USA TODAY International Edition
‘ You go from hero to zero’
The National Guard welcomes and promotes women. That is, until they report a sexual assault.
Teresa James faced a colossal mission: Evacuate 1,500 military workers while moving thousands of trucks and tents off an American air base in central Iraq.
Working under occasional enemy fire, James orchestrated the move in 45 days – a task commanders called “Herculean,” awarding her the Bronze Star in 2010.
It was one of many accolades James received as an officer in the National Guard. Her performance reviews were stellar year after year.
That all changed in 2012, when James reported being raped by a superior officer.
Suddenly, her performance reviews went from glowing to subpar. One supervisor wrote that James had “communication difficulties” and “made some decisions which caused me to question her judgment.”
She was denied a promotion to colonel and reluctantly took an early medical retirement, ending her military career with the West Virginia National Guard. “You go from hero to zero in a matter of hours after you report this thing,” James said.
National Guard units have buried sexual assault allegations, withheld crucial documents from victims and retaliated against women who have
“I was very passionate about my job and very proud. Now I am absolutely ashamed to tell people that I served in the West Virginia Army National Guard.”
Stephany Juzwiak
come forward, including denying them career advancement, an investigation by the Cap Times, in conjunction with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, found.
“The actual rape pales in comparison to what people live through,” said Christine Clayburg, who reported being assaulted in the California Air National Guard.
The Guard answers to the governor in each of its states but effectively polices itself.
Dwight Stirling, an attorney in the California National Guard who prosecutes sexual assault cases within the force and teaches law at the University of Southern California, said the Guard structure “is so convoluted and complex as to be practically incomprehensible” and a potential tool of retaliation.
“The governing rules,” he said, “can be adjusted to fit the circumstances” and have created a “culture resistant to change and uncomfortable with accountability.”
A Cap Times investigation in 2019 revealed how the Wisconsin National Guard mishandled several sexual assault investigations, contributing to the resignation of the state’s longtime Guard leader, Donald Dunbar.
The number of reported sexual assaults in the Guard jumped nationwide from 173 in 2009 to 607 in 2019. Beyond that, little data exists. Guard records show that the force does not know how many allegations are substantiated, how often soldiers are court- martialed and punished and how often cases are referred to civilian police.
The Cap Times/ Journal Sentinel investigation was based on interviews and documents obtained from victims. Reporters filed 108 public records requests across all Air and Army Guard branches nationwide; all were denied.
Some women said it took up to three years to obtain records of their cases. By then, they said, it became extremely difficult to contest the findings.
The National Guard Bureau, a federal agency that oversees Guard units but does not regulate them, issued guidance that state Guards report all sexual assault allegations to police and the national Guard office. The Wisconsin Guard referred just four of 35 alleged sexual assaults to police from 2009 to 2019, a bureau report found.
When Guards do report sexual assault cases to the national bureau, authorities investigate a fraction of them – 110 out of 368 nationwide in 2019, according to the most recent Defense Department report on sexual assault in the military. The bureau said it investigates cases only when civilian police decline to investigate or prosecute.
“I was very passionate about my job and very proud,” said Stephany Juzwiak, who quit the Guard over how it handled her sexual assault allegations. “Now I am absolutely ashamed to tell people that I served in the West Virginia Army National Guard.”
In an emailed statement to the Cap Times/ Journal Sentinel, National Guard Bureau spokeswoman Nahaku McFadden said the agency is pursuing several efforts to improve its response to sexual assault, including adding 17 investigators nationwide to primarily review sex assault complaints, bringing the total number to 36.
McFadden said the bureau does not have the power to regulate Guards because the U. S. Constitution gives states authority over their units. She said the bureau does routine quality assurance checks on data states report, though the Cap Times/ Journal Sentinel found that the information, in some instances, is incomplete.
She said women have access to investigative records through their military- appointed attorneys. Several alleged victims interviewed by the Cap Times/ Journal Sentinel disputed that.
In Wisconsin, new adjutant general Paul Knapp said improvements have been made in the past year. “We’ve developed processes to help ensure proper reporting, investigation, accountability, and support for survivors,” he said in a statement.
