SAN ANTONIO – Faculty members of a clinical psychology internship at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland openly discussed the validity of claims from an intern that she was a victim of sexual and domestic assault, according to records reviewed by the KSAT 12 Defenders.
Former Air Force Capt. Robin Becker said she was removed from the internship after disclosing in 2015 that she was sexually assaulted and repeatedly physically assaulted by her former fiancé.
In a letter submitted in January in support of Becker's attempts to get the Air Force to confer her psychology degree, Dr. Jeff Haibach recounted a lunch he attended along the Riverwalk in June 2016 with faculty from Becker's program.
Haibach, who at that time was engaged to a psychologist who had a supervisory role in Becker's internship, said faculty members were laughing and joking about Becker's tenuous standing in the rigorous year-long program at Lackland Air Force Base's Wilford Hall.
"As though Robin was making some sort of drama, as though she was entirely making information up or at least greatly exaggerating it," Haibach told the Defenders during an interview.
Becker's former fiancé, Adam Chylinski, was criminally charged in three attacks against Becker in 2014-2015. Two of the attacks happened in San Antonio while Becker was taking part in the internship; the other attack happened in their native Pennsylvania months before Becker moved to San Antonio.
Becker, who at first hesitated to tell her supervisors what happened in her personal life, confided to internship leadership in May 2015 that she was a victim of intimate partner assault.
Military records show three months later, in August 2015, Becker informed leadership about the April 2014 incident in which Chylinski faced indecent assault charges in Philadelphia.
Indecent assault falls under Pennsylvania's sexual assault statutes.
Becker, who acknowledges that the strain of Chylinski's ongoing criminal cases caused her to be tardy a handful of times, said informing internship leadership only hurt her standing in the program.
A whistleblower reprisal complaint filed by Becker in July 2016 specifically accused internship training director Dr. Ann Hyrshko-Mullen of targeting her after Becker communicated that she was a sex assault victim.
"Rather than take it for the information that it was, I think that she was of the belief that if you can't manage your own personal life and if you can't manage what's going on in your home, how could you possibly be a psychologist for the Air Force," said Becker.
Haibach said Hryshko-Mullen was careful not to say anything specific about Becker's case during the June 2016 lunch but did talk openly about how the situation was extremely stressful for her.
Haibach said other faculty were consoling Hryshko-Mullen and making light of Becker's personal life, demonstrating behavior he described as "unprofessional and odd."
"They were talking about a private, confidential case in a public venue, also with me present, who was not faculty," said Becker.
Becker said she was not surprised when she learned from Haibach that her case had been discussed by faculty publicly.
"I think it speaks volumes. I think it speaks to how I was improperly treated and unfairly treated," said Becker.
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During a written appeal submitted to a faculty board in December 2015, Becker recalled a voting member of the board rolled her eyes at Becker as she stood before them explaining why she should remain in the program.
The incident happened after Hryshko-Mullen had presented two binders of information about Becker's case, according to military records.
Becker was removed from the program but later reinstated, only to be terminated a second time in June 2016.
In late September, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General ruled that Hryshko-Mullen did not recommend Becker be removed from the program in reprisal for Becker communicating she was a sexual assault victim.
However, questions about Becker's treatment by leadership during the internship remain more than two years after her removal.
A colonel and chief of psychiatry who had frequent professional contact with Becker during the internship wrote that he did not know if he had seen a harsher recommended consequence for a professional in training in his 33 years of experience, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Defenders.
"We do not have a surplus of providers such as Capt. Becker. Instead, we are in desperate need," wrote Col. Timothy Sowin.
Multiple other military leaders, including some from the same 59th Medical Wing that oversees the clinical psychology internship, wrote that Becker demonstrated exceptional teamwork and her work as a doctor in training was clinically accurate.
Officials with the 59th Medical Wing have so far declined to make Hryshko-Mullen and other internship leadership available for interviews about Becker's time in the program, citing conflicts with the federal Privacy Act.
Becker said her next step is to attempt to have her case heard by a military board of corrections.