The Pentagon announced Tuesday night that an Army sergeant in charge of sexual assault prevention at Ft. Hood is under investigation for sexual assault. The investigation, according to Pentagon officials and a Capitol Hill staffer who spoke to USA Today, focuses on accusations that the soldier forced a subordinate into a prostitution ring and sexually assaulted two others.

The sergeant coordinated the sexual assault prevention program for roughly 800 soldiers at the Texas army base. He's since been relieved of his duties, though no formal charges have been filed.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reacted to the news with “frustration, anger, and disappointment over these troubling allegations and the breakdown in discipline and standards they imply.”

The investigation comes just eight days after Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, the head of the Air Force's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program, was arrested for sexual assault, and one week after the Pentagon released a survey estimating that 26,000 people in the military were sexually assaulted in 2012, up from 19,000 in 2010.

[USA Today/Image via AP]

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