Former Air Force Capt. Robin Becker claims she was ousted from a clinical psychology graduate program and discharged from the military due to issues stemming from sexual and domestic assault, according to a new report.
Becker, who was set to complete a yearlong internship at Lackland Air Force Base’s Wilford Hall in San Antonio for clinical psychology, claims she was physically and sexually assaulted by her fiance Adam Chylinski in Philadelphia several months before starting the internship program, Texas television station KSAT 12 Defenders reported. Chylinski faced several charges, including two that fall under Pennsylvania’s sexual assault statutes, court records indicate.
In San Antonio, after Becker’s internship had started, Chylinski also was charged with felony strangulation. At the time, Becker said that she didn’t want her internship supervisors to be notified about the incident.
“I was humiliated. I was completely embarrassed, because things like that don’t happen to people like me. Things like that don’t happen to doctors in training. Things like that don’t happen to military officers,” Becker said.
Military records indicate that Becker received verbal counseling after she was late several times for the internship in March and April of 2015. One of those incidents occurred just days before Chylinski signed his plea agreement, and Becker said that Chylinski and his defense attorney had been constantly in touch with her to try and have her appear as a character witness in one of the cases against Chylinski.
Eventually, Becker’s tardiness caused her to be put on a 60-day program-level remediation, and military records indicate she then told internship leadership in May of 2015 that she was a victim of intimate partner assault.
The tardiness continued and she received a letter of reprimand in July 2015 and was then was placed on academic probation in August 2015. Department of Defense records indicate that, at that point, she also revealed she was a sexual assault victim, although Becker claims she shared that information back in May 2015.
A first attempt to terminate her from the internship was overturned, but the psychology faculty decided to oust her from the program again in June 2016. In particular, Becker accused her internship director, Ann Hryshko-Mullen of singling her out, both before and after she disclosed details of her situation.
“To come into the Air Force and to have everything I’ve ever worked for taken away from me, it’s the worst thing that ever happened. It was worse than the assaults. And it was like reliving it over and over and over again,” Becker said.
The Air Force’s 59th Medical Wing did not provide a comment from Hryshko-Mullen, nor other internship leaders. However, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General determined that Becker’s accusations were baseless.
“Unfortunately, interviews regarding Captain Robin Becker’s time in the Clinical Psychology Internship Program at Wilford Hall will not be available,” Air Force’s 59th Medical Wing chief of public affairs said, per KSAT. “The Privacy Act prohibits disclosure of personal information without the prior written consent of the individual to whom the record pertains. Information on the participation in the Graduate Allied Health Education program falls under the Privacy Act. When information protected under the Privacy Act may not be released under the Privacy Act, the request must be processed under the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act.)”
The public affairs official did not respond to additional requests.
Becker will bring the case before the military board of corrections.
“That’s OK, because I need to see this through. I don’t have any other option. This is my whole life. It’s everything I’ve ever worked for. It’s everything I’ve ever done,” Becker said.
