{"id":125275,"date":"2022-04-23T20:37:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-24T00:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=125275"},"modified":"2022-04-23T20:37:48","modified_gmt":"2022-04-24T00:37:48","slug":"usaf-general-guilty-of-sex-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=125275","title":{"rendered":"USAF general guilty of sex assault"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Maj Gen William Cooley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We last talked about the general a while back<\/a> as the case was making its way forward. The case was decided today in Cooley’s court martial by the presiding judge in a bench trial (i.e. not a jury trial). The general will be sentenced on Monday.<\/p>\n

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

A military judge convicted Maj. Gen. Bill Cooley of sexually assaulting his sister-in-law in 2018, closing out Saturday the historic first full court-martial of an Air Force general.<\/p>\n

Col. Christina Jimenez, who is presiding over the bench trial, is expected to sentence the former Air Force Research Laboratory commander on Monday. He faces up to seven years in jail, dismissal from the Air Force and withholding of pay, and a possible spot in the national sex offender database.<\/p>\n

After about five hours of deliberation Friday and an overnight break, Jimenez \u2014 the chief circuit military judge with the Air Force Trial Judiciary, Western Circuit, at Travis Air Force Base, California \u2014 ruled Cooley is guilty of forcibly kissing the woman, the first specification in a single charge of abusive sexual contact. He is not guilty of two other specifications of groping her and moving her hand to touch his genitals over his clothes, she said.<\/p>\n

This is the first time a military court has issued a verdict in a case involving an Air Force general. It\u2019s also the first time sexual assault charges have led to criminal prosecution for someone so high up in the chain of command.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes family members are the abusers,\u201d Cooley\u2019s sister-in-law said in a statement read by Ryan Guilds, her pro bono victim\u2019s advocate, after the verdict. \u201cThe price for peace in my extended family was my silence. And that price was too high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooley pleaded not guilty to the abusive sexual contact charge for kissing the woman, and for allegedly touching her breast and genitals over her clothes while they were alone in her car in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She also claims he moved her hand to touch his groin through his pants.<\/p>\n

She agreed to be publicly identified by her relationship to the defendant, but not by name. Air Force Times does not publish the names of sexual assault victims without their permission to protect their privacy.<\/p>\n

The woman and her husband \u2014 an Air Force civilian employee \u2014 as well as Cooley\u2019s mother and several other family friends and expert witnesses testified in the trial, which began Monday. Those who the woman confided in after the alleged incident recounted that she was unlike herself, even shell-shocked, when discussing the alleged assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was incredibly upset, teary, incredibly shaken,\u201d Rev. David Martin, an Episcopal deacon and close friend, testified Thursday.<\/p>\n

The defense acknowledged a kiss happened, but characterized the lawsuit as a setup by the sister-in-law to get revenge for a brief, consensual tryst \u2014 a description the woman denies.<\/p>\n

The trial counsel in closing arguments Friday argued the defense took evidence out of context and twisted the alleged victim\u2019s words so the two-star general could avoid responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I] kissed you in an uninvited way \u2026 for my own selfish ego,\u201d Cooley said in a written apology from 2018 that the prosecution cited in court. \u201cI\u2019m stunned at my deplorable actions.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Much more at the source.<\/p>\n

Several people sent this in, so thanks to all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We last talked about the general a while back as the case was making its way … USAF general guilty of sex assault<\/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":[187,83,447,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-force","category-breaking-news","category-dick-stepping","category-general-whackos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125275","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=125275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}