A Fort Campbell, Ky., soldier faces multiple charges for conspiring with another person to take sexually explicit images and videos of children and other soldiers without their consent, according to Army court documents. (Samuel Shore/U.S. Army)
A Fort Campbell soldier has been charged for conspiring with another person to take sexually explicit images and videos of children and other soldiers without their consent while in Germany, according to Army court documents.
Pfc. Whitney Shepherd, 34, was arraigned May 29 and pleaded not guilty before judge Lt. Col. Daniel Mazzone at Fort Campbell, Ky., where the soldier is assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, according to court records. An online court docket did not list an attorney for Shepherd and base officials did not respond to a request for the information.
Shepherd faces three counts of conspiracy, one count of child sexual assault, seven counts of other forms of sexual assault and six counts related to child sexual abuse, according to a charge sheet. All the incidents occurred in Grafenwoehr, Germany, in late 2022 and early 2023.
Shepherd is accused of photographing two other female soldiers — a specialist and a private first class — in January and February 2023, as part of a conspiracy with another person, whose name is redacted from the charge sheet.
She also distributed those images, which the charge sheet stated were taken at a time when the women had a reasonable expectation of privacy.
For the charges involving a child or children, Shepherd is accused of conspiring with someone to produce child sexual abuse material by placing a video call to a child and recording the child in sexually explicit conduct, possessing an iPhone 12 with the material on it and distributing it to another private first class.
Shepherd also is accused of exposing herself on Dec. 26, 2022, to a child to sexually gratify another soldier, a private first class, according to the charge sheet.
Shepherd requested a jury trial, according to online court records. No future court dates were listed Friday for Shepherd.
It is rare for female soldiers to face a court-martial. In 2023, there were 11 women tried by court-martial and 520 men, according to the Army Report on Military Justice for Fiscal Year 2023.
