Sexual Assault Of Female Veterans Reported At Tomah VA
One Tomah VA mental health care employee was just jailed over multiple sexual assault allegations leveled by inpatient female veterans suffering from PTSD and substance abuse.
An internal public affairs memo was leaked by employees to certain reporters that contained some of the specifics but left out the name and nature of allegations against mental health specialist Charles Davis.
Reporter AJ Lagoe was able to get a copy of Davis’ mug shot (above) and posted it to Twitter. I grabbed a copy so readers can get an idea of what the guy looks like. What you are about to read might surprise some.
Tomah VA Employee Charles Davis
Reports indicate Davis allegedly forced oral sex onto one woman and exposed his penis to two other women. Once rumors circulated around the facility other women began coming forward. Davis now faces seven charges related to various incidents.
Public Affairs officer Matthew Gowan left out the above graphic details in his email, but the note to employees was specific enough to give an idea that something big probably went down:
Employees, there has been an unfortunate incident in our medical center. I wanted you to be aware in an effort to be transparent and foster trust.
A Tomah VA Medical Center Mental Health Peer Support Specialist was arrested yesterday and booked into the Monroe County Jail.
The employee faces seven charges and was arraigned in Monroe County Court this afternoon.
Officials at the Tomah VA Medical Center first became aware of the allegations on Thursday, December 31 when a Veteran inpatient reported the inappropriate behavior. The employee was immediately placed on Administrative Absence and removed from clinical care duties.
The VA Police investigation is ongoing.
Tomah VA Mental Health Problems
Most readers should be aware of numerous employee problems plaguing the facility over the past years. The biggest issues existed within the Tomah VA mental health department with over prescription of opioids. Apparently similar problems persist.
I am glad the matter has come to light and I certainly hope VA leadership at Tomah VA was unaware of the behavior before this point. However, given the scope of the allegations, if true, it seems highly likely that VA looked the other way until at least one brave victim came forward.
I want to go on record with my sympathy, and my promise for assistance in any way, for veterans who are brutalized by VA employees. But I am an individual who doesn’t have first hand knowledge of “incidental” molestation or rapes. Finallly, FINALLY the press is paying attention to these.
But I have been fighting for 29 years and 8 months for justice when my womanhood made me vulnerable to a different type of sexual crime, thanks to a VA medical provider.
I have made many attempts to converse with Ben Krause, I have used the “Share Your Story” link and entered material. I have provided enough evidence and graphics so that disabledveterans.org ought to have been able to create an article of substance, that brings in a stream of public comments. This being pushed into the shadows of my saga has got to stop.
#doctoredabuse #vaaccountability
While being treated for chronic pain from an ortho/neuro injury in my groin, near my cervix, that ended my Navy career, one of the Department of` Veterans Affairs physicians, who was also a Univ of Texas Medical School in San Antonio Clinical Professor of Medicine. therapeutically deceived, exploited, STALKED and thrice raped me. It cost him his license to practice medicine or prescribe anywhere in the US. It got me, in principle, a diagnosis of PTSD-sexual trauma under Section 1151, Title 38 U.S.C.
But what it has really done to me is something heinous, and no one will listen. Impaired physicians with a history of mismanaging doctor-patient relationships, and inflicting sexual force on patients is a hush-hush topic in our society. I have seen other Continents get into an uproar on social media. Someone has got to know what it’s like for me to have been STALKED in two different states, knowing the doctor had lied and said he had a medical conference to attend to get time off from the VA hospital. To have a little brother tricked into providing my contact information. To hear a telephone voice hit me in the morning of finals week, my first semester in grad school say things that upset me so much I walked into my Accounting final, signed my name and walked out. To psychologically and occupationally be “damaged goods” for 30 years, so that when my husband and I were reviewed by social workers to adopt children, he had to go to great lengths to not let it out, what Dr. Warren had put me through, or we wouldn’t get approved.
I need understanding. I need to not be accused of attempting to hijack anyone else’s forum. I need people to understand that I am an authority on dealing with the VA under these circumstances, and to live through the retaliation of everyone at Vermont Ave.,NW because they LOATHE having to grant 1151 compensation diagnoses.