A top officer faces retaliation
Teresa James signed up for the West Virginia Guard as a junior in high school, eventually reaching a position that few members of the Guard achieve: battalion commander, overseeing hundreds of soldiers. The Guard, she said, was “everything to me.”
In 2006, James attended a military conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, with two superior officers, including a colonel who she said had made advances toward her.
One night, the colonel came to James’ room with beer and asked her to drink with him. James said she felt trapped and scared. He wouldn’t leave and started rubbing her shoulders, then he raped her, she said. Fearing retribution, she didn’t report the incident.
In 2010, James heard rumors that the colonel was sexually harassing other women in the unit. She reported the women’s allegations to the adjutant general, the Guard’s top commander, who initiated an internal investigation.
Eighteen months later, James went before the Guard’s retention board, which determines whether officers will be retained and can advance. Officers are typically retained for two years at a time. Earning outstanding reviews, James had always been retained for two years. This time, she was told the Guard was retaining her for one.
Two months later, in July 2012, she saw the results of the investigation: Seven other soldiers reported the colonel sexually assaulting or harassing them.
James decided to report her own allegations against the colonel to the Department of the Army, which oversaw complaints from her Guard branch.
In November 2012, she received her next performance evaluation. Her supervisor said her work was “satisfactory.”
“Consider for promotion if her performance improves,” her supervisor wrote.
She contested the review and wrote a rebuttal: “This comment is inaccurate and unjust as there is no record of any substandard performance or history of counseling indicating the necessity of improved performance.”
Four months after she reported that she had been assaulted, the National Guard Bureau substantiated her claims. Guard Bureau Investigators found that the colonel “used intimidation and fear to sexually assault the victim resulting in nonconsensual intercourse.”
By this time, according to James’ medical records, she was struggling with post- traumatic stress disorder from her combat experience and from what Veterans Affairs termed “military sexual trauma” from the incident with the colonel.
In 2015, James learned that she was not selected for a promotion to colonel. Worse, a military medical board determined she was no longer fit to serve because of her PTSD. Her negative performance review was considered in the board’s decision, according to her medical records.
She had filed a complaint with the Defense Department Inspector General Office, saying the West Virginia Guard retaliated against her for reporting that she was raped. The office took three years to conclude its investigation, finding James was retaliated against by a high- ranking supervisor, according to its report in 2016.
She said it finally gave her some justice – “that somebody outside of the organization did say, ‘ This happened.
They did wrong.’ ”
The report identified the supervisor as Brig. Gen. Charles Veit, the West Virginia Guard’s second in command. An Army Department spokesman said the department gave Veit a written reprimand in 2017 in the case.
He left the Guard that year, said Maj. Holli Nelson, a West Virginia Guard spokeswoman. Veit declined to comment through the spokeswoman.
Neither the Defense Department report nor other records obtained by the Cap Times/ Journal Sentinel identify the colonel accused of assaulting James, so the news organizations are not naming him.
The Defense Department report recommended the Army remove James’ negative performance review from her personnel file and award her a military service medal the Guard had withheld. The Army complied.
James accepted a medical retirement from the Guard in 2019 at age 57. Nelson denied James was forced out and said her case was used to make positive changes in how sexual assault in the Guard is addressed.
There were no criminal charges filed. Nelson said the Guard referred James’ sexual assault claims to police in Little Rock.
One of the prosecuting attorneys who reviewed the case, John Johnson, said his office did not file charges because there was no allegation of physical force, and by the time the rape accusation was reported and investigated, Arkansas’ statute of limitations had expired.
The colonel, records show, retired in 2013 with full benefits: $ 4,182 per month.
‘ The rage was unbelievable’
Christine Clayburg remembers the impulse vividly: Five years ago, speeding down the Pacific Coast Highway outside Malibu, her anger against the California National Guard mounting, she thought about careening off the road and onto the rocky cliffs below.
“The rage was unbelievable, uncontrollable,” she recalled.
