Finally in 2010, after accusations from more than two dozen women, the Navy filed multiple counts of sexual misconduct and other charges against Velasquez.
Most of the charges were dropped under a plea deal. Velasquez served a week in the brig, was dismissed from the Navy, lost his license to practice medicine, and was required to register as a sex offender.
Retired Rear Adm. Richard B. Wren, the former commander of Navy forces in Japan who oversaw Velasquez's court-martial, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
Wilson, 27, left the Navy, distraught over how her case had been handled.
The U.S. military has come under fire even when it did not have legal jurisdiction in a sexual assault case.
Catherine Fisher, an Australian and longtime Japan resident, accused the Japanese and U.S. governments of “harboring the suspect” after she was raped, allegedly by an American sailor, in 2002.
Japanese prosecutors refused to pursue criminal charges for undisclosed reasons, but in 2004 the Tokyo District Court ruled in a civil case that Fisher had indeed been sexually assaulted, and awarded her 3 million yen ($30,000) in damages.
By then the accused, Bloke T. Deans, had left the country. Fisher and her attorneys said the Navy was aware of the Japanese court case against Deans, but gave him an honorable discharge and allowed him to leave the country without informing the court or her.
U.S. military officials refused to disclose his whereabouts, citing privacy reasons, she said. A spokesman for U.S. Forces Japan declined comment on Fisher's case and said the command does not track the whereabouts of former service members.
Fisher tracked Deans down in Milwaukee, and sued in Wisconsin Circuit Court in 2012 to claim the damages awarded in Japan. Last year, she won, but settled for $1 -- to make a point.