LET’S BROADEN THE DIALOGUE, LET ME HELP THESE VICTIMS FROM MY OWN PERSPECTIVE, and MAKE ENOUGH NOISE THAT THE MEDIA AND CONGRESS HEAR ABOUT MY VERY CRUCIAL SUGGESTIONS FOR REGULATION AND LEGISLATION CHANGES. I’m asking Ben Krause and you guys for help. Game on!
I am really worried that the VA or AFGE Attorneys that will no doubt be defending Charles Davis, will do their very best to discredit the accuser’s claims by stating they are PTSD and Substance Abuse Patients….something along those lines to allow the thug to come back to work and continue Charles Davis’ abuse of patients.
Please Ben, keep us up to date on this.
Well,,I was wondering why ,”Ben” has not made all you veterans’ aware that the cdc and Tammy Baldwin have MORE REGULATIONS in store for all u physically injured veterans’ who need medicines every day to keep you physical pain level low,,,more regulation to take away your medicine are on the table right now,,,public comment is open till Jan 13th,,soo if any of u value the little medicines u have left,,make your physical pain heard thru your words,,,,publicly comment on more restrictions on your medicines,,,to the cdc website,,maryw
Looks innocent to me !!!
Clearly the guy will be given a higher GS rating and the new, “VA BONUS FOR PREDATORS”……….It’s just the VA way boys and girls…….
OIG Masturbator” to retire quietly he sure would come in handy to take fishing with the way I see it they’ve been doing it to us every day for many years in their own little way my anxiety over this shit is causing me to think terrible things like bringing my sniper ===== out of retirement.
https://ow.ly/Zo5Ln Other US Vets’ issue, which is damaging patients’ lives, that the public, media, dignitaries, and power brokers have got to see. https://ow.ly/Zkd5W #doctoredabuse https://ow.ly/ZiPQf . At least, click on the first link here for three graphics files that the VA has had since 1993 and done nothing about. #vaacountability THANK YOU very much.
This is what happens when people know they will never be held accountable for anything they do. We all need to write and call the president to sign an executive order or what ever it takes to put an end to the inhumane treatment of Veterans. Animals have more advocacy than we do ASPCA PETA and lobbyists. President Obama please help us before you leave office you owe no political favors as your presidency wains help us.
Obama’s DOJ would actually PROTECT this thug just as they are defending all the thugs across the USA that have REFUSED to obey police. Obama and DOJ are not going to do a damn thing.
Obama will call his case a case of yet another “Disenfranchised Youth” that grew-up not knowing any better…or some BS like that.
Being former USAF, I am betting that Charles Davis did not LEARN this behavior from the Army or any Branch. He HAD to have left a trail of physical and emotional destruction in his 23 years in Army. This needs a deep investigation because Military Sexual Trauma is one of the very first things the VA asks a Vet upon being screened to use the VAMC.
I am just waiting for the Black Lives Matter protest on defending this POS of a human.
@CorpsmanuP! (@Tang1967)-
I wanted to thank you for that wonderful grammatical phrase you posted of, “Utter Bovine Scatology!”
However, you could go as far as “Udder Bovine Scatology”…I was raised on a farm, so in midst of this unacceptable criminal behavior and acts Charles Davis has done to Veterans, wanted to thank you for your dark humor.
I am betting since Charles Davis retired a Master Sgt. 23 years Army, that he has left a trail of Military Sexual Assault victims for at *least* from his time as an E-4 upwards. These types love power-trips and love to use it to intimidate their victims and potential victims while ‘reloading’. This type of behavior does not magically manifest itself overnight as a one or two time event either. Research definitely shows this.
I will go as far as saying that I am betting Charles Davis has had many people cover-up for him in his time in the Army and now three years as an employee at the Tomah, VAMC. Otherwise, wouldn’t any background check, if any, the VA would have done for potential employment catch a glimpse of his past abuses?
Or…?
