Jul 29 02:34 AM US/EasternNAHA, Japan, July 29 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The U.S. Army in Japan has decided to build a case against a 25-year-old sergeant on suspicion of assaulting a Filipino woman earlier this year and may charge the soldier with rape, army officials said Tuesday.
The army plans to open a preliminary hearing and decide within 120 days if it should hold a court-martial against Ronald Hopstock who is attached to the 1st Battalion of the 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment at Kadena Air Base in the southernmost prefecture, the sources said.
The move comes after the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office in May dropped the charge of sexual assault resulting in injury against Hopstock.
In April, Okinawa prefectural police sent investigative reports on the sergeant to prosecutors on suspicion of assaulting the woman at a hotel in the city of Okinawa on Feb. 28 and inflicting injury on her.
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