BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, MARCH 13, 1998) JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: Split verdict from the jury here in the court martial of former Sergeant Major of the Army Gene McKinney.</s>BRAD WRIGHT, PRODUCER: He had a couple dozen charges against him and he basically walked. There was only one very minor charge that he was convicted on. The charges basically were sexual harassment. The one charge that Sergeant Major McKinney was convicted on was a charge of trying to coach a witness to conduct her conversation with prosecutors in a certain way. It turned out that, in this telephone conversation with this witness, the witness was tape recording the entire thing.</s>SGT. MAJ. GENE MCKINNEY: All you have to do is tell them that we talk a lot. You call the office sometimes because about career development, and that kind of stuff, that's it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.</s>MCKINNEY: That's all they need to know.</s>WRIGHT: It was an amazing case. It was a high-profile military court martial with two teams of lawyers that absolutely hated each other. There was a racial element attached to it because the sergeant major of the Army was the first black man ever to hold this position. Above all, it had a powerful, stunning conclusion. I would imagine that the case probably had a chilling effect on any woman who was thinking of coming forward with legitimate charges of her own.
CNN 20: Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney Verdict, March 13, 1998