Today I had my first court-martial since arriving to Afghanistan. The Soldier was being court-martialed because he got drunk and decided to spray his subordinate Soldiers with a fire extinguisher. Normally, this would probably not be dealt with at the court-martial level, but I didn't make that decision. This Soldier was not in my unit, and I was assigned the case because the Trial Counsel who it belonged to, went on R & R.
I was able to work out a guilty plea, that made all sides happy. So, the Soldier plead guilty today and was sentenced. He was sentenced to 2 months confinement and was reduced to the grade of E-4. I was actually pretty surprised that the judge gave him any confinement. In a lot of instances, this kind of misconduct would be dealt with via an Article 15 (non-judicial punishment) in which confinement is pretty much not an option. There were some circumstances in play here that made this end up in a courtroom. After, the Soldier sprayed his subordinates with a fire extinguisher, one of the sprayed Soldiers confronted him and ended up getting his jaw broken in 2 places by another Soldier. So this Soldier kind of set in motion a chain of events. He definitely wasn't the one who threw the punch, but if he hadn't gotten drunk and sprayed these Soldiers with the fire extinguisher, without a doubt, no one would have been injured. So there was a definite impact on good order and discipline.
It's been a while since I have been in court, and it felt good to be back. Although, I think I am a little rusty. Tomorrow, I have to prepare an argument for a show cause board that I have Saturday to determine whether a warrant officer should be kicked out for getting a DUI 2 years ago. Doesn't sound difficult, but I have no witnesses who will say that he should be kicked out, and the defense has witnesses that say he should stay in. I only have the regulation on my side that says if an officer gets any negative information filed in their official file, then they can be eliminated. So, this will be a test of my powers of persuasion and argument skills. Wish me luck!
You got this!!!!!
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