{"id":33778,"date":"2013-01-24T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2013-01-24T10:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=33778"},"modified":"2014-03-07T09:51:08","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T14:51:08","slug":"bg-sinclairs-pr-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=33778","title":{"rendered":"Sinclair’s PR Site"},"content":{"rendered":"

As regular TAH readers know, I\u2019ve been periodically writing about the case of BG Jeffery Sinclair, US Army, who is currently facing courts-martial for a number of very serious charges.\u00a0 Jonn vectored me to a couple of links he got from another TAH reader, AndyFMF.\u00a0 The links are from a website that someone \u2013 my guess would be Sinclair’s legal team \u2013 has come up with a website touting Sinclair\u2019s innocence.<\/p>\n

I took a look at the website.\u00a0 I\u2019ll hit the high points and give my impressions below.\u00a0 Disclaimer:\u00a0 I\u2019m not a lawyer \u2013 just an educated layman with some knowledge of and interest in the law.\u00a0 Comments\/corrections from qualified lawyers, particularly from our military JAG readers, are solicited and welcome.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The site can be found here<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. The site appears to be essentially a PR exercise aimed at generating sympathy for Sinclair.\u00a0 Predictably, it attacks Sinclair\u2019s accuser, his prosecutor, and the evidence against him.\u00a0 It also touts Sinclair’s history and bio.<\/li>\n
  3. It does not divulge the name of Sinclair\u2019s accuser.<\/li>\n
  4. It points out some legitimate weaknesses in the prosecution\u2019s case.\u00a0 Some of the evidence for some of the charges indeed appears weak.\u00a0 Other evidence presented at Sinclair’s Article 32 hearing resulted in some of the original accusations being dropped.<\/li>\n
  5. However, IMO in at least one other area the prosecution team may have really<\/span> stepped on its collective schvantz<\/i>. \u00a0Frankly, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see a new prosecution team take over the case prior to trial.<\/li>\n
  6. That said, some of the \u201cshortcomings\u201d the site points out are, bluntly, BS.\u00a0 In particular, they make much of the fact that Sinclair \u201cpassed a polygraph\u201d and that his accuser has not taken one.\u00a0 JAGs out there correct me if I\u2019m wrong, but I\u2019m pretty sure that polygraph results are not admissible in courts-martial proceedings as evidence.\u00a0 There are numerous known instances of a liar “beating” a polygraph.<\/li>\n
  7. The site also makes much of the fact that multiple people had access to Sinclair\u2019s computer, where evidence was found that pornographic images had been accessed \u2013 in some cases, when Sinclair was known to be absent.\u00a0 While that is indeed true, charges relating to specific instances where porn was accessed during a time Sinclair was shown to have been absent apparently were later dropped.\u00a0 And I\u2019d like to think that the Army actually had the sense to have a good computer forensic tech (the Army indeed has some very good ones) look at the machine in question prior to the Article 32 hearing.<\/li>\n
  8. The site admits that Sinclair had a consensual extramarital affair with a subordinate as well as use \u201cbad judgment\u201d in exchanging “inappropriate” text messages (presumably racy ones) with four other women – who were apparently also Sinclair’s subordinates.\u00a0 That admission alone is enough to end Sinclair’s career.<\/li>\n
  9. While the “forcible sodomy” charge against Sinclair may sound weak as his PR site presents it, that charge is likely legally much stronger than Sinclair’s site would lead one to believe.\u00a0 Past instances of Army Drill Sergeants engaging in consensual sex with trainees have been successfully prosecuted as rape.\u00a0 This was apparently due to the extreme difference in rank under the theory that the extreme difference in rank and position effectively constituted coercion.\u00a0 I\u2019m guessing a BG hitting on a junior officer (e.g., a LT or CPT) might well be considered just as coercive a situation as a Drill Sergeant hitting on a trainee.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Bottom line:\u00a0 the site strikes me as primarily a blatant and rather transparent PR effort, designed to garner sympathy for Sinclair among members of the public.\u00a0 Even if Sinclair is innocent, I personally find such a public PR effort distasteful and beneath what I\u2019d expect from a military GO.\u00a0 YMMV regarding both the site and how distasteful you find it.<\/p>\n

    Sinclair at this point has to know his career is over.\u00a0 He\u2019s now simply fighting to stay out of jail and keep his pension.\u00a0 I\u2019d guess he probably doesn\u2019t much care about appearances and decorum.<\/p>\n

    TSO Adds:<\/strong> Um, this is interesting reading…. (Click twice so you can read it.)<\/p>\n

    \"Um\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As regular TAH readers know, I\u2019ve been periodically writing about the case of BG Jeffery Sinclair, … Sinclair’s PR Site<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185,15,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-legal","category-military-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33778","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\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}