Woman Claims Army Boss Raped Her

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CN) - An Army employee claims in court that her boss forcibly raped her, forced her to fellate him and filmed it with a government camera, and forced her into other unwanted sexual acts.

Carla Beretta sued the Secretary of the Army and her alleged rapist, Eugene Jud Kneuven, in Federal Court. The complaint spells the defendant's name as Kneuven and Kneuvean.

Beretta, who worked as a budget analyst for the Army, claims her supervisor Kneuven started making sexual advances in April 2007, and that the harassment escalated into rape.

During April 2007, she claims, "Mr. Kneuvean grabbed plaintiff in the hallway and pushed her into the women's restroom, turned off the lights, put his hand in plaintiff's pants and asked her to perform oral sex on him.

"Plaintiff told Mr. Kneuvean to stop and tried to remove his hand; Mr. Kneuvean tried to kiss plaintiff; she pushed him away told him that she would not perform oral sex on him.

"Mr. Kneuvean followed plaintiff to her work area, apologized for his behavior and admitted that he should not have acted like he did.

"Plaintiff again asked Mr. Kneuvean never to make similar advances toward her again.

"Several days later Mr. Kneuvean asked plaintiff to go to lunch with him.

"When plaintiff left with him to go to what she thoughts was lunch, Mr. Kneuvean instead drove to a remote field in Riverside, Missouri where he forcibly raped plaintiff.

"Plaintiff was in shock and felt embarrassed and ashamed.

"Because plaintiff feared she would lose her job and marriage she did not report the incident to anyone."

Beretta claims Kneuvean that told her he could use his influence to help her career in the Army, but if she failed to cooperate with him it would hurt her. She says she felt helpless.

"On one occasion Mr. Kneuvean called plaintiff into his office and instructed her to perform oral sex on him," the complaint states.

"Plaintiff believed she had no choice because of the statements Mr. Kneuvean had made about his ability to influence her career.

"As plaintiff was performing oral sex on Mr. Kneuvean, he picked up a government camera and started to take plaintiff's picture.

"Plaintiff asked that he not take her picture, Mr. Kneuvean continued to take her picture and stated that he would delete the picture.

"Mr. Kneuvean later told plaintiff that he did not delete the picture and if she did not continue to engage in a sexual relationship with him that he would publish the picture.

"On several occasions, Mr. Kneuvean called plaintiff into his office and insisted that she engage in sexual relations and then refuse to return her underwear."

Beretta claims that Kneuvean's sexual demands became more intense after he separated from his wife in December 2009.

"On one occasion, Mr. Kneuvean tore plaintiff's wedding ring from her finger and threw it across the room because of another request that plaintiff made to cease contact with him," the complaint states.

"Mr. Kneuvean told plaintiff that if she left him he would spill blood on her lawn.

"Plaintiff became so fearful of Mr. Kneuvean that during the spring of 2010 she began exiting the Federal Building through the basement to avoid walking through his work area."

Afraid that Kneuvean would hurt her, Beretta says she filed a complaint with Col. Roger Wilson in January 2009.

"Colonel Wilson sent plaintiff an email that indicated that he either did not believe her complaint or would not support it," the complaint states.

"Colonel Wilson sent plaintiff an email instructing her not to submit unwanted messages from Mr. Kneuvean to Colonel Wilson and not to make him 'part of the problem.'

"Plaintiff's immediate supervisor, Shonna Hester told her not to 'bother' Colonel Wilson with her complaints."

Beretta claims that a subsequent evaluation downgraded her work performance and the Army refused to allow her to transfer.

"Defendant has continued to engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination against plaintiff by requiring her to maintain contact with defendant Kneuvean and disallowing leave to meet with her attorney regarding these matters," the complaint states. "Defendant has met with plaintiff's questions regarding use of leave with written documentation calling plaintiff stupid."

Beretta says she has filed four previous complaints about this: "Pursuant to the Federal Employment EEO Guidelines, plaintiff timely filed three complaints of discrimination and one Merit System Protection Board action."

She seeks actual and punitive damages for hostile work environment, retaliation, gender discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault and battery and negligent infliction of emotional distress. She is represented by Rebecca M. Randles, with Randles, Mata & Brown.

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