Soldier charged in Penn. state court for raping another soldier

Jury selection began Monday in the case of a 45 year old man charged with the rape of a 22 year old woman last March.

The Lebanon Daily News, "Gap rape case set for trial this week," has more.

Robert Shackelford Jr. of Dover has been charged with rape, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault, according to the criminal complaint. The trial will be held in President Judge Robert Eby’s courtroom and is expected to last all week.

Shackelford, a member of the 233rd Quartermaster Company based in Philadelphia, was charged with raping the 22-year-old Wilkes-Barre-area woman in a men’s barracks on March 3 or March 4.

The woman told state police that a male soldier escorted her back to her barracks about 11 p.m. on March 3, when they saw Shackelford standing on a second-floor platform of his barracks smoking a cigarette. The woman said her male escort asked Shackelford for a cigarette, and both of them climbed up a ladder to reach Shackelford.

Both left, but the woman returned after Shackleford asked her to.

The woman told police that she was drinking in the barracks and later blacked out. She told police she remembered being sexually assaulted and waking up later underneath a bunk in the men’s barracks. She told police she believed Shackelford had raped her.

Shackelford told police that the woman was drinking heavily and he found her lying on the floor after he had returned from going to the bathroom. He told police that he did not have any sexual contact with the woman and saw no one else having sex with her, according to the complaint.

Four soldiers told state police and the Army Criminal Investigation DIvision they saw sexual contact between the woman and Shackleford.

(Update 1-11-08) Shackelford was ACQUITTED of the rape and sexual assault charges, but convicted of indecent assault. She left the courtroom in tears, and prosecutors has harsh words for her "colleagues."

Assistant State's Attorney Megan Ryland-Tanner said,"Each and every one of them knew what was going on and did nothing to help her," Ryland-Tanner said.
"Every single one of them betrayed her. These are the people she could potentially go to war with," she added.

Shackleford will still have to register as a sex offender, and may be released from jail because indecent assault carries a 3 to 14 month sentence, and he has been held since April.

Shackelford did not testify. Williams said Shackelford told him during an interview several weeks after the incident that he had tried to have sex with the woman, with her encouragement, but was unable to do so.

[Ryland-Tanner] said Shackelford would be evaluated under Megan's Law to determine whether he should be labeled a sexually violent predator.