Army’s sex-assault prosecutor suspended for….
Yep, you guessed the rest of that sentence, didn’t you? The Stars & Stripes reports that Lt. Col. Joseph “Jay” Morse has been suspended from his job as the supervisor of the Army’s “special victims” prosecutors because of allegations that he groped one of his subordinates.
Morse, chief of the Trial Counsel Assistance Program at Fort Belvoir, Va., was responsible for Army prosecutorial training and assistance worldwide. He also was lead prosecutor in the case against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who pleaded guilty to the mass murder of 16 Afghan civilians in 2012.
Sources told Stars and Stripes that the Army lawyer alleged that Morse attempted to kiss and grope her against her will. The alleged assault reportedly took place in a hotel room at a 2011 sexual assault legal conference attended by special victims prosecutors in Alexandria, Va., before he was appointed as chief of the Trial Counsel Assistance Program.
The lawyer reported the incident in mid-February, and Morse was suspended shortly thereafter, according to one source.
He’s not guilty, yet, and there’s an investigation underway. But, WTF?
Category: Big Army
And BG Sinclair is having his day in court at Bragg. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/06/us-usa-courtmartial-sinclair-idUSBREA2428U20140306
Happened in 2011. Reported in 2014. Something sounds really weird about this. Scorned lover, passed over for promotion, or something else.
Such a time lag isn’t unknown for valid complaints. But that much delay does make me wonder too.
True, but there are two sides.
I know women that have put up with bad behavior because they felt like there was nothing they could do. One in particular was working for a lawyer who donated heavily to area judges and knew every lawyer in town. He wasn’t quite as bad as what this Lt.Col. is accused of being but it was certainly harassment, no question. She just eventually found another job and moved on…so yeah, I can see the lag time but people need to know that the longer they wait the more doubt is cast upon their complaint….as is evidenced here. Men who file these complaints tend to wait even longer due to embarrassment and that because they are a man they are automatically doubted….
So, Sinclair pleaded guilty on all but the most serious charges, eh? So much for his career. Hopefully the court-martial panel doesn’t let him retire.
Looks like it’s time for a Sinclair follow-up article. Thanks for posting the link, SJ.
Hopefully Sinclair spends some time in the brig. From what I have read, that a-hole is a straight up rapist who thought his star made him bullet proof.
He preyed on subordinates who do not sound like they were playing with full decks either. He played mind games to get his way and also made violent threats. He is a piece of work. An enlisted man who did some of the shit he did would be looking at some quality time at Leavenworth. Lets see if a General can play stupid games and win stupid prizes.
Remember that old CSM of the Army years back that has the twin brother?
I cannot remember his name, but very similar to your comment.
However, I thought he slid as well.
McKinney?
McKinney was busted one grade and retired as a MSG.
Thanks.
Yes, and there’s even more to the story. McKinney also ended up not losing a damn penny from his retired pay.
McKinney’s retired pay was calculated on a straight “high-3 average” basis – so he lost nothing when he retired. At that point, the law didn’t specify that someone reduced by court-martial action who retired at a that lower grade would have their retired pay computed based on that lower grade.
The McKinney case is what led to the law being changed.
man, what is it about the O-5 paygrade that makes so many of them activate the explosive bolts on their command pins?
I don’t think there’s any more idiocy at that pay grade, AW1 Tim. I just think you hear about it more since (1) people at that pay grade are much more visible, and (2) are often in key positions with major authority for the first time – and thus now have their first major opportunity to screw up and/or abuse the system for personal gain.
Power doesn’t corrupt. Rather, power reveals basic character.
You never heard of the “Field Grade Lobotomy”? I’m glad I got out as a Captain.
Yep. But that happens at O4. The question referred to officers in the grade of O5.
By the time they’ve made O5, the recipients of the proverbial “field grade frontal” have by and large adapted and recovered functionality. (smile)
The alleged assault occurred in a motel room? It’s doubtful that a third person was present; thus, the two were presumably alone in a motel room. Yeah, I’ll wait fot the investigation’s outcome, thanks. However, even if it turns out he is not charged, he is DOA.
Sadly, 2/17 Air Cav, you’re probably correct. These days males have little recourse if falsely accused of sexual misconduct. And regardless of what anyone says to the contrary, the presumption of innocence does NOT seem to be routinely applied in such cases.
Barring some unambiguous and compelling evidence that the accusation is false and motivated solely by malice, his career is almost certainly toast. And even if such evidence exists, I’d guess it’s still 50/50 that his career is history.
I have doubts about this, too, although as Hondo pointed out, a time delay on reporting this kind of thing is not unusual, even in the civilian world. The victim simply has to get up the nerve to make the complaint.
Look how long it has taken for the complaints against pedophiles priests to get some action for the victims. That stuff goes back to the 1960s and probably further back than that. It’s only recently that the Church finally stopped denying that anything happened and covering for pedophile priests.
And it is no surprise that someone who is a sexual predator is acting in a legal field. What a perfect cover that is. The most guilt shout the loudest, to deflect attention from themselves.
So…let me get this straight. An Army attorney for “special victims”, at sexual assault legal conference…does the exact thing he prosecutes others for. That about cover it? Now he has only been charged I understand and not yet convicted but it seems to me someone doubled down on stupid. If it happened I hope they get him for it.