Is Charles Davis simply related to someone at the Tomah, VAMC, and through the VA’s sick Nepotism, tried to keep Charles Davis out of the news? Does Charles Davis have several “Aunties” that work there? I have been told by countless Vets that the Army in particular, but by no means isolated, has for quite a while protected thugs like this that were both Enlisted and Officers. Just a higher % in Army because apparently just prior to 9/11 a few Military Branches seriously lowered their recruitment standards and it became even worse in immediate years after 9/11 to the point that Thugs, as in Gang Members, were joining the military then getting out and using that very training to teach other thug gang members to place mayhem in their neighborhoods…this was on 60 Minutes and 20/20 quite a few years back.
I stated this because am thinking Charles Davis is part of this culture of “lowered recruitment standards” just to have a warm body with a gun to be shipped off to the big cat litter box called the middle east.
Damn, this pisses me off. The fact he was even working in “Psy Peer Support” is scary beyond belief, which just shows what kind of standards the VA has for its hiring.
We know already they’ll never do anything to this guy. The union and administration will protect him from any investigations over what he has done. It’s probably going to be handled at Tomah VA in a similar fashion the way the Alexandria, La. VA did. VAOIG will confuse the whole issue. DOJ won’t intervene. The politicians don’t give a damn. The public will ignore it. The assault victims will get shamed. And the entire matter will go away!…..We’re veterans, Bro’s. We’re still not citizens yet!
Dear Mr Krause:
As I already stated I can not think of anything else to say because I have made
almost every suggestion I can think of, except the last one (suggestion) that is to invoke Divine Intervention however, that does’not preclude us from continue with the usual means, the appealing to the human element, although it seems to be useless.
We could direct our concerns to the “President, the DOJ, Congress, Senate” they all
profess, to be champion to all whom they swore to represent when they were placed in office by those who are now ignored and summarily rejected particularly veterans.
Yours for GOD and Country
Frank P. Calderon
THE AFGE UNION IS GOING TO SAY NOTHING TO SEE HERE ALL JUST MOVE ALONG HELL NO P RISION TIME FOR THIS RAPIST FROM HELL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
01/06/2016
Dear Benjamin Krause,
Crime after Crime has been found at this “institution” that has been plastered with numerous investigators for months, with on going investigations—DEA.
“Candyland” has taken a new turn in the darkness.
Where does that put the Phoenix VA?
Sincerely,
Don Karg
VA ONE BIG BIG BIG FEDERAL RICO CRIME RACKET RUN BY AFGE UNION CONTRACTS VETS YO ARE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SCREWED BY VA THUG RATS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If I were Bob McDonald, I would cede Tomah VAMC to the Smithsonian, and let them make a museum of treasonous crime of it.
@Ron,
Have you noticed no on can locate Ol Bagdaddy Bobby?
I don’t believe he will go in front of the committee for at least 90 days. Beginning today! Wanna bet?
Next time Ol Bagdaddy Bobby appears before Congress will be Spring, when the VA magically runs out of cash and again holds Veteran Healthcare Hostage and even then I am thinking he would try to send Sloan Sly Gibson instead.
I am thinking that Ol Bagdaddy Bobby has a permanent bar stool in that exclusive “Disney Club” that’s not for the “general public” nor do most know about it.
Bobby may even have a Sleigh Bed down in the “Disney Tunnels”.
This has to be the most “ghostly” VA Secretary ever…kind of the “Claude Rains” of VA Secretaries!!!
Hey namnibor, he could be over in Paris at the Pershing Hall Hotel sipping $1000 glasses of wine on taxpayers money.
Or he could be over in Hawaii staying at Obamy’s multi million dollar pad he bought on taxpayers money. I remember a nudest beach real close to that house.
FYI – that’s the house used in the tv series “Magnum P.I.”. It’s also the house Elvis purchased decades ago. I know this because I lived in Hawaii for ten years, 1978-88!
crazyelf-
Thanks for that history, and I totally remember that estate. No Thanks on that conjured image you spawned by just mentioning in relation to Ol’ Bobby with a home in tropics….then you had to mention a ‘nude beach’ is close-by…then my brain went to the glass conference room office the VA OIG Mr. Master Masturbator and paradise was definitely lost. Thanks!
