A female soldier has waived her anonymity and spoken out about her experience of being raped in 2016 by a decorated Delta Force operator.
The Armed Forces has deleted all records of the operator's court-martial, while the main witness for the defense was previously found to have fatally shot a fellow soldier and mysteriously died soon after the trial, according to a report.
Erin Scanlon, 25 at the time, was a junior Army officer from suburban Phoenix who served in the artillery branch at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. She lived nearby in Fayetteville.
On September 9, 2016, she claims a friend of hers invited her to a charity event to honor fallen Green Berets at a restaurant called Mac's Speed Shop, Scanlon told Rolling Stone.
Scanlon arrived with her friend just before 10 p.m. and said Special Forces (SF) and Delta Force officers were both at the restaurant, including a motorcycle club of SF soldiers called Coast x Coast.
Cristobal Lopez Vallejo, 39 - aka Cris Valley - is the founder and CEO of the club's nonprofit and was the host of the event who was eventually charged with sexual assault and sexual battery of Scanlon.
Vallejo, then a sergeant first class with multiple combat missions in Delta Force in the Middle East, stopped Scanlon and her friend and 'tried to flex, laugh and walked away' in front of them, the friend told local police.
Scanlon described Vallejo as gregarious, spending the entire event 'going around chatting with people like a politician.' She did not know upon a meeting him, or at any point that night that he was an officer.
Erin Scanlon, 25, was a junior Army officer from suburban Phoenix who served in the artillery branch at Fort Bragg in North Carolina
Cristobal Lopez Vallejo - also known as Cris Valley - a Delta Force officer, was arrested and charged with second-degree sexual assault, among other offenses, after Scanlon alleged he raped her at a warehouse
Both of them worked at Fort Bragg, which was unknown to Scanlon for several months until the military intervened in the case
She and her friend noticed the Coast x Coast club's logo from a photo from her mentor with the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps [ROTC] and became trusting of the entire crew, including Vallejo.
'I asked him if I could take a picture in front of their logo to send to my instructor,' she told Rolling Stone. 'He gave me his card and invited us to go to the next bar with everyone.'
The two traded a phone numbers and Scanlon joined a group of about nine people and Vallejo at an Irish pub nearby called Paddy's. At the bar, Scanlon claimed Vallejo grabbed her backside.
After midnight, Vallejo asked Scanlon to come to a place called Warehouse 13 and she agreed, believing it was another bar or club. However, it was just a warehouse, one that Scanlon called 'sketchy-looking. It turned out that Vallejo had actually rented the warehouse from a chemical company.
Scanlon and her friend, disgusted by the area, agreed not to stay longer than 20 minutes and only that long because there was food available, she said.
Scanlon claimed there were three other Delta Force soldiers and a retired bomb technician among the remaining men. The rest were women, including two Army officers, a Green Beret's widow and another woman, she said.
Scanlon called all of them 'groupies' and believed they were just there for Vallejo's attention.
Fayetteville Police Detective Paul Matrafailo interviewed an employee of the police department who said that she had once spent the night at Vallejo's apartment and agreed that women were often at the warehouse to get Vallejo's notice.
“Mr. Vallejo is considered a ladies’ man and ‘groupies’ hang out at the ware house [sic] looking for an opportunity to sleep with Mr. Vallejo.”
The police department employee had to recuse herself from the case given her past ties to Vallejo.
The initial party thrown by Vallejo and his motorcycle club's nonprofit was at Mac's Speed Shop BBQ in Fayetteville
An afterparty was held at nearby Paddy's Irish Pub, also in Fayetteville. It's been described as an 'over-the-top' Irish pub
Scanlon then sent a text to a fellow soldier - a staff sergeant - she infrequently hooked up with and told her she'd be there shortly and called an Uber to get to his house, she told Rolling Stone.
She then asked to use a restroom. Vallejo offered a portable toilet, as the warehouse had no plumbing.
Scanlon was opening the door of the portable toilet when Vallejo 'ambushed' her and began kissing her, she said.
She pushed him away and told him no. Scanlon alleges that Vallejo - seven inches taller and 70 pounds heavier - put his hands up her dress, into her underwear and penetrated her with his fingers.
'He literally picked me up off the ground, and my shoes fell off,' she said.
Vallejo, Scanlon claimed, then put her on the hood of a Saab convertible and raped her without using a contraceptive. She eventually gave up fighting back, she said.
At one point, Scanlon said, the Green Beret widow witnessed what happened but claimed she had forgotten and didn't tell her lawyer until months after.
When it was over, Scanlon ran inside to get her things and found her phone blown up by both her friend and the Uber driver who was attempting to pick her up. Her friend said that Scanlon was shaking and told her 'I feel like I just got raped.'
She had to order another Uber to take her to the staff sergeant's house to spend the night.
Scanlon has since met with the likes of former Arizona Senator Martha McSally to discuss her situation
Scanlon said that the alleged assault ruined her career in the military and she eventually resigned in 2019
Vallejo texted Scanlon at 4:25 a.m.: 'How are you? Let me know when your [sic] home safe,' he wrote, adding a heart emoji and a kissing face.
'Do you realize what you did?' she replied.
Vallejo never responded.
The morning after, Scanlon went to an Army medical center for examination. The nurse who performed the rape kit reported that Scanlon was red-eyed with her makeup smeared and 'tearful.'
Her exam showed multiple small lacerations, a contusion and scratch marks on her left side and lower back from the hood of the car.
Samples taken from Scanlon's genitals and soiled underwear matched Vallejo's DNA., according to the Womack Army Medical Center's investigation.
She spoke with a friend, an Army sexual assault response coordinator and a chaplain. She still was unaware that Vallejo was in Delta Force at this time.
On September 12, 2016, Scanlon met with investigators from the base at Fort Bragg.
She claims she was told that because it occurred in Fayetteville, they couldn't help her.
A spokesperson for the Army investigations division told Rolling Stone that this isn't 'accurate.'
He said agents began a 'collateral investigation' with the city's police, but could not provide a date when it began or a reason why Scanlon felt dismissed. He also couldn't prove or disprove whether recordings taken from the September 12 session still exist.
Then-Fayetteville Police Detective Paul Matrafailo wrote in a report that he drove her to the warehouse to identify the precise location where the alleged rape happened, where Scanlon began to cry.
Paul G. Matrafailo III (pictured in 2017), 33, of the Fayetteville Police Department, who investigated the case
Matrafailo got a warrant, took samples from the vehicle, reviewed security footage and interviewed Scanlon's friend and other potential witnesses.
On September 30, Vallejo was arrested and charged with second-degree rape, second-degree sex offense and sexual battery.
It was then that Scanlon - who had known Vallejo as Cris Valley - learned Vallejo's real name and that he was an active-duty soldier.
Vallejo had joined the Army at 19 just prior to 9/11.
Vallejo has since argued that his and Scanlon's encounter was consensual and acquitted of all charged in a June 2018 court martial.
Scanlon, however, said the trauma is still with her now and has issue with the court martial, given that Vallejo was supposed to be tried in a civilian courtroom.
Vallejo was detained on a $100,000
