Rape Charges For Retired Army General In Woodbridge: Police

WOODBRIDGE, VA—A former military man was arrested Friday after being indicted by a Prince William County Grand Jury on three counts of rape and three counts of incest, according to Prince William County Police. James Joseph Grazioplene, 69, of the 15800 block of Spyglass Hill Loop in Gainesville, was being held without bond.

The retired Army major general now faces the same charges a military court dismissed earlier this year because of the statute of limitations, as reported by the Army Times. But Virginia doesn't have such limitations on rape cases, and that opened the door for Grazioplene's indictment.

An investigation by Prince William County detectives from the Special Victims Bureau found that the victim was sexually assaulted by Grazioplene, a family member, on more than one occasion between August 1987 and May 1988. She was between 16 and 17 at the time of the offenses, when she lived with Grazioplene at a home in Woodbridge.

In August 2017 during an Article 32 hearing at Fort Meade, Md., according to the Army Times, the alleged victim, who at the time of the hearing was 46, "recounted years of escalating sexual abuse and repeated rape from the time she was 3 until she turned 18."

But, according to reporting by the Washington Post, "the case fell apart this year after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces found in another case, U.S. v. Mangahas, that there should be a five-year statute of limitations on rape charges. In that case, a rape charge against an Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Edzel D. Mangahas, was dismissed."

Brig Gen. Omar Jones, the Army’s chief of public affairs, declined comment to the newspaper Monday, saying it would be inappropriate to do so while there is pending legal action.

Photo: Prince William County Police