LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A soldier in the Nevada National Guard with a stellar military career chose to become a whistleblower and revealed a devastating personal secret.
But instead of help, she says the Guard turned on her. It's an all too familiar scenario, according to military legal experts and veteran advocates.
13 Investigates exposes the downfall of a Guardsman and a family's search for answers.
We are launching a new community commitment, "Guarding the Guardsmen," where we are telling the stories of those who serve our country but are cast aside when they need help.
13 INVESTIGATES: Nevada Guard member reports allegation of sexual assault
The Nevada National Guard calls the case of Sgt. 1st Class Allison Bailey "complex and extremely sad."
Her family believes she paid the ultimate price for military disorder.
Former service members have rallied around Bailey's case.
"What happened to Sgt. 1st Class Allison Bailey should not have happened," said Sandy Duchac, a Navy veteran and military sexual assault surivor.
"When I met with her, she was a broken woman," said Dr. Dwight Stirling, a former Judge Advocate General officer.
Bailey heard the call of duty before she was legally old enough to answer it.
"I had to sign for her to go in," said Bailey's mom, Felicia Cavanagh. "She spent the next almost 17 years in the Nevada Army National Guard. Half of her life."
During her service, she became a mother to two boys while rising through the ranks on a stellar career path.
"She was an outstanding, highly decorated E-7. Wonderful reviews," Cavanagh said of her daughter.
Bailey is documented as a "natural born leader with unlimited potential" who should be "promoted ahead of her peers," according to her military evaluations.
"I can honestly say that Ms. Bailey was a well-regarded member of the Nevada National Guard for more than a decade," said Capt. Emerson Marcus with the Nevada National Guard.
But the last two years of Bailey's time in the Nevada Guard redefined what she and her family knew the military to be.
"I'm proud of our service," Cavanagh said. "I was the first female in our family. I have five brothers that served, and Allison was the first to join the Army. I was in the Air Force. We have four Air Force, one Navy, one Marine."
Doing what's right is drilled into those who serve, which is why Bailey sought to right wrongs she encountered in her chain of command.
In September of 2020, she initiated the process of filing an Inspector General complaint for bullying and a toxic work environment, telling her mother, "'I should set the example for other soldiers to see that you can file a complaint and have it resolved,'" Cavanagh recalled.
Instead, the opposite happened when, in January of 2021, the Nevada National Guard turned the tables, launching a misconduct investigation against Bailey called an Article 15. She chronicled the process in a video diary.
"I attempted to initiate a IG investigation against her and her behavior towards me," Bailey said in the video diary. "And they still let her request and open a IG complaint against me, which is not right in any sense."
The Guard claims the two investigations were unrelated.
"This Article 15 was based on EO [Equal Opportunity] complaints from subordinates of Ms. Bailey.... that were filed through the Equal Opportunity Office," said Capt. Marcus, the public affairs officer with the Nevada Guard.
Former Judge Advocate General officer Dr. Dwight Stirling sees it differently.
"I am shocked and horrified that the Nevada Guard treated a senior sergeant in this manner," Stirling said.
Stirling served in the California National Guard, teaches law at the University of Southern California, and founded the non-profit Center for Law and Military Policy.
"When you have a military member who comes forward with what is essentially whistleblowing — with a claim of misconduct or wrongdoing — and they filed an action with the Inspector General, what is supposed to happen is a cone of protection is supposed to be placed over them. And there should be no adverse action, because they are now a protected party," Stirling said.
Instead of protection, Bailey was placed under investigation for violations, including showing disrespect toward a superior officer, failure to obey an order, mistreating subordinate soldiers and making false statements.
"What, you know, is most telling to me, is that there had been no accusations of this type until she brought forth her charges, until she blew the whistle," Stirling said.
Bailey's story took a darker turn when she inadvertently disclosed a secret she held closely for several months to a mandatory reporter in the Guard, revealing that she'd been sexually assaulted twice by a fellow guardsman in May and June of 2020. We are not naming that soldier because he was never charged with a crime.
