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Court Martial Lawyer – Law keeps veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder out of jail

By Chris Roberts / El Paso Times

EL PASO — Combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder who are accused of certain crimes may soon have a choice between a trial or mental-health treatment.

El Paso judges last week took the first step in creating a Veterans Mental Health Treatment Court. They authorized the program for Judge Ricardo Herrera’s county criminal court.

“I just think we need to get ahead of the curve a little bit and get this in place,” said Herrera, who proposed the idea to the Council of Judges.

He said the court would make sense for El Paso because of Fort Bliss and its explosive growth. The post has about 20,000 active-duty soldiers and is expected to grow to 34,000 by 2013.

The court would be geared to active-duty soldiers or veterans who served in combat zones or other hazardous assignments and suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, said Cesar Prieto, who works in Herrera’s court.

He said the court for veterans would include felonies and misdemeanors, but not the most serious crimes, such as murder and rape. Prosecutors would have to approve a defendant’s participation in the program.

The plan is still subject to approval by the El Paso County Commissioners Court. One member, Dan Haggerty, says he supports the idea.

“They used to put a rubber band around your head and tell you to snap out of it,” said Haggerty, a Vietnam War veteran. “But some of these people can’t. … Absolutely, we need to move forward with it.”

Counties can create such programs under a bill approved by the Texas Legislature. It provides only general guidelines, so details of the El Paso program would be worked out among Fort Bliss attorneys, Beaumont Army Medical Center officials, the El Paso County district attorney’s staff, Veterans Affairs officials and others.

Participants in the veterans court would have to have a primary diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, Prieto said. Other service-related disabilities that could be considered are traumatic brain injury and severe depression.

Crimes that could be handled by the court include assault, possession of marijuana, drunken driving and family violence, Prieto said.

The court would have the authority to require attendance in rehabilitation, educational, vocational, medical, psychiatric or substance-abuse programs, he said. It also could require that a participant take medication.

Treatment would last at least six months, but no longer than the period of community supervision normally required for the charged offense. Participants who did not complete the program would be prosecuted.

The court for veterans would be available only to those facing charges in the civilian system. A soldier arrested on post would still be subject to the military justice system, including the possibility of court-martial.

Herrera’s staff is preparing to apply for a state grant that would provide $500,000 for one year to create a mental-health court for veterans. If the program is successful, it could qualify for $500,000 each year for five more years. Prieto said the court could be running by the end of the year.

“As more counties follow El Paso’s lead, we will be able to keep more veterans out of jail and quickly get them the treatment they need,” said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who sponsored the enabling legislation. “After successfully completing their treatment program, veterans can have their cases dismissed and avoid a criminal conviction, which will ensure they can get a job and provide for their families.”

State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, said the program did not give veterans a “get-out-of-jail-free card.” The requirements would be rigorous, he said, and the goal would be to transform an offender into a productive citizen.

“Our success in El Paso is tied to the troops at Fort Bliss and we have to take care of them,” Moody said. “If we don’t help them, we’ll have to take care of it at the back end.”

Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.

Rafique, Mahbubuddin suggest court martial

File photo
Star Online Report
Amici Curiae Barrister Rafique-Ul Huq and Advocate Khandaker Mahbubuddin Ahmed today suggested that the BDR mutiny trial could be held under military law.

Their opinions came a day after Amicus Curiae TH Khan said the military law was not applicable for the border guards.

Rafique-Ul Huq and Advocate Khandaker Mahbubuddin Ahmed told the Supreme Court that the mutineers could be tried in military court by issuing notifications to them.

Rafique has said the director general of the BDR, who leads the border guards, is appointed from the army. So, the accused BDR jawans could be tried under the Army Act 1952, he added.

Mahbubuddin said two separate notifications would have to be issued to try the mutineers under the military law—one to bring the accused to the trial under the Army Act and another to sustain the BDR law during the trial.

TH Khan, another amicus curiae who placed his submission on the reference on the first day of the hearing, opposed trial of the accused BDR mutineers under the military law saying, the offences committed in the BDR mutiny could not be tried under the military law since the BDR was not a disciplined force like the army.

An 11-member full bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin, heard the opinions on the president’s reference seeking the apex court’s opinion on whether the BDR personnel accused of various offences committed during the February 25-26 bloody mutiny can be tried under the military law.

TH Khan had suggested that the BDR law be amended to try the offenders since it did not postulate any mode for such trial.

Among other amici curiae, TH Khan, barrister M Amir-Ul Islam, advocate AF Hassan Ariff, barrister Ajmalul Hossain and advocate AFM Mesbahuddin were present in the courtroom during the hearing.

