{"id":104318,"date":"2020-08-28T17:03:09","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T21:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=104318"},"modified":"2020-08-28T17:03:09","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T21:03:09","slug":"army-special-forces-col-accused-of-sexual-assault-acquitted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=104318","title":{"rendered":"Army Special Forces Col accused of sexual assault acquitted"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Col Kevin Russell (US Army photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stars and Stripes is reporting that Colonel Kevin M Russell has been acquitted of all five sexual assault charges levied against him at a court martial this week that lasted less than two days. The jury deliberated a little over an hour, which is very quick on a case of this seriousness. That quick deliberation tells this court observer that the case was overwhelmingly in Colonel Russell’s favor.<\/p>\n

We’ve talked about COL Russell before\u00a0here<\/a>. From the article, more details have now been made public.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors accused Russell of raping a woman who was an Air Force captain at the time while they were deployed in Pakistan in June 2015, The Fayetteville Observer reported Wednesday after the first day of the court-martial. Before the trial, Army officials refused to make public any documents describing the allegations against Russell, a 28-year Army veteran now assigned to U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s accuser, the former Air Force captain who was not named as a reputed victim of sexual abuse, testified Thursday that she had a consensual sexual relationship with Russell during the deployment, the Observer reported. She testified that while Russell was away on a temporary assignment in Jordan, she had begun a sexual relationship with another captain who shared a house with Russell, the Observer reported without naming the male captain.<\/p>\n

The woman said she was no longer interested in Russell. But on June 5, 2015, after having dinner with him and meeting with others for drinks she grew hazy, lost track of events and remembered \u201cwaking up to Col. Russell having sex with me,\u201d she testified, according to the newspaper. The woman testified she believed she had been drugged. She also testified she had three consensual sexual encounters with Russell after the June 5 episode.<\/p>\n

Russell denied the charges, testifying Thursday that the woman had initiated the sexual interaction on June 5, during which she seemed coherent and did not appear intoxicated, the Observer reported. He said they continued to have a friendly relationship afterward.<\/p>\n

He also testified Thursday that he was not made aware of any accusations of sexual assault until 2017, when the woman \u201cthreatened to ruin his career,\u201d according to the Observer.<\/p>\n

Another witness, an unnamed lieutenant colonel, testified the woman had filed a restricted report of sexual assault sometime between October 2015 and early 2016, the Observer reported. A restricted report allows service members to disclose assault accusations confidentially without the possibility of a criminal investigation. She allowed that report to become unrestricted in April 2019, opening up a criminal investigation into the incident.<\/p>\n

[Russell’s attorney] Waddington said Russell was clearly innocent of the charges. He accused prosecutors of building their case on \u201ca pack of lies.\u201d The attorney said Russell had been vindicated by the truth and never should have faced the charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charges were brought because in today\u2018s political climate, almost every sexual allegation is sent to trial, even when the evidence is weak or nonexistent,\u201d Waddington said Thursday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source;\u00a0Stars and Stripes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stars and Stripes is reporting that Colonel Kevin M Russell has been acquitted of all five … Army Special Forces Col accused of sexual assault acquitted<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,232,185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army","category-army-news","category-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}