Military’s new sexual-assault rules present uncharted legal ground

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/06/06/3230946/militarys-new-sexual-assault-rules.html?sp=/99/296/331/354/

Military’s new sexual-assault rules present uncharted legal ground
By Michael Doyle
McClatchy Washington Bureau
June 6, 2014

WASHINGTON — The Navy corpsman said a colleague raped her. Then she told him to pay up or she’d talk.

He paid, but it was a sting. Special agents had him wired.

Now one sailor stands accused of sexual assault while his accuser is the subject of an extortion investigation. Their tangled fates are playing out in a legal arena recently rebuilt by Congress, whose members pushed changes in the sexual assault rules that the military must now figure out how to implement.

“It’s a new animal,” Navy Cmdr. Paul Walker said in court earlier this week.