81 alleged victims join suit against Army doctor accused of sexual misconduct

By Haley Britzky, Brianna Keilar, CNN

(CNN) — Another 81 women who say they were “subjected to invasive, unnecessary, and degrading touching, voyeurism, and covert filming” are joining a lawsuit originally filed in November against Army Maj. Blaine McGraw, a gynecologist who was charged this week with secretly recording his patients during exams.

The new filing was submitted on Wednesday by attorneys representing the alleged victims less than 24 hours after the Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel charged McGraw with 54 specifications, or alleged incidents, of “indecent visual recording,” along with several other related charges. The case being brought against McGraw by the Army includes 44 alleged victims.

While the military’s charges against McGraw filed this week focus on the recording of his patients, the expanded lawsuit on Wednesday accuses McGraw of sexual assault, assault, and battery under Texas law, saying he “intentionally and knowingly made harmful and offensive physical contact” with patients during their exams.  Fort Hood, where McGraw saw patients starting in 2023, is in Texas.

In one example included in Wednesday’s filing an active-duty soldier said she believes McGraw took photos of her during a rape kit examination after she was sexually assaulted.

“During that deeply vulnerable procedure, he was constantly on his phone while between her legs,” the lawsuit says, adding that the woman now believes that he was taking photos of her while performing the exam.

The lawsuit says that McGraw “failed to document in her medical records that a rape kit had ever been performed,” and in the criminal case against her alleged rapist, the prosecution “lacked clear forensic documentation, and her assailant was ultimately acquitted.”

“McGraw’s misconduct in this setting did not merely fail to protect a victim of sexual violence; it actively undermined her access to justice and allowed her perpetrator to escape accountability,” the lawsuit says.

The Army has emphasized that officials are taking the allegations against McGraw seriously. Fort Hood has said in statements that investigators began looking into McGraw within hours of a patient’s allegation on October 17 and suspended McGraw immediately.

McGraw’s lawyer, Daniel Conway, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the expanded lawsuit but said previously that beyond the allegations, “we’ve seen no records to support patients were touched in a way that was not medically indicated. … We’ll continue to fully cooperate. We remain disappointed at Army law enforcement’s handling of the investigation.”

One of the lawyers representing victims in the new filing told CNN on Wednesday that the Army’s “slow and opaque response mirrors the same systemic failures exposed in the Maj. Michael Stockin case,” referencing a case where an Army doctor pleaded guilty this year after he was accused of inappropriately touching or viewing the genitals of more than 40 male patients.

“Unless the institution confronts these deficiencies now, this moment will become just another footnote — one overshadowed by the far greater harm that will inevitably follow to female soldiers and military wives and daughters,” Andrew Cobos said.

While the vast majority of alleged victims in the amended civil lawsuit live in Texas — where McGraw was most recently stationed, practicing medicine at the medical center at Fort Hood — 18 others currently reside in another 14 states. Many are active-duty soldiers, or military family members, and had moved after being stationed in Texas or Hawaii where McGraw served as a doctor.

CNN has reported that there are alleged instances of misconduct going back to 2021 when McGraw was a doctor at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii.

“In these roles, he wore both a white coat and a uniform—symbols that, to military families, signal trust, competence, and care,” the lawsuit says. “Instead, McGraw used those symbols as camouflage for a sustained pattern of sexual exploitation, digital voyeurism, and manipulation of his patients.”

Undersecretary of the Army Mike Obadal and Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Mary Izaguirre visited the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood on Tuesday, the Army announced on Wednesday, to review Defense Health Agency policies and patient safety practices.

“Our ethical and moral imperative is to ensure deployment-ready forces while providing a safe and professional environment for all patients,” Obadal said in a release on Wednesday. “I’m proud of our leaders and medical providers for the swift action taken to initiate the criminal investigation and prioritize patient safety – all of which reflects their unwavering commitment to patient care and Army readiness.”

A US official said the team was dispatched directly by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who has been watching the situation “very, very closely,” as a “fact-finding mission” to better understand the situation on the ground.

“It goes without saying that the allegations are abhorrent, absolutely counter to the values the Army and the military try to uphold,” the official said, adding that there is some caution about what Army leadership is saying publicly to avoid accusations that it is unethically interfering in legal proceedings.

In total the lawsuit points to three main methods of abuse McGraw is alleged to have engaged in — recording and taking photos of his patients without their consent, performing unnecessary or unconsented medical procedures, and touching women sexually during medical procedures, carrying out “physical boundary violations…under the guise of medical examination.”

And while allegations of his recording patients are known, the lawsuit provides new details of “deliberate steps” he allegedly took to ensure his “secret recordings were unobstructed.” McGraw would allegedly prop up his phone against his Army nameplate clip on his shirt pocket, “preventing the camera lens from being covered by his medical garments” and ensuring “a clear, forward-facing view of his patients’ exposed bodies.”

While CNN has reported instances of alleged misconduct in both Texas and Hawaii, the lawsuit also suggests that the Army should investigate McGraw’s time as a physician assistant at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, years prior. There has been no official outreach to patients at Fort Campbell, the lawsuit says.

Ultimately, the lawsuit points to what some victims and advocates say is a systemic failure by the Army to address McGraw’s alleged behavior early on, saying at least one woman filed a complaint in Hawaii against McGraw but his chain of command dismissed it and allowed him to continue treating women. The filing also alleges that even after McGraw’s misconduct came to light, women were discouraged by staff at the Fort Hood medical center from transferring their medical care to off-post providers.

“McGraw did not thrive because he was clever; he thrived because he operated within an Army culture that has repeatedly failed to protect women from sexual violence,” the lawsuit says.  “The scale of this case is not an outlier — it is the inevitable consequence of a culture that has still not changed.”

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