Five women were attacked in their own barracks room on Fort Cavazos, Texas by a soldier who authorities say raped or attempted to rape them in a spree of break-ins that spanned more than a year and a half.
Sgt. Greville Clarke, 31, was arraigned Monday and faces nine Uniform Code of Military Justice charges and 27 specifications of attempted premeditated murder, rape, attempted rape, kidnapping, burglary, and a slew of associated charges.
Clarke has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
How Clarke managed to evade authorities for more than a year and a half while stationed at the base, or what steps base authorities took to stop him, was not clear from the charging documents obtained by Task & Purpose.
Fort Cavazos officials declined to comment on the case citing ongoing legal proceedings.
“We value the safety of our soldiers, civilians, and their families,” Col. Kamil Sztalkoper, a spokesperson for the III Armored Corps at the base said in a statement.
The charges against Clarke were first reported by Stars & Stripes.
According to court documents, Clarke first allegedly assaulted a woman on the Texas base on March 16, 2021, and again on March 5, 2022. Authorities allege that Clarke held women against their will, threatening them with a weapon and binding their limbs with the intent to rape and assault them.
In mid-July 2022, Clarke again attacked a woman in the barracks and allegedly raped her, pointed a loaded firearm at her and strangled her with a lamp cord until he believed she was dead. According to the charge sheet, Clarke also placed his foot on her neck and put the woman in a footlocker with the intent to “secret her to another location.” Had he succeeded in moving the woman, authorities said, Clarke might have killed her, but the woman escaped and ran away before he could shoot her.
Clarke allegedly stole a cell phone, car and room keys, Apple watch, wallet, common access card, five pillows, two blankets and a comforter from the barracks. According to the charge sheet, Clarke disposed of the bedding to “impede the due administration of justice,” since he “had reason to believe there were or would be” pending criminal charges against him.
Three months later in early October 2022, Clarke again allegedly threatened a woman with a firearm, bound her hands with rope, blindfolded her and raped her. Court documents note that he struck the woman on the head with his firearm. He allegedly took two of her cell phones, which he tried to dispose of, and her credit card which he also attempted to fraudulently use to access her bank account and obtain $14,000.
Base safety
Since news of the assaults broke, moderators from Army-focused social media pages have pointed to a recent Government Accountability Office report which highlighted a number of barracks safety issues across the Army including broken locks on barracks rooms, insufficient lighting and non-existent or functioning security cameras which service members said made incidents of sexual assault “more likely.”
Service members told government investigators in September 2023 that “they were concerned that unsecured doors in barracks could allow an intruder to enter the barracks and assault service members.” Soldiers told the GAO that in one incident, an ex-spouse broke in and physically assaulted a service member in their barracks because of insufficient security measures. The report included Department of Defense data which indicated that more than 30% of sexual assault reports between 2015 and 2021 occurred in on-base housing, including barracks, which typically house younger enlisted soldiers with the rank of sergeant and below.
After Clarke was arrested in October 2022, additional criminal allegations involving multiple victims were discovered. He is currently being held at the civilian Bell County Justice Center in Belton, Texas — nearly 20 miles east of Fort Cavazos.
The case is being handled by the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel which referred the case for a general court martial. Before Clarke’s case was referred for a court-martial, “substantial investigative and administrative efforts” were required, Michelle McCaskill, a spokesperson for the office said.
Clarke joined the Army on Sept. 18, 2017, as a bridge crewmember and was assigned to the 36th Engineer Brigade at Fort Cavazos. His service awards include the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal.
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Clarke pleaded not guilty to all charges and specifications and deferred making a decision on whether to opt for a jury panel or a sole military judge for his court-martial, McCaskill said.
Pre-motion hearings are scheduled for Dec. 10, 2024 and Feb. 11, 2025. A trial date is set for April 1, 2025, according to the UCMJ docket.
Office of Special Trial Counsel
The Office of Special Trial Counsel, which was stood up by the Pentagon in December 2023 for each of the military services, took over prosecutorial decision-making authority for criminal cases that previously belonged to unit commanders. Now, independent prosecutors separate from the soldier’s command determine if a case should go to court-martial.
Since the Army office was stood up, their team has investigated 3,300 cases, referred 67 of them to court-martial, prosecuted 32 and had 29 convictions, Col. Christopher Kennebeck, lead special trial counsel prosecutor told a group of reporters in October at the Association of the U.S. Army annual conference in Washington D.C.
The office currently handles 13 criminal offenses such as murder, domestic violence, and sexual assault and will add cases of sexual harassment to its docket in January 2025. It’s unclear how the addition of harassment cases will add to the trial counsel’s workload. One RAND Corporation report that analyzed cases between August 2017 to July 2018 found that “sexual harassment is much more common in the Army than sexual assault is.”