A 38-year-old Army doctor stationed at Joint Base Lewis McChord is at the center of a sexual assault court martial. The doctor, Michael Stockin, specializes in treating pain. He is facing over 50 sexual assault charges, along with a civil case.
The first accusations against Stockin surfaced in February. The first official charges were brought against him in August 2022.
In the first round, Stockin had 23 counts of sexual abuse against him. In November, that number grew to 39 counts, and last Friday it jumped again to 54 charges.
KIRO 7 talked with an attorney representing seven victims on the Federal Torts Claim Act against the Army. FTCA is how someone sues the federal government.
The attorney, Christine Dunn with Sanford Heisler and Sharp, LLC, said even though the first accusations surfaced in February 2022, her clients were still being treated by Stockin months after. She also believes there could be more victims.
“We have heard that there’s potentially up to 100 different victims who have made complaints in the criminal case right now they’ve indicted him on 54 different victims,” said Dunn.
Dunn said her clients experienced the alleged sexual abuse while being treated by Dr. Stockin for pain.
“With the sheer volume of victims indicates that the Army was negligent,” said Dunn. “One of our clients came forward and reported to his team leader and his squad leader so elevating it up the chain of command right away and nothing was done and he went on to be sexually abused two more times is what he alleges.”
The FTCA documents Dunn provided show one victim said he went in to get treated for back pain and was made to take off his pants and boxers for the exam.
“I felt traumatized by my initial examination by Dr. Stockin,” said the victim. “I kept replaying the way he violated me by touching my penis.”
Those documents also show how difficult it was for the soldier to even tell those close to him.
“I felt so ashamed that I was reluctant to tell even my wife for several days,” he said.
The FTCA also showed how the legal action is pointing to the Army for negligence.
“The Army’s negligence directly caused me to be sexually assaulted by Dr. Stockin,” he said.
Dunn explained why soldiers trusted Dr. Stockin.
“Patients are in a really vulnerable position when they see a doctor,” she said. “They rely on the doctor’s expertise, and they don’t know what should be happening. These men relied on Dr. Stockin, not only was he a doctor, but he had the seal of approval of the Army and they trusted him and they were in a really vulnerable position.”
Per the Stars and Stripes, Dr. Stockin is also the first soldier to be prosecuted under a new law that changes how the military handles certain crimes, including sex crimes. The new law went into effect on December 28, 2023.
“It used to be a decision made by someone within your chain of command as to whether crimes will be prosecuted,” Dunn said. “Now that has been taken out of the chain of command and that decision is made by an independent party. The rationale is that it’s fairer that way.”
Dr. Stockin had an arraignment scheduled for Tuesday morning, but it was moved to February.
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