RAPE TRIAL SPOTLIGHTS ISSUES OF SEX, POWER WITHIN ARMY.

Byline: Elaine Sciolino The New York Times

In a small military courtroom, with lawyers and jurors dressed in crisp uniforms, an explosive court-martial is exposing the tension between sex and power that has come with the sexual integration of the U.S. military.

While the military has dealt with sexual abuse committed by U.S. soldiers in the past, the case of Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson stands out because of the weight of the charges: 58 in all, involving 21 women.

It has also become a forum for a powerful debate over whether the Army is a haven of order, discipline and safety, as it is supposed to be, or whether it has become, as the defense contends, an environment fraught with double standards in which women use sex with their superiors to gain a bit of power of their own.

Unspoken is the larger question, now under review by Congress, of whether the experiment of integrating men and women in the armed forces has failed.

The lean, 6-feet-4 former drill sergeant, who is married, is charged with 19 rapes involving six women - as well as forced oral sodomy, indecent acts and assaults, battery and threats to keep women from accusing him - in 22 months at the immense Aberdeen Proving Ground, on the shores of Chesapeake Bay.

The cold, rigid atmosphere of an Army courtroom, adorned only with an American flag, was in stark contrast with the lurid tales the Army prosecutor, Capt. David Thomas, told about Simpson in his opening statement Friday. He portrayed Simpson as a calculating predator who had used his absolute power as a drill instructor to exploit young, vulnerable trainees who regarded him with a combination of fear and awe.

The prosecution even introduced Simpson's badge and cap Friday as symbols of the tradition of the drill sergeant's serving as the recruit's first symbol of discipline, with almost unquestioned authority among the ranks. But the defense contends that he never raped anyone and had only consensual sex with willing, and even eager, recruits.

``This was not consensual sex,'' Thomas said, describing how the sexual acts had often taken place in a barracks or the sergeant's office. ``There wasn't any romance here. It was, `Take off your clothes. Lay down on the floor. Stop crying.' After the sex, `Put on your clothes and leave.' ''

In one case, Thomas said, Simpson hit a private in the face with his penis and forced her to masturbate. In another case, he said, the sergeant raped a trainee twice and then threatened to kill her if she told anyone. In a third case, he said, Simpson stalked a trainee, who was 5 feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds, raping her eight times over a few months.

Throughout the proceedings, Simpson, 32, showed no emotion.

That Simpson had sex with subordinates - a crime under military law - is not in question. He has pleaded guilty to having consensual sex with 11 trainees under his command, including five who say he raped them. But he says the sex was never forced.

He has also pleaded guilty to five instances of sexual harassment, including ordering a young private to report to his office in her gym clothes but without underwear.

For those crimes alone, Simpson, who joined the Army 14 years ago, faces a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and up to 32 years in prison. If he is convicted on even one rape charge, he could face a life term.

Capt. Edward Brady, one of Simpson's lawyers, acknowledged that the sergeant ``stepped over the line,'' but he said in an opening statement that he had not committed rape.

Brady also argued that some of the women reporting rapes had invented their stories, either because they did not want to admit that they had been attracted to Simpson or because they had been coerced by Army investigators.

In a number of the cases, he said, the women never filed complaints against Simpson and gave their accounts only after formal interrogations had started.