{"id":24487,"date":"2021-04-12T06:11:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T06:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/04\/12\/army-didnt-prosecute-nco-accused-of-rape-so-he-did-it-again-and-again\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:23:14","slug":"army-didnt-prosecute-nco-accused-of-rape-so-he-did-it-again-and-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2021\/04\/12\/army-didnt-prosecute-nco-accused-of-rape-so-he-did-it-again-and-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Army didn\u2019t prosecute NCO accused of rape. So he did it again. And again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Staff Sgt. Randall S. Hughes got off with a slap on the wrist after he raped the wife of a young soldier under his charge during a Super Bowl party in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t the first time Hughes raped someone, according to charge sheets, and it wouldn\u2019t be the last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The victim, Leah Ramirez, reported the rape to Army CID the next day. It happened after a party held at Ramirez\u2019s home near Fort Bliss, Texas. Ramirez\u2019s husband was passed out drunk after Hughes had egged him on to continue taking shots of whiskey throughout the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramirez put her husband to bed, the party ended and everyone else left. Ramirez was outside alone with Hughes when he propositioned her for sex. She said no, so Hughes grabbed her, forced himself upon her against a grill and later dragged her by the hair into her home where he raped her, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After it ended, Ramirez hid in a bathroom until Hughes eventually left the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI waited until the morning and then I went to the hospital to get checked,\u201d she recalled. \u201cIt took CID 48 hours to get into my house for evidence, so I lived in the crime scene for 48 hours. And then, it took three years to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018This is how it is\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a year-long investigation, Army CID agents<\/a> determined the allegations were credible. But Hughes\u2019 brigade commander decided against prosecution in August 2018, according to an Army official familiar with the case who declined to name the brigade commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that time, the official said, there were no other reports of misconduct about Hughes. The same year he escaped prosecution, Hughes\u2019 name appeared on the sergeant first class promotion list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramirez learned of the pending promotion and complained to the commander of Fort Bliss at the time, Maj. Gen. Patrick Matlock, who then gave Hughes a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand. The GOMOR, an administrative letter documenting misconduct, effectively stopped the promotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramirez\u2019s husband had changed posts while the investigation unfolded, and it didn\u2019t seem like there was much left she could do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was told CID had enough evidence to believe it happened, and Fort Bliss still didn\u2019t do anything,\u201d she said. \u201cThey just told me the command said this is what it was \u2014 this is how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army would later learn that Hughes was a serial rapist. A few months after Ramirez reported her rape, Hughes did the same thing to another woman at Fort Bliss, according to court documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hughes transferred to Fort Dix, New Jersey, in the intervening years. It wasn\u2019t long before he was once again accused of rape \u2014 this time by his teenage daughter. But now, Fort Dix CID agents saw the GOMOR in Hughes\u2019 file, and in 2020 they began looking into his past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That CID inquiry ultimately resulted in criminal charges spanning more than a decade and involving five victims. A plea agreement whittled the charges down to a few of the most recent incidents, but still included both 2017 rapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\t