“It’s just shocking, the potential scope of it,” an attorney told The Washington Post. “No one has any real clear answers as to how many people this particular soldier impacted.”
Two Texas families have filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming that U.S. Army officials failed to investigate allegations that a soldier was abusing children near a large base.
According to The Washington Post¸ U.S. Army Spec. Rashad Parkinson was arrested by law enforcement in November 2021. He was charged with abusing at least three underage girls near Fort Cavazos in Central Texas, and later pleaded guilty to sexual assault.
During his sentencing hearing, investigators said that they had found evidence of other crimes on Parkinson’s smartphone—and believed that he had most likely abused dozens more girls.
The lawsuit alleges that the Army knew of allegations against Parkinson before his arrest in 2021, but never took appropriate steps to investigate the accusations or limit his movements outside of Fort Cavazos.
“Had the Army appropriately and timely investigated Rashad Parkinson upon receipt of information of his initial crimes, he would have been subject to partial restraint,” the lawsuit claims. “The Army’s failure to act on a known child predator in its ranks resulted in the sexual assaults of J.A. and D.D., plus countless other children.”
Parkinson, notes The Washington Post, is currently serving a 35-year state prison sentence.
Military records indicate that Parkinson was also dishonorably discharged from the Army earlier this year, after he pled guilty in a tribunal to two counts of producing child pornography.
A spokesperson for Fort Cavazos has since said that the Army cannot comment on pending litigation, but stressed that the service is appalled by Parkinson’s “heinous” crimes against children.
“We are committed to preventing sexual assaults and sexual harassment by creating a climate which respects the dignity of every member of the Army family,” said Fort Cavazos spokesman Lt. Col. Kamil Sztalkoper.
But Mark Guerrero, an attorney representing the two families involved in the claim, indicated that the Army’s failure to adequately investigate Parkinson enabled a dangerous predator.
“It’s just shocking, the potential scope of it,” Guerrero told The Washington Post. “No one has any real clear answers as to how many people this particular soldier impacted.”
During Parkinson’s military tribunal, investigators testified that he regularly contacted “underage girls” on social media, often with promises to sell them e-cigarettes and vapes. He would sometimes claim to be a teenager, and met minors at high school and middle schools. After meeting a girl, Parkinson would attempt to bring them to his car or to his home off-base, where he would assault them.
One of Parkinson’s victims, who was 12 years old, said that she tried to refuse the soldier’s advances. Parkinson reportedly responded by “[punching] her several times and then [choking] her almost to the point of losing consciousness.”
Guerrero says that his clients have spoken to the parents of other children allegedly abused by Parkinson, and believes that Army first learned of Parker’s activities in 2019.
“Either there was no investigation at all, or a completely inadequate and unreasonable investigation,” Guerrero told the Post.
Sources
52nd Judicial Court Docket [03/02/2023]
A soldier abused young girls. The Army could have stopped him, lawsuit alleges.
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