15-year-old rape victim receives apology from the Army
Daniel Brazelton
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A 15-year-old Antelope Valley girl who was allegedly raped by an Army rifleman who escaped last month, prompting a weeklong national manhunt that ended with his arrest in Florida, said she was thankful to have received an apology from the Army, but she wanted more done.
"I am very thankful, but an apology is not going to be enough,'' the girl, identified only as "Jaymee,'' said at a news conference with her lawyer, Gloria Allred. "We want changes in what they do in the future and consequences for those whose actions resulted in my family and myself having to live in fear while a nationwide manhunt was on.''
Jaymee, Allred and her family have called for a military inquiry into the escape of rifleman Daniel Brazelton, 20, from custody at Fort Stewart near Hinesville, Ga., while awaiting extradition to California.
Allred said earlier the Army never told the alleged victim about the suspect's Feb. 11 escape, and that she was terrified when she found out he was on the loose. Brazelton was captured a week later in Florida.
Brazelton was on active duty at the time of the alleged attack in December 2009 and was arrested at the base in Georgia on Feb. 3, according to Allred.
According to the District Attorney's Office, Brazelton was charged Feb. 2 with felony counts of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and lewd act on a child, and a misdemeanor count of dissuading a witness.
Brazelton was held in Liberty County Jail and, four days after his arrest, waived extradition to California to face trial.
According to Allred, Brazelton was taken from the jail to Fort Stewart—the largest military installation east of the Missisippi River and home to the Army's 3rd Infantry Division—for treatment of an undisclosed medical problem.
While in Army custody, Brazelton was able to get a cell phone to send several messages to his Facebook page, to send greetings to his friends and family and to tell them he was being taken back to California to go to jail.
Later that day, while Brazelton was being brought back to Fort Stewart, he escaped from a vehicle while stuck in traffic. Allred said it was unclear if Brazelton was handcuffed.
The Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies issued a special bulletin, stating that Brazelton was believed to be en route to Palmdale or Lancaster and should be considered "armed and dangerous,'' Allred said.
He was captured Feb. 18 in Daytona Beach, Fla. Jaymee said she was relieved at the news of his arrest.
"Just to know that he was in custody of, you know, someone who was responsible enough to keep him and not, you know, find out that he's somewhere out there that, you know, I don't know where he is,'' she said. "He could be right outside my window. So to know he was locked up ... just confirmed in my heart that I knew that I was safe in my own home.''
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A 15-year-old alleged rape victim, her grandparents and attorney Gloria Allred demanded today an Army investigation into how the accused rapist was able to escape military custody and avoid recapture for a week.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The weeklong search for an army private suspected of raping a 15-year-old girl in the Antelope Valley ended on Friday when he was arrested in Florida, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Daniel Brazelton of Palmdale was staying in a hotel in Daytona Beach, Fla. where he surrendered to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division and Daytona Beach Police Department around 7:20 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Capt. Mike Parker said.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A 20-year-old Army private who escaped from custody in Georgia while awaiting extradition to Los Angeles County on suspicion of raping a teenage girl may be headed back to the Southland, authorities said today.
Until Friday, Daniel Brazelton had been jailed in Hinesville, Ga., awaiting extradition to face prosecution for allegedly raping a 15-year-old in December 2009, said Capt. Mike Parker of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.
COLUMBIA, S.C.—Cindy Williams didn’t tell anyone about her years in the military after she returned to civilian life in 2003, including how she was gang-raped by fellow soldiers.
Williams and 30 other South Carolina female veterans have broken their silence about their experiences in the military, from the recruitment office to the battlefield, in “Soldier Girl,” a documentary by University of South Carolina (USC) speech, communication and rhetoric instructor Cathy Brookshire.
Veterans Day traces its roots back to World War I, originally known as the Great War, because the carnage and scope (it involved all of the world’s major powers and a total number of combatants topping 70 million troops) of it surpassed any previous armed struggle experienced in the history of civilization. The official end of hostilities was marked by the Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919 at the palace of the same name on the outskirts of Paris.
