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Article 32 ends for O-6 charged with rape

SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas — Air Force attorneys defending Col. Samuel Lofton III, a senior officer accused of a series of thefts and sexual attacks, maintained the colonel’s innocence after a Tuesday judicial hearing.

Though Lofton’s defense team would not say how he’d plea to all the charges — which allegedly occurred between late 2004 to May 2007 — his senior defense attorney insisted that Lofton was not guilty of rape or sexual assault.

Lofton’s grand jury-style Article 32 hearing ended here Tuesday. Now an investigating officer will determine if enough evidence exists for a trial.

“We have seen from previous cases that made national news that rushes to judgment often end in unfairness,” said Maj. Mark Etheridge, senior defense counsel, told the Air Force Times after the hearing.

Etheridge said he knows of no DNA or physical evidence linking Lofton to the rape.

He also drew parallels to the 2006 scandal at Duke University in which lacrosse players were accused of rape charges that were later debunked.

A career munitions officer, Lofton was relieved in May from commanding the 82nd Training Group. Prosecutors have accused him of rape, indecent assault, a string of fraud charges, being absent without leave and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

Rebuffing a sometimes teary testimony by two Air Force careerists who claim Lofton sexually assaulted them, the colonel’s former secretary said Tuesday that the women consistently sought out his attention. “A lot of it was flirting and googly eyes,” said Martha Cannon, Lofton’s secretary from 2004 until he was relieved of command in May in the charges’ wake.

However, both accusers are adamant that they only engaged Lofton professionally. During testimony, they described multiple one-on-one attacks by Lofton in an office building they shared with the colonel. Each alleged assault took place after duty hours, when most of the building had cleared out, they said.

In each alleged assault scenario, Lofton approached the women after most of the other workers had left, started with small talk and then placed one of their hands on his trousers, where they felt his erect penis.

In addition, one of his alleged victims told Air Force attorneys and an investigating officer that she saw Lofton behind a partition on April 5, 2007, as she was leaving her office. He rounded the side and she saw his erect penis poking through his Battle Dress Uniform trouser buttonhole, the woman said. Lofton, she alleged, bent her over, pulled her skirt up and raped her. He later asked for her torn pantyhose as a souvenir, she told the attorneys.

Lofton also faces improper conduct charges for allegedly calling an active-duty Sheppard Air Force Base leader at home to make sexual comments. But the NCO seemed unfazed while testifying and told attorneys she never felt like a victim. “The truth is,” she said, “it’s very difficult to offend me.”

Financial officers at Sheppard also testified that the commander repeatedly charged bogus trips to the government, as well as hotel lodging, diners at restaurants such as Fuddruckers and Applebee’s, and even his daughters’ meal plans at a public school system in Texas.

Though Lofton’s defense team adamantly maintains the colonel’s innocence regarding the sexual assaults, they would not comment on the theft charges. Prosecutors allege he fraudulently charged at least $10,000 to the Air Force.

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