Hopstock rape trial scheduled for February

[unhappycamper]

Hopstock rape trial scheduled for February
By David Allen, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, November 28, 2008

TORII STATION, Okinawa — The Army will court-martial an Okinawa-based soldier for the alleged rape of a bar worker last February, officials said Wednesday.

Spc. Ronald Hopstock Jr., 25, faces a single charge of rape in the alleged attack on the 22-year-old dancer Feb. 17 in an Okinawa City hotel.

The court-martial is set tentatively for late February at a location to be determined, said Army spokesman Maj. James Crawford.

Army Col. James Woodard, commander of the 10th Support Group on Torii Station, ordered the court-martial as the convening authority. He acted on the recommendation of Lt. Col. Seth Sherwood, who was the investigating officer for a three-day Article 32 preliminary hearing in October.

Hopstock, of the 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment, also is charged with three unrelated violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice — sodomy, procuring a prostitute and disobeying an order.

Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59095