- Air Force officer was a branch chief for a sexual assault prevention program
- Arrest happens as Defense Department is set to say that sex assault reports were up 6%
- The officer, accused of groping a woman, has been removed from duty, Air Force official says
- Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel expresses "outrage" and "disgust"
(CNN) -- An Air Force officer who led a sex assault prevention unit is facing sexual battery charges stemming from an incident in Virginia.
The troubling development surfaced as the Defense Department discloses on Tuesday that reports of sexual assault in the military are up.
Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, 41, was arrested early Sunday just outside Washington in Arlington and is accused of grabbing a woman's breasts and buttocks, Arlington County police said.
Police said the woman fought off her assailant in a parking lot when he tried to grab her again before she called authorities.
Arlington County police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said the woman did not know her attacker.
He has been removed from duty, an Air Force official said Monday. The official declined to be named, citing an ongoing law enforcement matter.
Krusinski was placed in charge of a branch of the Air Force's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program in February, running a five-person office, the Air Force official said.
The allegations against Krusinski come as the Defense Department prepared Tuesday to release its annual report on sexual assaults in the military.
CNN has learned that sexual assault reports to Defense Department authorities involving service members as either a victim or offender increased by about 6% from 2011 to 2012.
There were 3,192 assaults reported in fiscal year 2011 and 3,374 reported in fiscal year 2012, which ran from October 1 to September 30.
Officials have said it is not clear whether that indicates an actual increase in attacks or if the increase is the result of more victims becoming comfortable in reporting a crime that's often not reported.
Krusinski is being held on $5,000 bond.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said he and Air Force Secretary Michael Donley were "appalled" by the sexual battery allegations against Krusinski.
Krusinski's arrest comes as the Pentagon has been under closer scrutiny from Congress over its handling of sexual assault cases in the uniformed services.
Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Welsh said sexual assault response efforts are critically important to them and the branch "would not quit working this problem."
In addition to the 6 percent increase in reports from 2011 to 2012, there was more information released Tuesday relating to military sexual assault in 2012.
The Workplace and Gender Relations Survey of Active Duty Members survey compared reports from 2010 to 2012 and found that the prevalence of unwanted sexual contact increased for active duty women and remain unchanged for active duty men, and men and women in the reserves.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel discussed Krusinski's arrest with Air Force Secretary Michael Donley on Monday, according to the Pentagon.
"Secretary Hagel expressed outrage and disgust over the troubling allegations and emphasized that this matter will be dealt with swiftly and decisively," Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
Hagel and the chief of the DOD's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, will brief reporters at 3 p.m. ET about steps the military is doing to prevent sexual assault.
In March, members of the military who were sexually assaulted gave dramatic and anguishing testimony to congressional lawmakers.
A former Army specialist described being raped in two different instances while she was in the service and how she felt that the military's chain of command was failing at consistently prosecuting and convicting offenders.
"Sexual assault and rape are not about the weakness of the victim, they're about power and control," Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire, said at a March hearing before the committee on the issue of sexual assault. "In a military context, that becomes an even greater problem."
At that hearing, high-ranking members of each branch assured lawmakers that they were working hard to end sexual assault in the armed forces.
Lt. Gen. Richard C. Harding, an Air Force JAG told lawmakers that the branch started a program in January that provides airmen who report being victimized with an attorney to represent them.
The attorneys operate independently of the prosecution's chain of command, he said.
Read the entire testimony from March
The Defense Department has stepped up efforts to hold perpetrators accountable, establishing a special victims unit to handle cases, working to improve tracking of reports and speeding transfers for troops who report a sexual assault by a member of their unit.
A Defense Department survey conducted in 2010 found that only a small percentage of more than 19,000 rapes and sexual assaults involving service members was reported and that only 13.5% were filed, with only 8% of reports resulting in prosecution.
