LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — We continue our coverage we're calling Guarding the Guardsmen with more on the story of a Nevada National Guardsman and rising military member who wanted to the blow the whistle claiming a toxic work environment.
But she was investigated and faced nearly two dozen allegations of misconduct before being demoted and discharged.
13 Investigates dives into the depths of a female soldier's downward spiral, revealing what insiders call a systemic problem with a devastating ripple effect.
Sgt. 1st Class Allison Bailey served her country for nearly two decades. Her life ended a few weeks after she was discharged from duty — thrown out of the Reserves over claims she harassed fellow soldiers.
"There are no words, losing a child. There are no words," said Felicia Cavanagh, Bailey's mother.
But Cavanagh recently had to find words in a setting no mother should ever have to face: her daughter's funeral.
Bailey's service record was nearly impeccable. Her reviews were outstanding, all the way through September of 2019, where she was noted to far exceed the expected standard.
That changed around the time she attempted to initiate an Inspector General complaint in September of 2020, alleging bullying and a toxic work environment in her unit. Just four months later, a misconduct investigation was launched. But it was against her.
"She filed complaints and she was swiftly retaliated against," Cavanagh said.
In her digital diary from December 2022, Bailey appears distressed and distraught as she makes what proved to be an eerie prediction.
"This is killing me. I mean, mentally, physically, everything. It's killing me," Bailey said.
During the misconduct investigation against Bailey and her attempt to file that Inspector General complaint, a secret was revealed — something Allison said she'd been afraid to talk about for fear of retaliation: two alleged assaults by the same fellow guardsman.
"During the course of a conversation between her and her Equal Opportunity adviser, who's a mandatory reporter, she disclosed that there had been a sexual assault," said Nikky Randel, the response coordinator from the Nevada Guard assigned to Allison's case through the military's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office.
That's where a victim can ask for an expedited transfer to another unit and access other resources.
But Allison claimed, to her family and others, she was not getting the support she needed.
"I said...because they asked me about it, 'Did you have a person?' And I said, 'Well, yeah, I did, but it didn't last nearly a month,'" Bailey said in her video diary.
Randel has a different story.
"From my perspective in the SAPR program, her case was handled appropriately," Randel said. "We did everything as an organization that we were supposed to do related to the sexual assault case."
That included offering services and resources to Allison. We asked for details, but the Guard declined to give any or provide documentation of their contacts with Allison, citing confidentiality.
Department of Defense statistics from a 2022 report on sexual assault in the military show that most assault cases in the U.S. go unreported. For example, in Fiscal Year '22, only about one in four service members reported their sexual assault to a department authority.
Nevada National Guard Capt. Emerson Marcus says that's changing.
"I will say that we have seen an uptick in reports. We consider this a good thing for the Nevada National Guard," Marcus said. "We want people to feel comfortable coming forward about filing a sexual assault case."
There's nothing comfortable about it, says Navy veteran and sexual assault survivor Sandy Duchac. Duchac is vice president of the nonprofit Veteran Sisters that helps military assault survivors.
"When you're in the military and you're sexually assaulted, it's likely to be someone within your chain of command, and you have no recourse," Duchac said. "You can't just leave."
After Bailey reported the sexual assault in January 2021, Cavanagh says her daughter's career and life began unraveling under immense pressure and stress.
Again, Bailey had received outstanding reviews in her yearly evaluations since joining the guard.
But in her evaluation from the year between September 2020 and 2021 — which includes the time span when she was trying to file that Inspector General report and the allegations of rape were uncovered — she was written up for allowing "her personal issues to overshadow her performance" and showing "no effort to view her difficult situation as an opportunity to better her performance."
"It's as clear-cut a case of retaliation that I've ever seen," said Chris Tinsman, Bailey's military-appointed attorney.
"She was a high flier," Tinsman added. "She was universally regarded as one of the best in all of Southern Nevada."
Tinsman had contact with Bailey multiple times, but says he noticed a change in Bailey after the Nevada Guard accused her of misconduct.
"She was not the same person that I had interacted with for several years prior to that," Tinsman said. "She was nervous. Anxious. Didn't trust anyone."
Her alleged assailant was investigated by the Nevada Department of Public Safety but never prosecuted due to "insufficient evidence."
"Sexual assault is one of the most difficult crimes to prove," Randel said.
Bailey was disciplined for having sex with that subordinate soldier.
"The military puts a lot of the weight of these kind of disciplinary actions on the superior NCO or officer in the case," Marcus explained.
But Bailey alleged the sex was not consensual and that she blacked out during both incidents.
"I met with Allison about a month and a half before she died," says former California Guard Judge Advocate General officer Dr. Dwight Stirling. "This is the pattern that I've seen over and over again here, where the woman who brings, you know, who comes forward with the charge is really turned against."
Stirling teaches law at the University of Southern California. He's also CEO of the Center for Law and Military Policy, which he founded to fight for service members' rights. Both Stirling and Department of Defense statistics say nationally, retaliation is the norm.
For example, one-third of women in the U.S. military reporting sexual assault were discharged within a year, and 24% of those women received a less than fully honorable conditions discharge.
"That will then break the person...morally, you know, spiritually, as well as physically, which is what happened to her," Stirling said.
On top of all that, Bailey was suffering from serious medical issues.
"She had a pancreatic mass, lesions, cysts. She was having seizures," Cavanagh said. "She couldn't drive a car. She had metabolic acidosis, which is basically the blood in your veins turning to acid."
Military medical records from 2022 show Bailey was also in treatment for anxiety and panic attacks, night terrors, depression and insomnia.
Bailey was in the process of applying for a med board, which is a disability claim to get out of military service to focus on her health.
It was denied in May 2022. Bailey's mother is troubled that the same system which denied the med board also ended Allison's career.
"It was denied by the same people who chose her discipline and decided to kick her out with no health care, with no hope," Cavanagh said.
"Throughout, the Nevada National Guard followed procedures in place...during Ms. Allison Bailey's misconduct investigation, her subsequent sexual assault allegation and the separation board made up of out-of-state military officers," Marcus said.
Bailey's "other than honorable" discharge in January cited what the Guard called a "pattern of misconduct."
"The problem here lies in the fact that the investigation that this whole thing was predicated on was faulty to the point of being completely unreliable," Tinsman said.
As for the atmosphere when Bailey was questioned: "I've been in some very contested cases with some very hot-button issues," Tinsman said. "This was the most hostile I have seen any investigator being."
Bailey died in March of this year, just six weeks after she was discharged.
Her death certificate shows she died from acute cardiopulmonary arrest — meaning her heart and lungs failed — due to multiple underlying conditions.
And the "other than honorable" discharge had a significant ripple effect on what happened after Bailey died.
"She cannot be buried in the veteran's cemetery," Cavanagh said. "In fact, by their terms, she couldn't even have her military honors."
At her memorial service, friends from the Guard gave her those honors symbolically.
Cavanagh told those who gathered:
"I will pursue the truth pertaining to Allison's unconstitutional treatment from the Nevada Army National Guard and do my utmost to hold the correct people accountable, no matter how long it takes."
As our coverage continues in the coming weeks, we will hear about the congressional inquiry Bailey's mother is pursuing, and we'll show you how some claim Nevada does not provide a level playing field for those who serve and are accused of misconduct.
The Veteran Sisters group is holding a candlelight vigil in honor of Allison Bailey on Saturday, Sept. 23.
