Rank Trumped Rape For Female Sailor To Get Justice

Mother of former Navy sailor opens up about her suicide 
ABC 10 News
Michael Chen
Jun 8, 2015

On a June night in 2011, Cesena shot and killed herself in her Spring Valley home.

SAN DIEGO - For the first time, a mother of a former Navy sailor is opening up and pointing the finger at the Navy's actions in the death of her daughter.

More than a year after Katie Cesena enlisted in the Navy in 2007, her mother says her daughter, serving on the USS Sterett, told her she had been raped by a shipmate in San Diego - the incident involving a knife and a hotel room. “She said she wasn't meant to survive the incident and if it happened again, she would not,” said Cesena’s mother Laurie Reaves.

Reaves says her daughter reported it to her superiors.

“They told her he had been questioned, and she was told, ‘it’s not that we don't believe you, but he outranks you,’” said Reaves. read more here