I have to agree with Ex-PH2 though, the profession is a perfect cover for a predator and lends itself to such behavior I believe, because they think they know the ins and outs of the system and how to duck and cover in the event someone cries foul. Perhaps she waited this long because she is an attorney and wanted to be sure she had all her ducks in a row before confronting this guy formally. I don’t know the whole story but it smells crappy to me.
I can’t speak on the allegations, but Jay Morse has an excellent reputation in the Army JAG Corps. This is unfortunate all around.
I agree JAGC. I don’t know the whole story and no one does at this point. If he is innocent I hope he is fully exonerated. If he is guilty, he will have a rough row to hoe.
A commissioned lawyer (and I’m assuming a special victims prosecutor for sex assault) waits 2 years before making a complaint about what appears to be a bad pass made at a hotel? The WTF is strong in that.
I did chuckle a little at the thought of the Army’s senior sex assault prosecutor being hoist with his own petard over the same type of BS charge him and his subordinates have made a career sending men to prison over. That’s some really bad karma.
Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing. Delayed reporting may be understandable for many people, but it’s harder to understand when the alleged victim is an attorney who should know the ramifications of delayed reporting.
I tried to find out when he was elevated to head up the Trial Counsel Assistance Program but failed. My thinking was that there might be a connection bewteen that move and the complaint’s well-sfter-the-incident filing.
You would think that but I don’t think the mind works quite that way when the shoe is on the other foot. I once had an O6 chaplain tell me that I “must be an easy lay.” This was after he waxed poetic about what I might or might not look like in a skimpy black leather outfit. One would think that reporting him would have been a slam dunk. Certainly it would have been the type of thing I would have recommended to others. But, I questioned whether I had somehow inadvertently invited him to think making such comments was appropriate and I doubted whether it was likely someone was going to believe a man of the cloth, and many pay grades ahead of me, was capable of being such a douche. Finally, I wasn’t all that sure that I wanted to possibly ruin a man’s career over what might have just been an incredibly stupid comment. About a year later, I heard through the grapevine that this wasn’t the first time he had done something like that. I wasn’t interested in making a fuss for me, but I thought not saying something was wrong because it could jeopardize others. Ultimately, I didn’t make a formal complaint because time had passed but I did tell my CG so that he could be aware of it and keep his eye on him. I asked him not to take any more action (the guy wasn’t in the CG’s chain) but it was about all I could do to keep him and a few others from going over and rearranging the guy’s jaw and I have no doubt that he clued the guy’s CG into the fact that he was a scumbag who bore watching. The point of the drawn out story is that professional knowledge has a way of going by the wayside when it’s happening to you. Heck, when you are a professional there is an even greater expectation that you should have had the presence of mind not to put yourself in situations (like alone in a hotel room)… Read more »
I am a woman and I never automatically assume the man is guilty. So many women have done things that they regret, especially while drinking, then cry ‘sex assault’, that I take these reports with a grain of salt. I’m especially suspicious of someone who works in the sex assault industry.
How are they going to prove it if it was the two of them alone in a hotel room?
When my dad was working, and as women because more prevalent in business, he refused to be alone with them anywhere. The door was always open or they met in a more public place. I’ve always advised my sons of the same thing.
Oh, and girls? If you don’t want to invite trouble, don’t go into hotel rooms with men. I work in IT with mostly men. When I traveled on business, our rooms were off limits to each other, we met in the lobby or restaurant.
Great counsel Common Sense: Worked for a female GM15 in the Pentagon who had a foul mouth (not that I’m a Saint), told very crude jokes and even claimed to have wrote letters to Penthouse. Luckily I stayed away from this and didn’t participate in the exchanges like some others. Sure enough, she got in trouble for travel fraud etc and played the sexual harassment card including foul language etc. Didn’t work…she was still canned.
Common Sense, excellent point. It truly is a “he said, she said”, situation.
There are times when an accuser and the accused face off in a he sid/she said but–and here is the BIG OLE But-that doesn’t produce a neutral outcome. Either one (or even both) will appear to be credible or incredible in testifying. If both are incredible, the accused wins. If both are credible, the accused wins. If the accused is incredible and the accuser is credible, the accused loses. At least, that’s the way it should work!
Common sense…I think the difference today is the movement to believe that there is no such thing as merely a bad choice and that pretty much any situation in which the guy goes short of getting a signed consent to sex leaves open the possibility that a nonconsensual act could have occurred. No doubt, there are people that are predators that exploit bad situation and those people definitely need to be prosecuted. But most of the cases I have seen are young people who both impaired and made stupid choices that put them in situations they both regretted. Personally, I think we are now moving into an area where we are actually traumatizing people by causing them to reconsider situations that they would have otherwise categorized as “live and learn” events. Perception is everything and if you interpret an event through the lens of “I’ve been victimized” because that is the message you are getting from every GMT and safety stand down, guess what? You are going to experience the world as unsafe, unpredictable and exploiting.
The Navy publishes Court Martial Proceedings on a monthly basis in an effort to have a more open culture and to show that they are doing something about the (real or perceived) problem within the ranks regarding sexual assaults. It amazes me how many of the defendants brought before Special or General Court Martial are actually found Not Guilty upon a preponderance of the evidence by the boards.
Makes you wonder if the accusers in those cases are ever brought to justice for false statements.