An Army doctor pleaded guilty to 41 charges of sexual misconduct in one of the largest sexual abuse cases in military history, involving dozens of patients at an Army facility in Washington.
Maj. Michael Stockin, an anesthesiologist at Joint Base Lewis-McChord pleaded guilty Tuesday to Uniform Code of Military Justice charges for abusive sexual contact and “indecent viewing” of undressed patients from incidents that occurred between November 2019 through April 2022.
According to the Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel, Stockin pleaded guilty to 41 specifications including 36 of abusive sexual contact and five of “indecent viewing.”
Questions sent to Stockin’s lawyer asking for comment were not immediately returned.
The plea came on what was scheduled to be the first day of his trial, which Michelle McCaskill, spokesperson for the Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel, said will now be focused on witness statements around Stockin’s guilty pleas. Stockin originally faced more than 50 counts for abusive sexual contact and indecent viewing in January 2024.
Before the plea deal was reached, Stockin could have faced up to 300 years in prison if he was sentenced to maximum concurrent sentences, McCaskill said 2024.
The OSTC, which is prosecuting the Stockin case, was launched a year ago as part of the Pentagon’s overhaul of how serious criminal UCMJ cases are handled. The office’s establishment removed prosecutorial decision-making from soldiers’ chains of command to special trial counsels that investigate and decide whether cases proceed to a court martial.
Took advantage of soldiers in pain
Most of the soldiers who visited Stockin were seeking help managing chronic pain and visited him for general service-related injuries. Multiple soldiers, all of whom were men, said Stockin took them into a room alone under the guise of performing a routine sensory exam. According to administrative complaints filed in a separate civil Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit, the current and former soldiers alleged that Stockin did not offer them the option of a chaperone and ordered them to strip and groped them, often without gloves.
The Army began investigating the allegations of Stockin’s sexual misconduct in February 2022, which led to his suspension from patient care and reassignment to administrative duties, McCaskill said.
Christine Dunn, a lawyer spearheading the civil lawsuit previously told Task & Purpose, that Stockin would spend “extra time on their penis and testicles.” Stockin also asked invasive questions such as quizzing soldiers on the size of their penis.
“The story doesn’t end here. The Army played a substantial role in allowing the rampant sexual abuse to occur in the first place. The time has come for the Army to be held accountable for its negligence,” Dunn said Tuesday in a press release after Stockin pleaded guilty.
With the civil case led by Dunn, a group of 21 soldiers is asking the Army to pay $5 million per person in damages in the case.
McCaskill said in February 2024 that Stockin’s abuse represented “one of the largest in regards to the number of victims for a case of this type.”
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