"My daughter never intended to come forward and tell anyone about that, because she knew the way the military treated sexual assault," Cavanagh said.
Sixty-two percent of women in the U.S. military who reported a sexual assault were retaliated against after coming forward, according to statistics from the Department of Defense.
"So she files the sexual assault complaint because she's told, basically, 'You've made this comment to a mandatory reporter; you need to file or we will file,'" Cavanagh said.
Sex assault allegations in Nevada Guard units are referred out for investigation to the state Department of Public Safety, which received Bailey's case on Feb. 2, 2021.
"They conduct, in my opinion, a partial investigation," Cavanagh said.
The DPS report shows the accused claimed the sex was consensual. And as proof, he provided screenshots he said were from a sexually charged text conversation with Bailey.
Detectives sought to authenticate the screenshots with the original text messages.
"They asked the accused to voluntarily allow his phone to be checked. First, he gives consent and then he says, 'No. You know what? I don't want you to check my phone,'" Cavanagh said.
"So they get a search warrant, they secure his phone, but he does not give them the passcode to his phone," she continued.
DPS had to do a forensic download, which the report states "... was unable to recover the text messages between the accused and Bailey."
Just over four months later, on June 9, DPS closed the investigation, citing "insufficient evidence for prosecution."
"They just want you to shut up and go away," said Sandy Duchac, a Navy veteran.
Duchac is a military sex assault survivor and vice president of the nonprofit advocacy group Veterans Sisters.
"So they said that this evidence wasn't good enough to convict him, but it was good enough to destroy her life and her career," Duchac said.
The Nevada Guard promoted the alleged attacker in September, one month after the DPS investigation was closed.
The very same month, Bailey's rank was reduced from E-7 to E-5. And she was ultimately demoted to E-1.
"To go from a senior sergeant to a private, which is an E-1 — which is just a guy off the street or woman off the street who takes the oath and, you know, and are 18 years old," said Stirling, "I mean, that's the lowest rank in the military."
He says that is unheard of. The demotion essentially erased her years of service.
And it marked the end of Bailey's military career. In January 2023, she was kicked out of the Nevada National Guard with an "other than honorable" discharge for what they deemed a "pattern of misconduct," including "engaging in inappropriate relationships with multiple junior soldiers."
"To say that she got kicked out because of an inappropriate relationship with — I'm not going to say his name — but with the man that you're talking about," said Marcus, "that's factually not true."
A final Nevada Guard document in Bailey's misconduct case, which lays out the "basis for separation," lists 22 allegations. No. 1 is "sex with (a) Subordinate soldier," naming the very man Bailey had accused of rape.
It also claims Bailey was guilty of multiple counts of violations, including disrespect of superior officer, cruelty and maltreatment of subordinates and disorder prejudicing good order and discipline.
The Guard also alleges Bailey was sexually harassing multiple lower ranked soldiers, and that she often "...arrived to work late, left early, would not show up to work, and did not do her job."
We spoke to the military attorney assigned to defend Bailey. He didn't want to go on camera, but told us he resigned from the Nevada National Guard over how Bailey's case and some others he worked on were handled.
In an appeal filed on Bailey's behalf, the attorney argued she was never put on notice or given warnings for the allegations against her.
He wrote:
"It has always been the hallmark of these kinds of actions in the Nevada Guard that counseling precede punishment. The failure to follow that course of action in this case is inexcusable."
"The last video she sent me literally was, 'Mom, I'm going to spend the rest of my life working on this, because it's wrong," Cavanagh said.
But the rest of Bailey's life came much too soon. She died on March 4, six weeks after her discharge.
Her boys, 15-year-old Colby and now 11-year-old Caleb, found their mother collapsed on the floor in their home.
"They're trying to figure out why. They miss their mom," Cavanagh said, fighting back tears.
Bailey's death was preceded by a steep and swift mental and physical decline that was due in part to confusion about her access to healthcare. As our coverage continues, we take an in-depth look at the factors that contributed to her downward spiral.