The Supreme Court appointed 10 senior lawyers as amici curiae on August 19 for hearing their opinions on the reference.

Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.

Second man convicted in theft of military equipment

Sandy Hodson | Staff Writer

Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 8:58 p.m.SHARECOMMENTPRINT

A second man involved in stealing military equipment valued at more than $200,000 from Fort Gordon was sentenced to prison Thursday.
Marquette Mitchell, 38, pleaded guilty earlier this year to theft of government property. He and Omar Gavin, 34, were arrested last year after selling Army style duffle bags full of metal equipment to recycling centers.
“We are in a time of war,” U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall told Mr. Mitchell. “We have men and women every day who are away from their families … they are willing to sacrifice their families … their limbs and ultimately their lives in defense of our nation.
“You chose the wrong place and the wrong time in the wrong circumstances.”
Cortez Daniels testified Thursday that Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Gavin were laborers who worked for him in equipment maintenance. The equipment they stole in July and August 2008 was in working condition, he said, and most it was recovered and will be used again.
Mr. Mitchell said he thought the equipment was being set aside for disposal.
Mr. Mitchell, who had no prior criminal convictions, fell into a sentencing range of 21 to 27 months. Judge Hall sentenced him to 22 months in prison.
Once Mr. Mitchell completes his sentence, he will serve three years probation, during which time he must perform 150 hours of community service and repay the government $2,057 for the items not recovered.
Mr. Gavin, 34, was sentenced earlier this year to 41 months in prison for his role in the thefts.

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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.

Australian military court thrown out

CANBERRA, Australia, Aug. 27 (UPI) — An Australian High Court decision that the country’s highest military court violates the federal constitution throws 171 verdicts into doubt.
The High Court ruled that the Australian Military Court did not have a proper appeal route and its judges do not have tenure, The Australian reported. In addition to the verdicts rendered by the court, the ruling puts on hold eight cases in which defendants are awaiting trial.

The AMC was set up in 2005 because the former system of military courts-martial was perceived as flawed. But the High Court said the attempt at improvement had backfired.

Defense Minister John Faulkner said the courts-martial will be reinstated temporarily as soon as possible.
Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.

Father: Convicted GI poisoned himself before surrendering

By Seth Robbins, Stars and Stripes
Online Edition, Tuesday, August 25, 2009
A Special Forces soldier who was on the run for nearly two days following a court-martial conviction poisoned himself before surrendering to police, his father told Stars and Stripes on Tuesday.

Kelly A. Stewart — a sergeant first class at the time of his conviction last week on charges of kidnapping, forcible sodomy and aggravated sexual assault of a German woman in August 2008 — is now in intensive care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, according to his father, John.

Stewart, 36, fled early Thursday morning after being convicted the night before at his court-martial in Vilseck, Germany. He surrendered late Friday to military police in Stuttgart and was taken to the Army confinement facility at Coleman Barracks in Mannheim. It was at the confinement facility where Stewart showed the first signs of illness, his father said in a telephone interview Tuesday morning.

Stewart, a medic by training, may have injected himself with poison or swallowed pills while he was fleeing authorities, his father said.

He was taken to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center on Sunday and then flown to Walter Reed in Washington, D.C., on Monday afternoon, medical officials said.

“He may or may not live,” said John Stewart, who said he was heading to an airport to board a plane from Nebraska to be at his son’s bedside. “He is in the ICU (intensive care unit) and there appears to be some major organ damage, particularly to his kidneys.”

The search for Stewart began Thursday morning in Vilseck after a soldier who was sharing an on-post hotel room with the convicted soldier said that he awoke around 7:30 a.m. and found Stewart missing, along with his Class A uniform, wallet, two cell phones and a rental car.

While he was eluding the police, Stewart called his father.

“We talked for a few minutes,” his father said.

In what John Stewart described as his son’s “death bed statement,” he declared that he was innocent of the charges.

“He told me that he loved me and that he was innocent,” John Stewart said. “And to tell his kids that he was a good man.”

Stewart has two children with his wife, who is also an Army medic, the father said.

John Stewart said that his son was distraught over the conviction and was clearly “suicidal.”

“My daughter and wife had resigned ourselves that he was going to kill himself,” John Stewart said.

The elder Stewart wondered why his son wasn’t being guarded more closely following his conviction.

“I don’t know how they could let him get away knowing that he was like that,” he said.

Stewart was sentenced to eight years in prison, given a dishonorable discharge and reduced to the rank of E-1. During the court-martial, he was found innocent of rape, abusive sexual contact and communicating a threat, charges that could have increased his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prior to his conviction, Stewart, a highly decorated soldier who served tours in Iraq, Kosovo and Macedonia, had been training fellow Special Forces soldiers at the International Special Training Center in Pfullendorf.

