An Army physician has received the maximum sentence — 13 years and eight months in prison under a plea deal — for sexually abusing more than three dozen patients while working at Madigan Army Medical Center from 2019 to 2022.
Maj. Michael Stockin was sentenced for the crimes on Wednesday during a court-martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. Judge Larry Babin, an Army colonel, gave Stockin roughly four months in prison for each of the 36 counts of abusive sexual contact and additional months for five counts of indecent viewing, plus dismissal from the service and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.
Stockin pleaded guilty Jan. 7 to 41 violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. His court-martial, which ended Wednesday with the sentencing, included a full review of the case, details of the charges and testimony from victims.
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Ryan Guilds, an attorney with the Arnold and Porter law firm who represented seven of the doctor’s victims, said the sentence will allow his clients and the others to “move from victim to survivor.”
“They know that no amount of prison time is going to give them back what they’ve lost,” Guilds said after the sentence was handed down.
“Over the last week, we’ve heard victim after victim talk about how the actions of Dr. Stockin — particularly him lying to them about the nature of the treatment and, for many of them, not knowing they were assaulted until after the fact, and … not knowing so many other victims were assaulted has been extremely challenging,” Guilds said.
The Army removed Stockin from his medical duties in February 2022 amid complaints from patients of improper conduct that included fondling and improperly looking at male victims under the auspices of medical exams, according to court documents.
He was charged in August 2023 with 23 violations of the UCMJ, but the number of charges and victims grew as the investigation expanded. The case, one of the first high-profile prosecutions by the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel created in late 2023, involved 41 male patients.
Guilds said, however, that he believes there are more victims who did not come forward.
“This predator didn’t become a predator overnight, and didn’t become a predator when he crossed state lines in Washington, so we know there are other victims,” Guilds said.
In addition to being stationed at Madigan, which is located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in northwestern Washington, Stockin served in Iraq and was stationed at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
As of last month, 22 of Stockin’s victims had launched the process for suing the Army and the Defense Department under the Federal Tort Claims Act alleging sexual abuse by Stockin.
They argue that the Army is liable because it was negligent in hiring, supervising and retaining Stockin, and it lacked adequate protocols to keep patients safe.
The filings include a person who was not one of Stockin’s patients but who was allegedly fondled by Stockin when he was in recovery from surgery at Madigan.
“The allegations show that Dr. Stockin was a danger not only to patients in his care but also to the broader community,” said Christine Dunn, a partner at the Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight law firm, which is handling the civil case. “The Army’s failure to properly supervise Dr. Stockin put the entire community at risk.”
Robert Capovilla, Stockin’s civilian defense attorney, said that his client, who faced a maximum punishment of 330 years in prison under the original charges, “took full responsibility for his actions, and he made no excuses.”
“The defense hopes and prays that the victims and Maj. Stockin will finally be able to heal and to move forward with their lives,” Capovilla said in an email to Military.com.
The advocacy group Protect Our Defenders, a nonprofit organization focused on military sexual assault and harassment, released a statement Wednesday calling Stockin’s crimes a “leadership failure.”
“The appalling number of victims serves as a smoking gun, highlighting the military’s complicity or gross negligence that allowed these crimes to persist. Male survivors continue to be marginalized by a broken system that retraumatizes victims and erodes trust in military leadership,” said Josh Connolly, the group’s senior vice president.