OT- It would sure build confidence if our VA Sec. was actively and constantly every week, arriving at any of the VAMC’s and not just Regional Offices, and do this like Strategic Air Command (SAC) would do, entirely by surprise alerts…meaning surprise visits.
But there I go trying to make sense again…oh, yeah I read yesterday’s to early morning blog on that ass trying to say Obama has power to do whatever he wants…W T F??? Do they teach basic history and American Civics/Gov’t. in schools anymore? Was that cut out with everything else because it took too long to read to these idiots of this immediacy/entitlement generation?
Rant out.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he’s been working for the VA for over 3 years. Peer Support Specialist? Working in mental health with office automation training? He retired from the Army as a Master Sergeant with over 23 years. How many other soldiers has he done this to?
And a correction to my earlier comment, it wasn’t the PR hack calling this an unfortunate incident, it was the acting director, Victoria Brahm.
According to the USA Today bonus database, Davis got a $500 bonus.
Victoria Brahm, listed as a nurse in Milwaukee but now acting Director at Tomah received a $3350.00 bonus.
But hey, veterans like the VA right?
Ben, I would hope you continue to follow this. I cannot believe there were 7 instances of this that happened in such a short period of time that nobody previously reported this.
How many previous reports were made and ignored? Over what period of time did these assaults occur?
Administrative Absence? That would suggest this thug is getting paid.
Will the VA actually report this to regulatory, oversight or licensing authorities or will they ignore it thinking they are exempt?
How long has this pig worked there? How many others were assaulted who are no longer a patient there?
What will the VA do to contact every patient he has ever had contact with?
At what point will VA management get serious about cleaning up that shithole?
At what point will Miller and Isakson do their fucking jobs?
i don’t think Miller or Isakson will do their job. for whatever reason they “can’t”, just like most Congress people we write & call. nothing ever really gets done, just an endless array of nonsensical replies & excuses with the passing of years. years not months!
our congress person won’t even lend an ear to my attorney nor will their va liaison speak a few minutes with my attorney. they’re either listening to the VA or no one, in reality they aren’t listening to me. i bet a few million veterans have the same story.
what reason would Jiffy Miller & Johnny-boy Isakson have NOT to do their job and hold the VA accountable? same with DOJ/OIG. Occam’s Razor folks: some entity has put fear into them if they do their elected job, or some other entity or same entity actually has the control and these Congress members are but forced to wear a facade.
veterans are a huge voting block but as we can see, must be an insignificant number compared to the real controllers of Congress.
keep shaming them and keep the mighty pen’s ink flowing. we’ve all tried everything else available to little or no avail.
i doubt old mcdonald & his animal farm will do squat in tomah either. i hope those abused get some quick justice, work on trying to pick up the pieces and move forward. those kind of scars last forever.
a VA mental health employee no less!
even without this leaked incident, how many of us have much trust in the VA mental health gymnastics? hard to believe but that trust factor just dropped even lower, as in sub-sea level!
Couple things.
Did anyone notice VA didn’t arrest him, just like that “Thug” in Louisiana’s VA? Civilian Authorities did the right thing! Does anyone believe VA didn’t try to cover up this?
Then the Public Affairs idiot calls this “an unfortunate incident”! Try saying, or downplaying, that to the women he “SEXUALLY ASSAULTED!” I wonder how Hillary Clinton will react to this. You know, her “platform on women’s rights!” “All women should be believed”, Bullcrap!
I’m not going to be as forgiving as Ben on this. I believe VA employees and those in upper management knew full well what was transpiring with that fμ€kup. I believe one or more of those women made complaints over this at Tomah. I believe there was a cover-up. I hope it comes out. Maybe then something will be done to protect women in the future!
Oh yea, Let’s not forget that “redefining” (as Gibson points out) of “accountability and transparency” of another word “Administrative Absence” as namnibor so cleverly pointed out!
I also wonder IF that THUG RAPIST is getting a “paid vacation”?
How many of those assaulted were being treated for PTSD after being assaulted in the military?
I agree, I believe the VA ignored previously reports.
And that fucking idiot PR hack needs to be fired yesterday.
Sexual assault is an “unfortunate incident”? Will the VA give him time off to recover?
