Mckinney Libel Suit Rallies His Accusers Woman Sued In Aftermath Of Court-Martial Gets Promise Of Help

Women who charged Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney with sexual harassment are banding together to defend his chief accuser in a libel suit he filed against her.

“The truth is my defense,” retired Sgt. Maj. Brenda Hoster said Tuesday. “It will prevail in the end.”

McKinney, formerly the Army’s top enlisted man, was acquitted in a Fort Belvoir, Va., court-martial of 18 counts involving sexual misconduct, but convicted of obstruction of justice. He accuses Hoster in his own lawsuit of lying by claiming he grabbed her in a Hawaii hotel room when she was his speechwriter in 1996.

McKinney is seeking $1.5 million in damages, including $500,000 for expected loss of retirement benefits because the jury on Monday demoted him one rank, to master sergeant. He also was reprimanded.

His attorney, Charles Gittins, said McKinney didn’t file suit against his five other accusers because a federal law prohibits lawsuits between current members of the military, although he says they also lied.

“We demonstrated, I believe conclusively, that the women were liars, cheats and frauds,” Gittins said. “We proved it.”

The women, incensed by Gittins’ attacks on them inside and outside of court, told Hoster they would back her, including in court and by raising money for a defense fund, according to her attorney, Susan Barnes.

Barnes insisted that if McKinney pursues the libel case the women will prove their accusations that he pressured them for sex at military conferences, at his office and home.

“In a criminal case, the standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Bernard Corr, a law professor at American University. “In a civil case, you need only prove something with a preponderance of evidence, which is a much lower standard.”

Corr said there are four basic elements to a libel case: whether a defendant said or wrote something defamatory; whether other people heard it; whether it damaged the person who sued; and whether it was the truth.

“In this case, the focus will be on whether the women’s allegations are true,” he said. “If they are, that’s a complete defense.”

Hoster went public with her accusations just over a year ago, giving an interview with The New York Times in a story that received front page play and led to McKinney’s dismissal as sergeant major of the Army. She also talked about her accusations on television talk shows, unlike McKinney’s other accusers, who kept a low profile after coming forward.

The women, who didn’t know each other and hadn’t met until last week when they attended the final days of the six-week trial, said they were bitter about how they were treated on the stand. Defense attorneys laid bare their personal lives, including unplanned pregnancies, and portrayed them as liars out for revenge because of job disputes or other slights.

“I know I’m not a liar,” Hoster said Tuesday on NBC’s “Today.” “I now know those other women aren’t liars either and we’re not cheats and we’re not frauds. … The truth is my defense.”

McKinney, 47, had faced a possible five years in prison and a reduction of rank to private on the obstruction of justice conviction for coaching one of is accusers to lie to Army investigators. If the 29-year veteran had been convicted of all counts, he could have gone to prison for up to 55-1/2 years and been dishonorably discharged.