Two civilian women who work for the Marine Corps claim the military branch did not take their complaints of sexual harassment against a Marine officer seriously.
The incidents happened in 2013 while the two women were working at the Behavioral Health Branch in Quantico, Va., where the Marine Corps is headquartered. Maj. David Cheek was one of their supervisors while he worked at the Marines’ office of manpower and reserve affairs.
Both women claim in official complains and in interviews that Cheek requested to see them privately and then showed them he had an erection, although he remained clothed. The women did not file complaints immediately, due to concern of retaliation, but filed complaints a year after the event.
“It was creepy,” Sherry Yetter said, according to USA Today. “He spun around in his chair, wearing green silky short shorts. It didn’t hide a whole bunch. He very quickly developed an erection. I made an excuse and got out of there.”
Although Yetter wanted to believe the interaction was “unfortunate” or "involuntary," a similar encounter happened in May.
Sharpe claimed that Cheek told her on several occasions while they were alone together that he was sexually aroused. When she complained to another supervisor, no one took her seriously, she claimed.
The two women learned that they both had been harassed by Cheek in the fall of 2013.
“We can’t make up the same story about the same person,” Sharpe said.
Cheek has refuted the allegations.
“I assure you the (sexual harassment) allegations are false,” he said in an email to USA Today, adding that the Marine Corps investigated the allegations and found them to be unsubstantiated.
According to an investigative report filed by the Marines last year, Yetter’s complaint was found to be unsubstantiated because Cheek’s word conflicted with hers.
Yetter issued a complaint in 2014, although she was advised not to pursue the case, and again in July 2017 when Cheek was moved to work in the same building she and her husband work, along with Sharpe.
“If the Marine Corps had done what it was supposed to do in 2014, he wouldn’t have been brought back to the same building,” Yetter, 49, said in an interview. “The commanding officer was notified in 2014. They had every chance to handle this in-house. The leadership chose not to act on it. It’s still happening. I still go to work in a hostile, unsafe work environment. My perception is that the Marine Corps simply doesn’t care.”
Yetter is currently the senior coordinator for sexual assault response for the Marine Corps Recruiting Command.
Yetter’s husband, Lt. Col. Gregg Yetter, also works in the manpower command and pointed out that his wife’s position is equivalent to that of a major or a lieutenant colonel and that her position indicates they are trustworthy.
"It appears the Marine Corps again is not taking my wife's sexual harassment allegations seriously, and it also seems as though the Marine Corps is not committed, or unwilling, to hold Maj. Cheek accountable for his actions,” Gregg Yetter said. “If a sexual assault response coordinator can't be taken seriously, then what chance does a female lance corporal have?”
The complaint Yetter filed in 2017 was determined to be unsubstantiated, but she is still waiting to hear more concerning a request for mediation in the case.
Meanwhile, the Marine Corps said the complaint had been investigated, but did not shed light on any specific details.
“Sexual harassment devalues the individual and threatens unit cohesion,” spokeswoman for Marine Manpower and Reserve Affairs Yvonne Carlock said in a statement. “It has no place in the Marine Corps.”