“He has now lost his entire career,” his father said. “He can’t get any jobs. He’s bankrupt. He’s a sex offender. His life is totally ruined.”
Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.

My Lai apology ‘better late than never’

Hanoi – Vietnamese on Monday welcomed last week’s apology by the US officer convicted of leading the notorious My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, but said more senior officers should be held responsible as well.

“Lieutenant William Calley’s apology for his massacre comes too late, but I think it is better late than never,” said Pham Thanh Cong, 52, director of a museum at the site where the massacres took place in 1968.

Cong, who survived the massacre while his parents and three sisters were killed, said he would “welcome (Calley) to visit My Lai,” and that the officer would be received “kindly and decently.”

But Cong said apologies for the massacre should also come from senior officers, including Calley’s direct superior Captain Ernest Medina, who was acquitted in a controversial 1971 court martial.

Calley was the only man convicted for the March 1968 massacre in which US troops killed about 300 to 500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly elderly, women and children. Sentenced to life in prison in 1971, his sentence was commuted by President Richard Nixon, and he was released after four and a half months.

Dung Trung Quoc, head of Vietnam’s national historical association and a member of the National Assembly, said he “truly respect(s)” Calley’s apology, but that Calley’s senior officers and the US government as a whole should take responsibility for the massacre.

In recent years Vietnam has sharply reduced the amount of time in its history curriculum devoted to teaching about the war, and students no longer learn about the My Lai massacre.

Several history teachers contacted by telephone either knew nothing about the massacre, or were vaguely familiar with it.

“I have never read about the My Lai massacre, I’ve only heard of it,” said Dao Thi Hanh, a high school history teacher in Hanoi.

The de-emphasis on the war has coincided with Vietnam’s greatly improved relations with the US, which is now its top export market.

Quoc said he was “very sad” about the failure to teach about the massacre, and that he had objected to the shift in the history curriculum. He said high schools also did not teach students about the occupying Japanese Army’s rice requisitions in 1945, which caused a famine in which millions of Vietnamese died.

“People are becoming very pragmatic now,” Quoc said. “They don’t want to mention these kinds of events for fear it will hinder relations with those countries.” – Sapa-dpa
Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.

Local Marine Officer Faces Court-Martial Trial On Rape Charges

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego-based U.S. Marine officer, Capt. Douglas S. Wacker, who is accused of rape and indecent assault, will be tried in a general court-martial set to begin Wednesday, Marine Corps officials said.
Captain Wacker is assigned to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot’s Headquarters and Service Battalion. He is to be arraigned at MCRD on 11 counts, including two counts of rape, one count of attempted rape, five counts of conduct unbecoming an officer, two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of indecent assault, according to depot spokesman, Maj. Christopher Logan.
No other details of the alleged crimes were released by the Marine Corps.

The court-martial followed an Article 32 hearing held on July 14, 2009, Logan said. An Article 32 hearing is similar to a civilian court’s preliminary hearing, where an investigating officer determines if there is enough evidence to order a trial. After the hearing, MCRD Commanding General, Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, referred the charges for trial.
10News spoke briefly with Capt. Wacker Monday night at his apartment in Pacific beach. He refused to comment and referred all questions to his attorney.
A friend and neighbor told 10News she was shocked at the allegations. “This is weird. Honestly, I think this is a joke,” Ashley Tydon said. She described Capt. Wacker as “funny, honest and a good friend and neighbor.”
Capt. Wacker recently graduated from USD Law School and was in line to become a JAG, or a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, a military attorney, 10 News reported. San Diego attorney, Michael McCloskey, a former JAG, said the charges could ruin Capt. Wacker’s chances for ever becoming a JAG. “In the military setting and just generally around the world,” McCloskey said, “one being accused has a kind of scarlet letter.”

Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.

Army reduces soldier’s murder sentence in post court martial clemency

By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, August 15, 2009
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — The life sentence of a U.S. soldier convicted for the execution-style killings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees has been reduced to 40 years, military officials announced Friday.

Col. Charles A. Preysler, acting commander of the Joint Multinational Training Command, reduced the sentence of Master Sgt. John Hatley, 41, earlier this week without comment.

In April, a military jury convicted Hatley of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder for the 2007 killings near Baghdad. According to evidence and testimony presented at Hatley’s trial, the Iraqis were taken into custody after an exchange of fire with Hatley’s unit, although there wasn’t enough evidence to hold them for attacking the unit. Later that night, the detainees were bound, blindfolded and shot before their bodies were dumped into a canal near Baghdad.