The suicidal thoughts plagued Clayburg for months after she reported being raped by a colleague in 2015. She fought for help, she said, but found herself trapped in a bureaucratic maze that wore her down.
“The system failed her,” said Connie Hanson- Poulsen, a former Guard officer who helped handle Clayburg’s allegations. “She was not able to get the care she deserved.”
Clayburg enlisted with the Minnesota National Guard in May 2008, two days before turning 35 – the age cutoff.
She became a loadmaster for C- 130 cargo planes. After taking a promotion with the California Air Guard, she was deployed overseas several times, including a combat tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One morning in April 2015, she said, she woke up in a colleague’s hotel room bed, terrified, with no memory of how she got there. She said she last remembered sipping wine that her colleague poured for her at a gathering the night before.
She said she was hesitant to come forward, fearing retaliation from her command. Eventually, she reported the case, she said, so she could receive mental health care to help her cope.
National Guard Bureau investigators found her allegations to be unsubstantiated, citing text messages Clayburg sent to her colleague after the alleged assault. The bureau report said the messages were “consistent with two courting individuals.”
Clayburg disputed the investigators’ characterization of the texts, saying she remained in contact with her colleague because sheriff ’ s officials encouraged her to do so in hopes he would acknowledge the incident. A Ventura County Sheriff ’ s Office spokesman declined to comment but said detectives use a variety of methods to investigate criminal activity.
Civilian prosecutors declined the case, and because of that, the Cap Times and Journal Sentinel are not naming the accused.
Clayburg tried to transfer out of her unit, so she wouldn’t have to work with the accused perpetrator. Records show the Guard denied her requests.
Her VA- appointed psychologist, Kathryn Davis, wrote to Clayburg’s unit and said the command response was retaliatory, noting that her patient’s psychological struggles were “clearly related to the incident that occurred while in the line of duty and to how the command has handled the situation.”
Clayburg continued to work while struggling to get consistent mental health care, according to correspondence between her and commanders. According to the emails, commanders told her the only way to get paid time off to receive military medical care was to declare herself unfit for duty.
She reluctantly agreed. That effectively ended her Guard career. She was medically discharged in 2019.
The VA determined the alleged sexual assault was responsible for her PTSD, agency records show. She was deemed to be 100% disabled and is paid $ 3,146 monthly.
Guard officials redefine assault
Stephany Juzwiak said commanders buried her allegation.
Juzwiak said she was sexually assaulted on multiple occasions by a superior officer in the West Virginia Guard.
A Guard investigation, based on witness statements, concluded the colleague acted inappropriately.
Once investigators determined that a sexual assault had occurred, the state Guard should have referred the case to the National Guard Bureau.
The West Virginia Guard, according to records, characterized Juzwiak’s sexual assault as “physical contact harassment,” a lesser offense that downplayed the allegations and allowed the state Guard to maintain jurisdiction.
The state investigator in the case wrote in a report that he asked state commanders to send the case to the national office, but that didn’t happen.
Juzwiak said she pressed West Virginia Guard officials to refer the case to the national office, but 14 months later, there was still no action.
Fed up, she went to the police. The Wood County prosecuting attorney charged the man in 2019 with two felony counts of first- degree sexual abuse, according to indictment records.
“Somebody finally listened to me,” Juzwiak said.
But the prosecutor dismissed the case in December. Records are sealed, and the prosecutor did not respond to questions about why the case was dropped.
She left the Guard in 2019.
“The day I discharged on Nov. 14, 2019 – it felt like a ton of bricks got lifted off of my chest. I felt like I could breathe,” said Juzwiak, 31. “For the longest time I felt like a prisoner.”
Her colleague resigned in 2018 in lieu of termination from the Guard, records show. The Cap Times and Journal Sentinel are not naming him because civilian prosecutors dropped the case.
Nelson, the West Virginia Guard spokeswoman, said in a statement that the Guard could not discuss Juzwiak’s case, but her allegations are “not reflective of the commands’ actions and efforts in cases of sexual assault.”
“We have a duty to protect our force and want to ensure a safe environment for all to succeed and thrive,” Nelson said.