Head of Army War College reinstated after misconduct investigation

The Army will reinstate the head of the Army War College following his suspension earlier this year over a sexual misconduct allegation, the service announced Wednesday.

The Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID) “has completed an investigation into an allegation of abusive sexual contact made against Maj. Gen. Stephen Maranian and determined there is no probable cause that he committed the alleged offense,” the service said in a statement.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Maranian will be immediately reinstated to his position as commandant of the Army War College, the statement added.

The two-star general was suspended from the Carlisle, Pa., institution in February over an allegation of inappropriate touching unrelated to the college.

A CID investigation, “led by an experienced, civilian investigator who has conducted over 700 sexual assault investigations in the past 18 years,” initially looked into the matter. They interviewed 16 witnesses, some multiple times, “in an effort to develop evidence to determine if there was probable cause to substantiate the allegation,” according to the Army.

The command then referred the case to an independent special victim prosecutor as well as a former civilian prosecutor, with both finding that the evidence “was not sufficient to establish probable cause that the offense had occurred.” 

The Army stressed that the decision regarding probable cause “was completely independent of any command influence and was not presented to any commander for a disposition decision.”

The statement is notable as the Pentagon is in the midst of tackling a pervasive problem of sexual assault in the military, with its Independent Review Commission earlier this year recommending taking sex crimes out of the chain of command.

Maranian had taken over as commandant for the Army War College on July 30 after previously serving as the provost of the Army University at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.