Army Lt. Col. Bernard West and his wife Serena arrive at the Cascade Court Complex at Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (KOMO News )
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – An Army lieutenant colonel was sentenced Friday to receive an official reprimand and fined almost $100,000 after he was found guilty by a military judge of harassing three female officers under his command.
Lt. Col. Benjamin West III, 43, had faced seven charges including two counts of sexual harassment, one count of conduct unbecoming an officer and three counts of cruelty and maltreatment of a subordinate, and one count of dereliction of duty.
He was accused of engaging in what prosecutors called a “step-by-step” escalation of sexual harassment of a female aide and two other female I Corps officers at Lewis-McChord, a base shared by the Army and Air Force about 40 miles south of Seattle.
Prosecutors accused West of using his rank to force subordinate female officers to endure sexual harassment. Accusations revolved invasions of privacy, unwelcome fondling of their ears and hair, salacious jokes, and disrobing that exposed his underwear.
West had faced up to 15 years in prison and dismissal from the Army, an officer’s equivalent of a dishonorable discharge, for the charges.
Lt. Col. Robert Murdough, the military judge in the case, convicted West on two counts of sexual harassment and one count of cruelty and maltreatment of a subordinate. The judge ordered a punishment of a letter reprimanding West be added to his official Army file and a fine of $92,900. He offered no explanation Friday in court for his decisions.
West’s attorney Jason Wareham said the letter in essence will force the lieutenant colonel to leave the service.
Before West received the sentence, he stood in the courtroom and expressed disappointment in himself and addressed the female officers who brought the charges against him.
“It cuts me deep -- I could see and feel the pain I caused,” he said.
In June 2023, West became an artillery battalion commander at Lewis-McChord in charge of the 1st Battalion, 94th Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade. By October 2023, West had been fired from the job because of the charges.
In court on Friday, West turned to the three female officers who brought the charges against him. The 20-year Army officer addressed each woman and asked them to try to overcome the “shadow” that he had cast over their lives and careers by his “despicable behavior.”
“I saw the joy you had for the military,” he said. “I apologize for taking that from you. I apologize to your family who had to hold you up, to lift you up, after what I did.”
West said if he was not dismissed from the Army, he would quickly resign -- a move prosecutors and defense lawyers said would likely mean a reduction in rank to major.
West had waived his right to a trial before a panel of officers to have his guilt and fate decided solely by a military judge.
One of the female officers said West’s behavior put her on “high alert” while under his command. She had planned to make the Army a career, like her grandfather.
“Now I just want out,” she said.
A second female officer said the stress made her hyper-sensitive to following rules and she couldn’t bear to talk or touch her spouse at the end of each workday.
“At the end of the day, I had nothing to give,” she said.
The third female officer said West’s cruelty made her feel “like a complete failure” and she had started paperwork to leave the Army. She reconsidered when she transferred to another unit where she felt valued and supported by the command, fellow officers and enlisted troops.
“The Army is like any organization -- it has good people and bad people,” she said.
Stars and Stripes typically does not name the victims of sexual assault or harassment.
Defense attorneys had called witnesses who vouched for West’s character, including two three-star generals who testified by phone and a former sexual assault victims advocate who worked with West.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Smith, the deputy commander of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Liberty, N.C., testified Thursday. West had served as Smith’s executive officer when Smith was commander of the U.S. Artillery School at Fort Sill, Okla., from 2018 to 2020.
“[West] was of high character,” Smith said. “He caused no concerns. If he had, I would have taken appropriate action.”
Erin Stout, a former victim advocate at Lewis-McChord, testified she had worked with West on ensuring units followed the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention, or SHARP, Program.
“I think he was an advocate of SHARP -- he was very supportive,” she said.
Wareham, a former military lawyer, had filed a motion in November asking the judge to block the trial because West was singled out for court-martial because he is a Black man. The attorney argued other commanders at Lewis-McChord accused of similar actions - including a white female and an Asian male - had been allowed to retire or receive non-judicial punishment rather than face a court-martial.
Murdough rejected the motion.
One of West’s female accusers was represented by lawyer Ryan Guilds, who has done pro bono work for military sexual assault victims. He is on the board of Protect Our Defenders, a national advocacy nonprofit for victims of sexual abuse while in the military.
After the trial, Guilds said the first major prosecution of the military’s two-year-old sexual harassment law showed the service was serious about openly challenging what he said was a longstanding problem in the Army and other services.
“Today’s verdict is bittersweet,” Guilds said because the service was losing his client, “a promising young Army officer.”
But he also said the verdict, by itself, does not “eliminate the pervasive sexual harassment and assault within our military ranks.”
One of West’s uncles, Allen B. West, is an ex-Army artillery battalion commander. The Army fired him from his job for accusations that he abused an Iraqi prisoner under his control in 2003. He accepted a reduction in rank from colonel to lieutenant colonel, paid a $5,000 fine, and retired from the Army. Afterward he served one term in Congress from Florida and two years as Texas Republican Party chairman. He is now Dallas County Republican Party chairman.
West’s father, Bernard West Jr., is a former Marine and Atlanta police officer who has twice run for Congress – and lost -- as a Republican in Georgia.
