Attorneys for five soldiers filed new claims against the Army and the Department of Defense this week, alleging they were sexually abused by Army Maj. Michael Stockin, a doctor at Joint Base Lewis-McChord who faces criminal charges of fondling patients.
The plaintiffs, identified as John Does, are former patients of Stockin. On Monday, they joined two other troops who previously had filed complaints under the Federal Torts Claims Act against Stockin, an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist who was charged on Aug. 29 with abusive sexual contact and indecent viewing involving 23 victims.
The charges were expanded on Oct. 17 to include 17 more persons.
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According to the service members’ attorneys at Washington, D.C.-based Sanford Heisler Sharp, the clients all have “remarkably similar allegations,” saying Stockin required that they disrobe during their appointments and then, without a chaperone present, “fondled their genitals.”
The administrative complaints “allege that there was no medical necessity for Stockin to touch the patients’ genitals in this matter.”
The claims also charge that the Army is liable because it was negligent in hiring, supervising, and retaining Stockin and it lacked adequate protocols to keep patients safe from abuse.
“These soldiers thought they could trust a U.S. Army doctor but he…
