Source: kktv.com 12/28/23 ASHINGTON (KKTV) – Starting Thursday, The U.S. Military has a new “Offices of Special Trial Counsel” (OSTC) to prosecute sexual assault and other serious crimes. The counsel will have general or flag officer leaders who report directly to the secretaries of the military departments. The authority was previously held by commanders. “This military justice reform is an important step in restoring faith that the system is fair, just and equitable, said senior Defense Department and military officials, who emphasized that the offices will be staffed by specially…
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60 Junior ROTC Instructors Accused of Sexual Misconduct in Past Five Years, Investigation Finds
Source: military.com 11/16/22 Sixty instructors in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps have been accused of sexual misconduct against high school cadets in the last five years, according to a congressional report released Wednesday. Of those, allegations against 58 instructors were substantiated by local law enforcement or school officials, according to the report from the House Oversight Committee’s majority staff, which was released ahead of a hearing on the JROTC program Wednesday morning. The committee findings come after The New York Times reported earlier this year that at least 33…
Read MoreSexual crime conviction in 1999 cancels out 29 years of service to country
Source: narsol.org 10/7/22 By Captain Charles Munsey . . . Today, October 5, I started out as I routinely do — cup of coffee, morning devotions, a quick breakfast, and then on the road to take care of chores. First, I stopped by my daughter’s home in Rockledge to drop off something for her and converse with her and my grandson for a while. Then I set off for Patrick SFB (Space Force Base) to take care of chores there — pick up prescription meds, get a haircut, and then…
Read MoreJanice Files Lawsuit that Challenges Denial of Military Base Access to Registrant Retirees
Source: ACSOL A lawsuit was filed today in a federal district court in California challenging the denial of access to a military base of a military retiree solely because he is required to register. The lawsuit claims that the military retiree’s right to due process was violated when he was denied access without prior notice in November 2021 to Vandenberg Air Force Base which is located near Santa Barbara, California. The lawsuit asks the court to require the commander of Vandenberg Air Force base to allow the plaintiff access so…
Read MoreThird Military Retiree Registrant Denied Access to Base
It has been reported that a third military retiree registrant was denied access to a base in California after November 1. The registrant is a former enlisted member of the U.S. Navy and was denied access to Coronado Naval Air Station near San Diego. “ACSOL has heard from many military retiree registrants throughout the country who were denied access to one or more bases throughout the United States during the past five years,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “The most recent examples of this, however, appear to be limited to…
Read MoreArmy sex offender argues that prison’s ban on contact with his children violated rights
A soldier convicted of a sex crime involving a child will argue in the military’s top court next week that a prison policy preventing him from contact with his own children violated his rights and unduly punished him. Full Article
Read MoreMilitary eyes child sex-assault solution without Congress
[tampabay.com 5/8/18] WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military officials have sought to ward off congressional efforts to address child-on-child sexual assaults on bases, even as they disclose that the problem is larger than previously acknowledged. Members of Congress expressed alarm and demanded answers after an Associated Press investigation revealed that reports of sexual violence among kids on U.S. military bases and at Pentagon-run schools are getting lost in a dead zone of justice that often leaves both victim and offender without help. With at least three potential legislative fixes being drafted,…
Read MoreSex offender registration statutes are not faring well when subjected to rational basis scrutiny
A gracious reader directed me to a recent article authored by Dr. Melissa Hamilton in the Boston College Law Review entitled Constitutional Law and the Role of Scientific Evidence: The Transformative Potential of Doe v. Snyder, 8 B.C.L. Rev. E. Supp. 34 (2017). In her article, Dr. Hamilton discusses the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s August 2016 decision in Does #1-5 v. Snyder, 834 F.3d 696 (6th Cir. 2016) (Justia). That decision is pertinent to military justice practitioners for a couple of reasons. Full Article
Read MoreFalse Allegations and the UCMJ
Reggie Yager, a Major in the Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps, has written an extremely thorough article about false allegations and sexual assault prosecutions under the UCMJ. Before Senators McCaskill and Gillibrand focused on the sexual assault epidemic that plagued universities, they were highly entrenched in the invisible war of sexual violence plaguing the military. I would hope that a military law review would reach out to Major Yager and publish this article. Full Article
Read MoreHouse bill would require DOD to publish names of military sex offenders
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A bipartisan bill introduced in the house Thursday would require the Department of Defense to create its own sex offender registry along with a Website to make the information available to the public. Full Article
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