Another 81 women have joined a Texas lawsuit accusing an Army gynecologist of secretly filming them during invasive examinations, according to court documents provided by the victims’ attorney this week.
The civil suit alleges that Army Maj. Blaine McGraw “used his position of trust to sexually exploit, manipulate, and secretly record women under his care,” and the news comes after the Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel charged McGraw Tuesday with covertly recording at least 44 victims.
In total, 82 plaintiffs, referred to in court filings as “Jane Does,” have joined the suit filed in Bell County, Texas, where McGraw is currently behind bars in pretrial confinement. Many of the alleged victims live in Texas, but others reside in over a dozen different states, from Hawaii to New Jersey.
In addition to the secret filming, McGraw’s accusers say he also subjected them to unnecessary procedures, inappropriate sexual contact and encouraged visits “off the books.”
Photos in the suit, provided by his accusers, appear to show McGraw providing medical care with his phone positioned in his scrub blouse pocket.
“McGraw would pretend to receive a call or engage in a brief phone conversation, then place his phone in his breast pocket with the camera facing outward,” victims allege in the suit.
“Once the device was positioned, he instructed patients to undress, reposition themselves, or submit to intimate examinations, all while the camera silently captured their exposed bodies.”
The suit alleges that McGraw conducted a rape kit on a 19-year-old soldier without a chaperone while on his phone. He also allegedly failed to document the examination.
While the suit says military officials repeatedly failed to protect McGraw’s patients, the Army said the provider was suspended the same day accusations came to light.
McGraw worked at Hawaii’s Tripler Army Medical Center before most recently practicing at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Texas. Both locations sent thousands of letters to potentially affected patients notifying them of the investigation.
The suit says that the Army has not reached out to possible patients at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where McGraw served as a physician’s assistant before attending medical school.
The Army did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation as to whether or not those patients had been notified.
The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division last week said it had been investigating both at Fort Hood and off the installation. The division said it conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed “over half a terabyte of digital media.”
On Tuesday — the same day the Army announced charges against McGraw — Mike Obadal, the undersecretary of the Army, and the Army surgeon general, Lt. Gen Mary K. Izaguirre, visited Darnall Army Medical Center.
Izaguirre said the Army was reviewing possible changes to “maintain faith with soldiers and families.”
“We are looking closely at how training is conducted, how standards are enforced and how leaders ensure that policies are being followed,” she said.
Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
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