It would appear there are still Whistle blowers at Tomah, and they are doing a very commendable service to veterans by exposing this ongoing lunacy there.
I so hope they keep their eyes and ears open and provide more detail on how long this has been going on.
This pig did not just do this on a few shifts over a weekend. This bastard did it over a period of time.
@crazyelf-
I just wanted to state that nobody should just automatically *assume* Charles Davis was only sexually assaulting women. While he was supervising others in the Army he probably had “special requests” for anyone seeking a promotion; both women and men. I too wonder how many military members have been treated for PTSD from Military Sexual Assault from this thug? How many have YET to say a thing out of fear of being shamed and retaliated against?
VETERAN LIVES MATTER!
@namnibor
That’s a good question. How many times, in his past, has he gotten away with this sort of behavior? What happened IF someone DID turn him in?
There’s lots if questions, yet no answer.
On a side note:
Yesterday, I commented on certain “facts” about what was transpiring on the (illegal) “gun control executive order” Obama was trying to force onto American Citizens. So did others.
Yet, Wade, only attacked me! I guess I struck a nerve. Ha! Ha! Ha!
I remember reading a book years ago. When Jefferson and John Adams were arguing about the “word” UNALIENABLE vs. INALIENABLE that we see in the “Declaration of Independence.
During the “argument” Adams said he “Attended Harvard”, where as Jefferson quipped, he “attended William & Mary!” (Which is, and has always been, a more prestigious university). Never the less, the “proper word” was intered into our “Declaration”!
“UNALIENABLE” IS the proper defining of who we are “Under God”!
This is learned behavior from the sexually deviant OIG. From Ashley Madison, to OIGs that beat off in public, the VA is a federally funded whore house. Get out while you can. You got a dumbass President tat wants to release medical record info to DOJ , and he directly knows that VA lies and falsifies records. He didn’t mention that at all in his bullshit press conference yesterday! Utter Bovine Scatology!
Anyone notice in the VA’s brief memo that they state Charles Davis is on “administrative absence”, rather than the usual “Administrative Leave or Administrative Leave With Pay”?
Has the VA already redefined “accountability” by redefining their VA thug’s deviant and unlawful behaviors?
So my question is: Is Charles Davis on “Paid Leave” while in jail?????? How low will the AFGE Union go before an employee becomes a speed bump under the VA Bus?
Talk about the vague VA Memo of 2016 thus far!!!! Wouldn’t one think they should have alerted all staff with at least some of the details for safety sake and ask potential other victims to come forward? No.
Just like the VA thug down in Louisiana VAMC that beat to death a 70+ old Veteran in his hospital bed, with the “VA Police Investigating The Matter”, as they did down in LA and now at Tomah, I fear that the VA will again find in THEIR investigation **absolutely nothing** and I even predict the vilifying of the victims and whistleblowers.
Hope I am wrong.
Also, why should we expect anything other than this thug being allowed to come back to work after the VA finds nothing, when the VA allowed the VA OIG “Master Masturbator” to retire quietly???
Why would the VA do anything to establish a precedent for such behavior?
Definitely a wait and see situation. This man should be castrated, sent to Leavenworth, and rotated cellmates named Bubba rest of his days. What kind of record does this thug already have, if any? How long has the VA been covering for this thuglet?
DOJ will refuse to prosecute even if (and when) the VA Internal Investigation finds nothing…wait for it. How in God’s Name can we logically expect anything different at this point?
Forgot to state that I hope there’s a very special place in HELL for people like this VA Thug. He’s a predator and obviously felt comfortable enough to think he was beyond reproach and correction by VA and the AFGE.
Every person victimized by this thug should be able to play target practice with a powerful Taser on this VA Thug’s “private parts”…then castrate and send to prison.
Nope! No mercy or forgiveness for this kind of breach of presumed safety of the health professionals around you.
There MUST be many Tomah employees that have known about this thug for a long time.
No the only fix can be a safety issue for patients. Stop going there in high numbers. Won’t work either to many unaware veterans. Now if those victims knew that was a possibility. Would they go? Sorry to say but lots more goes on.