The Army did not specify when Hatley will be eligible for parole. The former senior NCO will be dishonorably discharged and reduced in rank to private.

No Iraqi officials were available Friday to comment on the reduction of Hatley’s sentence.

Hatley is the third soldier implicated in the killings to be granted clemency. In June, JMTC’s then-commander, Brig. Gen. David R. Hogg, reduced the sentences of Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr. and Sgt. 1st Class Joseph P. Mayo to 20 years in prison.

Leahy was initially sentenced to life in prison while Mayo, who had pleaded guilty to premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, had received a 35-year sentence under a pretrial agreement. Both men are now eligible for parole in seven years.

All three cases are continuing through the appellate process, officials said.

Members of Hatley’s unit — from the Germany-based Company A, 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd “Dagger” Brigade — testified during his court-martial that the killings were committed out of frustration, partly due to the release of several other Iraqi detainees who were believed responsible for the deaths of some soldiers in the unit.

During the court-martial, Capt. John Riesenberg, assistant government trial counsel, told the jury members that their sentence should be aimed at stopping other soldiers from committing similar crimes.

“Send a message to the world that this is an army that recognizes that it is different, that American soldiers just don’t do this,” Riesenberg said. “They don’t execute detainees in the middle of the night by shooting them in the back of the head when they are bound and blindfolded and dump their bodies in a canal.”

It was Hatley’s idea to kill the detainees, Riesenberg said during the trial.

“A first sergeant in the U.S. Army came up with the idea to commit a brutal execution-style murder of detainees and he did it with his own men,” Riesenberg said. “He failed them, the Army, the Iraqi people and the American war effort.”

Despite the verdict, former Company A members have remained loyal to Hatley and the other two soldiers convicted in the killings.

In Diwaniyah, Iraq, Staff Sgt. Clifford Gabriel, 30, of Pen Argyl, Pa., a former member of Company A who testified at Hatley’s trial in Vilseck, Germany, said the convictions were fair but that they don’t change his view of his former comrades.

“Hatley is a great leader and a great soldier,” Gabriel said last month. “If he was back on active duty, I would go anywhere with him.”

Another former Company A soldier, Sgt. Nicolas Diaz, 31, of Patterson, N.J., described Hatley as a father figure to his men who was deeply affected by the death of six of his soldiers in Baghdad.

“I understand how he felt and the reason why he did it (killed the detainees),” Diaz said. “It was pretty traumatic for many of us, losing really close friends.”

Preysler’s decision will allow Hatley’s wife, Kim, to maintain some of her military benefits while the appeals process continues, officials said.

Reached via e-mail on Friday, Kim Hatley said she was “disappointed” with the decision.

“Please note that these alleged detainees were indeed (insurgents),” she wrote. “Insurgents kill and maim our American soldiers in the most horrific ways. If anyone views my husband’s sentence with indifference, then they are un-American.”

Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.

Second Fort Hood war resister court-martialled

August 16, 12:34 AM

Dallas Progressive Examiner – by Herschel Tomlinson

On Friday, August 14, the second soldier from Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, was court-martialled for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. The first, Specialist Victor Agosto, was court-martialled last week and sentenced to one month in jail.
Agosto refused deployment because he sees the war in Afghanistan as illegal because it is forbidden by the U.S. Constitution and international law, including the Nuremberg Principles and the U.N Charter. “Afghanistan did not attack the United States”, said Agosto’s lawyer, James Branum.
The second Fort Hood soldier to refuse to deploy to Afghanistan was Sergeant Travis Bishop, a country musician who once opened a show for Toby Keith. He told TruthOut.org that during the 14 months he spent in Baghdad, Iraq, ” I started to see a big difference between our reality and what was in the news.” After learning that he was to be deployed to Afghanistan, Bishop started reading his Bible so as to “get right with my creator before going. Through my reading I realized all this goes against what Jesus taught….. I had a religious transformation, and realized that all war is wrong.” His decision to refuse deployment was also influenced by Agosto’s stand and by Under the Hood , a coffee shop in Killeen which provides both refreshments and support to antiwar GIs.
The people at Under the Hood told Bishop that his position sounded like that of a conscientious objector, (CO), and put him in touch with Branum. Branum told Bishop what a conscientious objector is. After hearing Branum, Bishop’s decision to refuse to deploy became firm.
Realizing that he would not have time to complete his CO application before his deployment, Bishop went absent without leave (AWOL). He stayed AWOL for a week, during which he completed his CO application. After his unit deployed, Bishop and Branum went back to Fort Hood. He was assigned a barracks room, and told to report to work the next day. At the same time, they started the process of considering his CO application and the process which would lead to his court martial. He was charged with two counts of missing movement and one of disobeying a direct order. His court-martial was to be a summary court martial, which has a maximum sentence of one year.
Bishop and Agosto are not the only soldiers to desert. The Pentagon reported that over 40,000 people deserted between 2000 and 2006, more than half of them from the Army. Bishop said that morale among both pro-war and antiwar soldiers is low, and he believes the fact that his maximum sentence was one year would encourage others to desert.
The court martial gave Bishop the maximum sentence of twelve months.
Bishop once said “My father said, ‘Do only what you can live with, because every morning you have to look in the mirror when you shave.’ If I had deployed to Afghanistan, I don’t think I would be able to look at a mirror again.”
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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.

