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March 01, 2007

Air Force officer found guilty of rape

An Air Force officer accused of drugging and kidnapping servicemen he met in bars was found guilty Tuesday of raping four men and attempting to rape two others. A nine-member military jury deliberated for about seven hours in Capt. Devery L. Taylor's court-martial. Taylor gave no reaction upon hearing the verdict.

Taylor, the former chief of patient administration at Eglin Regional Hospital in Florida, faces a maximum of life in prison. Sentencing was to begin Wednesday.

''I am pleased. I am emotional, but I am very, very pleased,'' said Maj. Kathleen Reder, a military prosecutor. ''These men can sit up a little straighter now; I am proud of them,'' she said of the six victims who testified.

Martin Regan, Taylor's civilian defense attorney, declined to comment before sentencing.

Military prosecutors described Taylor, 38, as a serial rapist who met men in bars, spiked their drinks with the ''date-rape'' drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, and kidnapped them.

Taylor was charged with two counts of attempted sodomy, four counts of forcible sodomy, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of unlawful entry.

Taylor testified that he had consensual sex with five of the men and that the sixth, who is openly gay, raped him. Regan said the men lied to protect their military careers. Four of the men were in the military when they met Taylor, and a fifth wanted to join the Navy and feared being identified as gay, Regan said.

Regan said Taylor's only crime was being gay in the military and violating the ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy, which bars people who are openly gay from serving in the armed forces. (Melissa Nelson, AP)

© 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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