EDITOR’S NOTE: The Gazette does not typically name accusers in sexual assault cases.

A former Air Force Academy cadet remembered seeing flirtatious Facebook messages from a fellow academy athlete pop onto her screen on May 16.

The messages caught her “off guard,” she testified Thursday during an evidence hearing in an academy sexual assault case. The words were very out of character for that teammate. And, she said, they insinuated sex.

“I was convinced it wasn’t him” sending the messages, she testified. “I was a little bit worried about him… I wanted to see what was going on.”

She walked down his dorm room that night. And she recalled leaving as the victim of a sexual assault.

Benjamin York, a senior at the academy, was charged on Jan. 31 with aggravated sexual assault in the case. The hearing will help the academy’s commandant determine whether York will be court-martialed.

The woman testifying in Thursday’s hearing said she knew York from their time on an academy athletic team, but they were never romantic.

Moments after entering his room the night of May 16, he kissed her and removed her shirt. She said she “went with the motions,” but felt “uncomfortable.”

She said “please stop” as they started having sex.

“He just said ‘It will be fine,’” the woman said.

She recalled saying “stop” three times and heard the same response — a phrase she recalled hearing dozens of times.

On cross examination, York’s attorney, Jocelyn Stewart, asked the woman if she fought while York took off her shirt or changed sexual positions.

She said she didn’t — at one time, she acknowledged that one of his advances felt “good” — but also attributed her lack of action to “shutting down.”

She later made a restricted report about the incident, allowing her to receive counseling without opening a criminal investigation.

In July, she changed her mind and spoke with the academy’s Office of Special Investigations, leading to Thursday’s hearing.

She recalled making the decision so that York and others would learn from the incident.

The woman left the academy last fall.

“I’m still not here to try to hurt anyone,” she said after about five hours on the stand. “I’m not here for revenge. I’m here because I think it goes above that.”

The hearing is expected to continue on Friday.

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