A Military Trial for Rape with a Twist

Out.com published a feature concerning the trial of Capt. Devery Lane Taylor based upon allegations that he raped a male soldier. The article describes the difficulties and oddities associated with such prosecutions in a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," military. Among the truly bizarre parts of the story was this segment which included an excerpt from the trial transcript:

Without being able to out anyone as gay officially, in Taylor’s trial government and defense lawyers both resorted to stereotyped circumstantial evidence, pointing out that a soldier who swears to his heterosexuality also trims his pubes or wears a nipple ring or sometimes puts his arm around gay friends. “You’ll hear from him, under oath, that he trims up his pubic hair. He’s a male, and he’s in his 30s, and he trims himself up. That’s how he normally does it,” a lawyer told the jury at one point, talking about one of the accusers. At another, when an accuser said, “I mean, he was draping himself on me. He was constantly trying to come on to me. He was always leaning on me. He always wants to be beside me,” an attorney followed up with “And that is not unusual in the gay community, is it?” Captain Taylor was even asked, “Have you ever received any theater training?” And a line of questioning on the subject of nipple rings produced the following exchange:

Q. He wears a nipple ring?

A. He showed it to me.

Q. He admits that he’s got a nipple ring?

A. Oh, yeah. He showed it to me.

Q. Do you know any straight guys that wear nipple rings?

A. No, I don’t. That’s a gay thing, as far as I know.

So, there you have it. I just don't know what else to say.

Comments

[Phil Cave]

And it looks like his appeal is still wandering the halls of the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals for review under Article 66(c), UCMJ. Unlike other courts, Article 66, UCMJ, gives the appellate judges power to find him not guilty. Each judge must be individually convinced beyond reasonable doubt of guilt before affirming the findings and sentence.

[Victim]

This man raped me and countless others. He is GUILTY as charged and should spend those 50 years behind bars. Deveray, aka Marouge, new what he was doing in that Billfish apartment. He is a sick man...