--- title: Military Sexual Assault: Jeffrey Sinclair Trial Shows Woes Persist description: The trial of a general accused of sexual assault has only highlighted the Army's problem canonical: https://time.com/31890/military-sexual-assault-jeffrey-sinclair-trial/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-20T15:24:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:52:22.916Z article:section: Politics og:title: Military Sexual Assault: Jeffrey Sinclair Trial Shows Woes Persist og:description: The trial of a general accused of sexual assault has only highlighted the Army's problem og:url: https://time.com/31890/military-sexual-assault-jeffrey-sinclair-trial/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt945a4157d4e9f52a/6986865f55a8596560a7fd09/479285057.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Army General To Enter Into Plea Deal In Military Sexual Assault Case og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Military Sexual Assault: Jeffrey Sinclair Trial Shows Woes Persist twitter:description: The trial of a general accused of sexual assault has only highlighted the Army's problem twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt945a4157d4e9f52a/6986865f55a8596560a7fd09/479285057.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # When the Skit Hits the Fan: The Army’s Sexual-Assault Woes Persist > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Mar 20, 2014 3:24 PM UTC  Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair leaves the Fort Bragg Courthouse on Monday. Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair leaves the Fort Bragg Courthouse on Monday. Davis Turner / Getty Images by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Mar 20, 2014 3:24 PM UTC To its credit, the Army itself spotlighted the [sexual-assault rot](http://time.com/17536/pentagon-military-sexual-assault/) pervading the service this week during [the case of Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair](http://time.com/31814/army-general-fined-reprimanded-in-sex-case/). But it only highlighted what appears to have been a messy consensual affair gone sour because Sinclair embarrassed the service by getting caught. On Thursday, Colonel James Pohl reprimanded Sinclair, 51, a former deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, and ordered him to pay a $20,000 fine. But the military judge sentenced him to no jail time, stemming from a plea deal in which Sinclair pleaded guilty to adultery (a crime in the U.S. military) with a female Army captain, 34, in Afghanistan, and related charges. Following the sentencing, Sinclair smiled and hugged his attorneys. The case against him fell apart after the accuser, who charged Sinclair with sexual assault two years ago, was suspected of perjury during a pretrial hearing, and after word surfaced that a senior Army officer may have improperly rejected, for political reasons, an earlier plea offer from Sinclair. The collapse of the prosecution, and the resulting minimal punishment, makes it inconclusive for those advocating major changes in how the military handles sexual assaults. But the real key to the issue of sexual assault in the Army isn’t about the case. Rather, it’s what the court martial highlighted about acceptable actions in today’s Army. On Tuesday, during the final day of a two-day sentencing hearing at Fort Bragg, N.C., Army prosecutors rolled out an officer’s account of a skit performed for Sinclair’s benefit as he prepared to leave his assignment in Germany. The fact that the skit happened isn’t as important as the reaction of those involved. Lieut. Colonel Benjamin Bigelow testified that the 2010 going-away party for Sinclair featured a raunchy skit involving two male soldiers, one playing Sinclair, and the other his primary accuser. The character playing the female captain, wearing a brown wig like the accuser’s hair, “moved in front of the Sinclair character’s crotch,” Bigelow said, “and offered to do something for him.” Much of the crowd laughed loudly. “She was offering to give him oral sex.” The reactions to the skit were telling: **_—For the audience:_** It suggested that those watching would understand the reference. It indicates that such behavior was tolerated, if not condoned, and was ripe for parody. This was not a small crowd, given to locker-room antics. More than 500 people saw it, including German guests. **_—For Rebecca Sinclair, the general’s wife, who was there_**: She was “clearly shocked, angered and dismayed,” according to Bigelow (the accuser did not attend). **_—For Sinclair himself:_** _A_ttorney Richard Scheff [said](http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=9471111), in his client’s defense, that he had nothing to do with the skit: --- > “” --- Maybe it meant nothing to his client, a disgraced officer trying to weasel out of jail time, or to his civilian attorney. But to the Army, it means everything. Any soldier fresh out of basic training knows the meaning of “command climate.” “Command climate” is the air that a military unit breathes. It is its bedrock culture, supposedly forged by leaders and nurtured by everyone in the outfit. Sinclair, by sitting there and watching the skit, accepted it. He didn’t stand up and walk out. Perhaps he didn’t want to embarrass his wife. Maybe he didn’t want to draw any more attention to his earlier actions and attitudes that let fellow soldiers think he’d get a kick out of it. Even if _he_ didn’t get a kick out of it, the _soldiers_ performing it thought he would. That’s the definition of a poor command climate. And until there’s more climate change in the Army, sexual assaults and harassment will continue. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/31890/military-sexual-assault-jeffrey-sinclair-trial/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/31890/military-sexual-assault-jeffrey-sinclair-trial/"},"headline":"When the Skit Hits the Fan: The Army’s Sexual-Assault Woes Persist","datePublished":"2014-03-20T15:24:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:52:22.916Z","description":"The trial of a general accused of sexual assault has only highlighted the Army's problem","url":"https://time.com/31890/military-sexual-assault-jeffrey-sinclair-trial/","keywords":["Military","Army"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt945a4157d4e9f52a/6986865f55a8596560a7fd09/479285057.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Thompson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt945a4157d4e9f52a/6986865f55a8596560a7fd09/479285057.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Army General To Enter Into Plea Deal In Military Sexual Assault Case","caption":"Army General To Enter Into Plea Deal In Military Sexual Assault Case","creditText":"Davis Turner / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/31890/military-sexual-assault-jeffrey-sinclair-trial/","name":"When the Skit Hits the Fan: The Army’s Sexual-Assault Woes Persist"}}]}] ```