in Kentucky. Pelletier said she was so traumatized by the assault that she deserted the National Guard for several months to avoid seeing Carter again.
“I was embarrassed and scared,’’ she said in an interview.
Carter, a Boston police superintendent at the time of the alleged assault, issued a statement Thursday night flatly denying the attack or even knowing Pelletier....
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Related: Guard officer recalls night of alleged rape
I suppose it wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened in the service.
"Guard chief says rape charge part of ‘smear’" by Andrea Estes and Sean P. Murphy | Globe Staff, April 13, 2012
The commander of the Massachusetts National Guard says that rape allegations against him are part of a years-long “smear campaign’’ by a powerful group of senior officers at the Guard’s Milford headquarters who opposed his efforts to make them work a five-day week and to change a state law so they could be fired without a court-martial.
“I didn’t commit any rape,’’ Adjutant General Joseph C. Carter said this week in his first extensive comments since he was placed on administrative leave while investigators look into charges that he raped a subordinate in 1984. Until now, he has only issued a brief statement denying the charge.
Carter said his internal opponents have repeatedly made anonymous charges against him to the Army’s inspector general, and have tried to derail his pending promotion to two-star general.
See: Governor Calls Out National Guard
But Susan Pelletier, who says Carter raped her on a Florida beach when she was a 23-year-old Guardswoman in his military police unit, said her charges have nothing to do with National Guard infighting. Pelletier, who agreed to have her name published, says she does not believe that Carter does not remember the night of the alleged attack while the unit was on a training exercise.
“What am I supposed to say?’’ said Pelletier, who admits she was surprised when Army investigators contacted her in November about the allegations. “He’s lying. He’s lying about the whole damn thing.’’
It's he said/she said so who knows who is telling the truth?
Carter’s response to the rape allegations exposes bitter internal feuding at an agency that has sent 12,000 Massachusetts soldiers and airmen to active duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries since Sept. 11, 2001. During a period that 17 members of the Guard died in action, another 130 suffered injuries, and thousands more reported psychological symptoms from serving in a war zone, a fierce internal battle has raged on the home front as Guard leaders fought for control....
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Related: Globe's Good Night Kiss
