Navy Times reports:
Second Lt. Douglas Sofranko has spent the last year impressing his fellow soldiers in the Florida Army National Guard with stories of his days as a Navy SEAL, while proudly wearing the distinctive Trident insignia on his Army uniform. He even had the SEAL Creed hung on the wall of his office.
The problem is, it was all a lie.
Navy Times reports:
Big Navy is trying to work around a recent military court decision striking down a fleet-wide rule forcing sailors to report any drunken-driving or other civilian arrests to their command.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus revised a high-level Navy regulation July 20 in response to the case of a chief who claimed the self-reporting requirement was unconstitutional and violated his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
Dayton Daily News reports:
A base airman has been ordered to face a special court-martial after allegedly leading military police on chase and crashing a vehicle in Fairborn on May 16.
Fox News has a piece on the research misconduct investigation.
I’m aware of one case in the military where the NCIS used GPS tracking (after getting a warrant). Fourthamendment.com recommends:
The D.C. Circuit held on Friday that a warrant is needed for prolonged GPS surveillance, recognizing People v. Weaver from New York and limitingKnotts. [This is a highly important decision. Every criminal and constitutional lawyer needs to read it.] United States v. Maynard, No. 08-3030 (D.C.Cir. August 6, 2010)[.]
Two circuits, relying upon Knotts, have held the use of a GPS tracking device to monitor an individual’s movements in his vehicle over a prolonged period is not a search, United States v. Pineda-Moreno, 591 F.3d 1212 (9th Cir. 2010); United States v. Garcia, 474 F.3d 994 (7th Cir. 2007), but in neither case did the appellant argue that Knotts by its terms does not control whether prolonged surveillance is a search, as Jones argues here. Indeed, in Garcia the appellant explicitly conceded the point. …
On 28 July 2010, ACCA issued a memorandum opinion and decision for the government appeal in United States v. Kirk, ARMY MISC 20100443 (A. Ct. Crim. App. 28 July 2010).
At trial the accused blew providency on an AWOL plea. The prosecution decided they wanted to go forward on the desertion. As part of the case the prosecution wanted to use unwarned statements made to the First Sergeant. The military judge said the statements were coerced, etc., and excluded them. The prosecution appealed. Of course the ACCA ruled in favor of the government that being dragged to the First Sergeant’s office, locked up, and asked a bunch of questions, was not an interrogation and any statements were voluntary. Cases cited are United States v. Duga, 10 M.J. 206 (C.M.A. 1981); United States v. Loukas, 29 M.J. 385 (C.M.A. 1990). Basically it is in the mind of the questioner, not the person being questioned.
Here is the noteworthy piece.
World News Daily has this report:
At the conclusion of the arraignment, Lakin was ordered not to speak with the press and was taken back to Reed under military escort, surprising and disturbing a civilian lawyer who has been working on his case.
“This was completely inappropriate. Col Lakin was brought here and taken away from here as if he was a common criminal. He was prohibited from talking to the press for two minutes; he was prohibited from talking to anybody, even me,” Paul Rolf Jenson said.
I had to go to the bank, pet store, and commissary today so I stopped off to watch the arraignment.
There was a standard R.C.M. 802 conference.
The Army script was followed.
onenewsnow.com reports:
The retiring Marine officer believes it was God’s will that the final board of inquiry ruled he must retire from the Marine Corps at the same rank. "I’m not glad about the way things ended, but I’m thankful that God closed the door on the Marine Corps for me," he explains. "I don’t think that I would have walked away. I think I’d still be out there running on that wheel."
This is a short piece on LtCol Chessani.
The Boston Globe reports:
The Department of Defense is investigating whether 80 wounded American service members in Iraq were improperly used as subjects in a test of a possible treatment for brain injuries, according to the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General.
In addition to the defense investigation, the US Navy is conducting an inquiry into alleged research misconduct and potential violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to Jennifer Plozai, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon’s inspector general, in response to questions from the Globe. She declined to spell out the nature of the alleged misconduct.
Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
