{"id":112826,"date":"2021-04-22T07:00:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=112826"},"modified":"2021-04-21T20:58:59","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T00:58:59","slug":"af-two-stars-sexual-assault-case-moving-to-court-martial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=112826","title":{"rendered":"AF two-star’s sexual assault case moving to court martial"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Maj Gen William Cooley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We’ve talked about Maj Gen William Cooley before.<\/a> His case is moving forward after the convening authority has reviewed the evidence and the results of the Article 32 hearing. He’ll be the first general officer to be tried at court martial in Air Force history (as a separate service, the court martial of Billy Mitchell obvious happened, but he was\u00a0technically\u00a0<\/em>Army at the time).<\/p>\n

Air Force Times reports<\/a>;<\/p>\n

Maj. Gen. William Cooley, the former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, will face court-martial on a sexual assault charge, marking the first time the Air Force has ever opted to prosecute a general officer.<\/p>\n

Cooley is accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward a civilian woman, kissing and touching her through her clothes while off duty in Albuquerque, N.M., in August 2018. The two-star general also faces allegations that he made the woman touch him sexually through his clothing, without her consent. The woman is not a military employee.<\/p>\n

He faces one charge under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, spanning three acts of sexual assault as described by the code\u2019s Article 120. The trial date has not yet been scheduled.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a comprehensive review of all of the evidence from the investigation and the Article 32 preliminary hearing, I\u2019ve informed Maj. Gen. Cooley of my decision to move his case to general court-martial,\u201d said Air Force Materiel Command boss Gen. Arnold Bunch in an announcement Wednesday. \u201cI can assure you this was not a decision made lightly, but I believe it was the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooley lost his job at AFRL on Jan. 15, 2020, after nearly three years in the post, following an Air Force Office of Special Investigations inquiry into the misconduct allegations. He then became Bunch\u2019s special assistant, handling the Air Force\u2019s technology innovation efforts.<\/p>\n

A senior military judge reviewed the case at a preliminary hearing that began Feb. 8 to determine if there was probable cause that Cooley violated the UCMJ. The defense argued Cooley fell victim to a \u201cconspiracy\u201d to end his career after a consensual romantic encounter, the Dayton Daily News reported. Cooley has denied that he and the woman touched each other, other than the kiss.<\/p>\n

Government counsel countered that Cooley\u2019s claims of honesty conflicted with earlier statements made to investigators and his accuser.<\/p>\n

The judge sent an undisclosed recommendation on whether the case should proceed to Bunch, who made the final call to begin a court-martial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Air Force trial judiciary will identify a senior military judge and coordinate timing and venue for the court-martial proceeding,\u201d according to an AFMC release. \u201cJurors, or court members, must either be officers of higher rank, or equivalent grade but with an earlier date of rank to the accused.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve talked about Maj Gen William Cooley before. His case is moving forward after the convening … AF two-star’s sexual assault case moving to court martial<\/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":[187,185,447],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-force","category-crime","category-dick-stepping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112826","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=112826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112827,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112826\/revisions\/112827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}