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Air Force Major General Phillip Stewart has been accused of a variety of sexual crimes, and is due to be court-martialed for them.<\/p>\n
Court-martial proceedings for an Air Force two-star general charged with sexual assault are being held this week in Texas, marking only the second time in history that a general officer in the service will head to trial while facing accusations of a sexual crime.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Okay, he can’t keep it zipped – no problem. But…<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, attorney Sherilyn Bunn, Stewart’s senior defense counsel, said in a statement that there are overall concerns that Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson, head of Air Education and Training Command, decided to send the charges against the Air Force officer to court-martial in the first place.<\/p>\n
The legal team has told Military.com that the judge for the Article 32 hearing — similar to a grand jury proceeding in the civilian world — suggested that the sexual assault charge be dropped and the other charges not go to trial. But Robinson still referred the charges to court-martial, and he’s also responsible for pulling potential jurors into the panel.<\/p>\n
“Given that a seasoned judge found no probable cause for the sexual assault charges at the Article 32 preliminary hearing, I have grave concerns about Lt. Gen. Robinson’s perplexing decision to refer those same charges to court-martial,” Bunn said. “Even more worrisome, Lt. Gen. Robinson also chose the potential panel members for this case. … The process hardly seems fair.”<\/p>\n
That jury selection process is raising alarm for Stewart’s defense team, especially given that only six of the eight jurors who make up the panel need to be in agreement on a guilty verdict to convict the Air Force officer.Military.com<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Kinda sounds like someone thoroughly pissed off a superior officer. It should be noted, too, that the jury by law needs to be made up of Stewart’s peers (about 150 two-stars and up in the Air Force. OK, who wants to justify why one branch needs 150 two+stars?)<\/p>\n
Only six of the eight jurors need to agree to convict him. The article speculates he may be better off asking for a single judge to rule, not a jury.<\/p>\n
You can read a more specific list of charges in the linked article. Some sound pretty minor to me; a couple sound more serious. I’ll let you decide. From the sound of things, perhaps MG Stewart is serving as an example pour encourager les autres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"