Rape Alleged At West Point, Annapolis

Rape Alleged At West Point, Annapolis
2 Women Claim Academies Ignored 'Rampant Sexual Harassment'
By Kyra Phillips and Jessi Joseph
CNN
April 22, 2012

(CNN) -- Karley Marquet and Annie Kendzior said they enrolled at two of the nation's most prestigious military academies to serve their country and become military officers. Instead, they claim, they were raped -- and their military careers are now over. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. Federal Court on Friday, the women claim the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, ignored "rampant sexual harassment."

The suit claims former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the former superintendents of the two academies and the current secretaries of the Army and Navy are "personally responsible" for failing to "prevent rapes and sexual assaults at the Naval Academy and West Point."

Karley Marquet was a high school honor student, championship swimmer and all-star rugby player. She could have gone to college anywhere with her credentials, but Marquet chose West Point.

"When I was accepted, it was kind of overwhelming," she says. "You can't imagine having that structure and discipline but at the same time having people look at you like, 'Wow, you're doing something great for our country.'"

But Marquet said her dream of becoming an officer was shattered in January 2011, her second semester at West Point.
read more here