War objector faces year in jail
Posted On: Friday, Aug. 14 2009 05:23 AM

By Rebecca LaFlure
Killeen Daily Herald

A Fort Hood soldier who says fighting in a war violates his religious views faces up to a year in jail for refusing orders to deploy to Afghanistan.

Sgt. Travis Bishop, with the 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, pleaded not guilty at a special court-martial Thursday to two counts of missing movement, disobeying a lawful order and going absent without leave (AWOL). If he’s found guilty, Bishop also could be demoted to the lowest Army rank and given a bad-conduct discharge.

His court-martial will continue today at 9:30 a.m. at Fort Hood. He’s the second Fort Hood soldier in as many weeks to be tried by a military court for his refusal to participate in a war that he believes to be immoral and illegal.

“I’m objecting to the U.S.’s current occupation in the Middle East, and I’m objecting on religious grounds,” Bishop said during an interview in June.

“I started reading the Bible more when I knew I was going to Afghanistan. The more I read about loving thy enemy and turning the other cheek, the more I realized that there’s nothing holy about this. … It was a moment of clarity.”

Bishop, 25, who previously served a year in Iraq, was initially scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan on May 18, but did not because of an alleged back injury he sustained when he fell down a flight of stairs carrying his luggage. He was sent to an emergency room where he received pain medication.

Bishop’s defense claimed he was physically unable to deploy that day because of his injury. He missed his flight because he was in the emergency room. However, Capt. Sharon Denson, a physician assistant who examined him that day, testified that she did not see any physical injuries.

“In my professional opinion, he was fit to deploy,” she said at Thursday’s court-martial.

Bishop was then rescheduled to deploy on May 20, but instead went AWOL. He turned himself in to his unit a week later.

James Branum, Bishop’s defense attorney, said Bishop had serious doubts about his views on war for a long time, but was unaware of his right to file for conscientious objector status until just days before he was scheduled to deploy. A conscientious objector is someone who refuses to participate in combat based on religious or ethical grounds, and can be given an honorable discharge by the military.

“Never was he told about his option of conscientious objector status. … If an enlisted soldier isn’t informed that he has a right, then he effectively does not have that right,” Branum said during the nearly five-hour military hearing Thursday.

“Just one to two days before he was set to deploy, in the midst of moral questions, he heard about CO status.”

Branum said CO status is difficult to file, and often takes weeks to do. Bishop decided to leave his unit to draft an application. A week later, he filed for CO status, which is still pending.

Bishop’s defense called two witnesses to the stand. Both are active-duty Fort Hood soldiers who claim they too were never informed that filing for CO status was an option.

Pfc. Anthony Sadoski, who’s been in the Army for eight years, said he’d never heard of conscientious objectors until Bishop told him.

Bishop did not take the stand in his own defense.

“Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” Capt. Matt Kuskie, the prosecuting attorney, argued after the defense made its case.

Maj. Matthew McDonald, who served as the judge, said whether or not Bishop was notified about his right to file for CO status is not relevant to this case.

“If every soldier in the Army who disobeyed an order could claim it was because they weren’t notified of conscientious objector status, we probably wouldn’t have a military any more,” he said.

Both sides will give their closing statements this morning, and if found guilty, Bishop’s sentencing would begin.

Protesters from all over Texas are expected to rally in support of Bishop outside Fort Hood’s East Gate tonight if he’s sent to jail.

On Aug. 5, Victor Agosto, also in the 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, was sentenced to a month in jail and stripped of his Army rank for refusing orders to prepare to deploy.

Agosto said the wars in the Middle East are “immoral and unjust,” and a violation of international law. Agosto did not file for CO status because he only objects to certain wars. He’s now serving his sentence at Bell County Jail.

Protesters plan to be outside the Bell County Criminal Justice Complex, at Loop 121 and Huey Drive in Belton, from 1 to 2 p.m. every Saturday while Agosto is incarcerated.

Contact Rebecca LaFlure

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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.