The Army Court of Criminal Appeals has an interesting opinion and reminder about the relationship of improper relationships when there is an allegation of sexual assault. United States v. Delgado, ARMY 20140927 (A. Ct. Crim. App. 6 January 2016). AR 600-20, para. 4-14b. prohibits relationships between soldiers of different ranks…
Is this agent still investigating? Does this agent have any pending investigations or appearance as a witness in a UCMJ case? A man arrested just before Christmas for allegedly pulling out his gun at a restaurant because he didn’t like the bill is a Special Agent for the U.S. Army’s…
Thus begins a review of the Military Justice Review Group (MJRG) report Part 1. My comments will be in no particular order. Confinement to Bread & Water Currently, a person can be confined for up to three days on bread and water rations, under certain circumstances. The MJRG recommends removing…
The pretrial appellate litigation in Bergdahl is effectively over–charges are referred to trial and he has been arraigned. For those interested in the litigation to get access to UCMJ art. 32 hearing documents, I have collated the documents here. There is a new effort to get quicker media access to…
We are all familiar with the interactions that can occur between the military and civilian prosecutors when deciding who will prosecute a servicemember for crimes in the “civilian” community. Sometimes the result is a civilian prosecution and the military takes adverse administrative actions, sometimes the civilians hand over the case…
The interesting case of West v. Rieth, et. al. has come across the transom and it’s worth the read. West alleges that the Federal Defendants, who with one exception were also U.S. Marine Corps service members at all relevant times, conspired to lodge false complaints and accusations of sexual harassment and sexual…
One of the discussions ongoing about military sexual assault cases is the breadth of conduct meant to capture, and potential ambiguities in how the law seeks to define a crime versus boorish or otherwise inappropriate behavior. Here is an interesting piece based on developments in Canada. Implied Consent & Sexual…
There has been much talk in the military justice community about prosecutor ethics and how they may clash with the commander and Congressional desires to prosecute and convict those accused of sexual assault. It is difficult to decide if pressure (proper or otherwise) leads prosecutors to err, or whether it…
Kyndra C. Cleveland , Jodi Quas and Thomas D. Lyon (University of California, Irvine , University of California, Irvine – Department of Criminology, Law and Society and University of Southern California – Gould School of Law) have posted Valence, Implicated Actor, and Children’s Acquiescence to False Suggestions (Forthcoming, Journal of Applied Developmental…
It appears we are hard-wired to believe stories. So actually requiring us to believe isn’t that hard–except it seems in sexual assault cases. Everyone is aware that the military requires any sexual assault complainant to be believed. A cynic will say, that this is required despite evidence showing falsity in…