Suspended Mass. guard head says he's being smeared

BOSTON (AP) -- The commander of the Massachusetts National Guard who's been suspended pending an investigation into an accusation that he raped a subordinate nearly 30 years ago called the allegations against him a "smear" orchestrated by senior officers under his command.

Adjutant Gen. Joseph Carter in his first extensive interview since he was suspended late last month tells The Boston Globe: "I didn't commit any rape."

Carter says the allegations come from a group of senior officers at the Guard's Milford headquarters who opposed his efforts to make them work a five-day week and to change a state law so they could be fired without a court martial.

The woman who claims she was raped by Carter in Florida in 1984 countered that Carter is the one who's lying.

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