Military officials in Texas have suspended a US army gynecologist over allegations he inappropriately touched and secretly filmed dozens of women during appointments at an on-base medical center.
A civil lawsuit filed in Bell county on Monday alleges that Blaine McGraw, a doctor and army major at Fort Hood, repeatedly groped a woman during a series of seven or eight consultations, and took intimate videos and photographs of her that were later found on his phone.
The 13-page lawsuit, seen by the Guardian, also alleges that senior officers allowed McGraw to continue to work despite receiving complaints of sexual misconduct against him over several years and at another army medical center in Hawaii.
“By doing so, the army gave cover to a predator in uniform,” the lawsuit states.
“This case exposes a shocking betrayal committed within the walls of a US army hospital. McGraw … used his position of trust to sexually exploit, manipulate, and secretly record women under his care. What should have been a place of healing became a stage for abuse.”
Attorney Andrew Cobos, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiff, the wife of an active duty service member identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe, said he represented at least another 45 women who came forward with similar allegations.
A military official told NBC on condition of anonymity that at least 25 women had contacted the army’s criminal investigation division after the images were found on McGraw’s phone.
“Upon information and belief, investigators recovered thousands of photographs and videos from his phone, taken over the course of multiple years, depicting scores of female patients, many of whom remain unidentified,” the lawsuit said.
It said the first complaints were filed against him “years earlier” when he worked at the Tripler army medical center in Honolulu, Hawaii, but army leadership “laughed off credible allegations”, which allowed his misconduct to “thrive” in his new job in Texas.
McGraw was suspended from his position at Fort Hood’s Carl R Darnall army medical center on 17 October, although an army statement announcing the opening of an investigation did not identify him by name – referring to him only as a “medical provider”.
In an updated statement released on Monday, the army provided more details of the timeline of its investigation and said it had identified and attempted to contact all patients the suspended doctor saw during his time at Fort Hood.
Among them was the plaintiff, who received a call from investigators asking her to come in for an interview. When she did, the lawsuit states, she learned McGraw recorded “nearly the entirety of her final appointment, including both the breast and pelvic examinations, without her knowledge or consent”.
She was shown several screenshots from videos recovered from McGraw’s phone from the appointment three days earlier – images the lawsuit states “unmistakably depicted” her body.
After the interview with investigators, after which she said she was handed a generic pamphlet with phone numbers for various army departments, the woman sat in her car and cried.
She was “disoriented and disarrayed”, the court papers said, with “her sense of safety shattered”.
Several of McGraw’s alleged victims spoke at a press conference recently outside the gates of Fort Hood, criticizing the army’s response to complaints against him.
“It wasn’t the act itself that hurt me, it was the way it was handled afterwards – the indifference, the lack of humanity,” one woman said.
Cobos said he also planned to file a separate action under the federal Tort Claims Act to hold the army responsible for what he said was a “culture of silence and indifference” that allowed McGraw to operate.
“This lawsuit is the first step in shining a light on this misconduct and restoring justice. The army needs accountability, and that only happens through transparency,” he said.
The Guardian contacted Daniel Conway, an attorney representing McGraw, for comment.
In a statement to NBC, Conway said his client had been “fully cooperative” with the investigation.
“We’ve expressed to the government our concern that plaintiffs’ attorneys are holding press conferences citing inaccurate information apparently learned from government sources,” he said.
“At this point it’s best to let the investigation complete before we comment.”
