AF General on trial this week
Air Force Major General Phillip Stewart has been accused of a variety of sexual crimes, and is due to be court-martialed for them.
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.
Okay, he can’t keep it zipped – no problem. But…
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.
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.
“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.”
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
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?)
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.
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.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Air Force, Crime, Dick Stepping
Hey, he gets a Trump trial.
Trump only needed one not guilty vote.
Why does the General need two?
According to the article he needs 3 not guilty votes to skate.
Correct. I re-read the statement. Tnx
The verdict is predetermined. Guilty of …. This is where A Bragg finds the crime for the guilty party.
Maybe they need to move the trial to Australia? Plenty of kangaroos there. Noo Yawk and The ATL have experience in these sorts of trials. Local, Baby, local.
Not enough info to go on, but as I’ve stated before…I am always leery of the he said/she said cases. False accusations can be very difficult to defend oneself against. Good luck, Mon General’…you’re gonna need it.
“he said/she said”
Watch your pronouns. Could be they said/them said.
Straight, white male? He’s toast.
Hey, Disney won’t hire white males– it’s hip and happenin’ nowadays:
https://x.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1803833834946883901
Did he piss of a superior or make one or more subordinates angry? The problem with a sexual assault claim is there is often only a he said, she said situation.
Even if it’s a consensual relationship he’s guilty. Even if the victim did not file a complaint. Unless they are both equal rank and not the superior over the other. I remember something about this when I was learning about the UCMJ 50+ years ago. Correct me if I’m wrong.
The thing with fucking a subordinate is that no matter how it happens it’s always a potential time bomb for the superior ranked partner.
There’s a reason that even consensual versions of this are frowned on because of the appearance of a conflict. Everyone knows of a case where some asshole is fucking a subordinate who then gets preferential treatment that’s so obvious to the rest of the unit it’s disgusting to witness.
If you can’t control your pecker’s darker desires to get wet one wonders if you’re actually able to lead effectively or command others, inappropriate relationships remain inappropriate regardless of consent.
If a person is unable to utilize enough self discipline to control their own sexual desires and avoid an inappropriate relationship it’s my opinion they will reveal a decided lack of self discipline in other areas of character as well.
As a civilian business owner, operator, senior manager I’ve seen far too many cases of a senior manager ruin a great career with such a lack of discipline over their own desires…
The term don’t shit where you eat came into being for a number of reasons, not the least of which is fucking around with a subordinate raises far too many questions surrounding topics like consent, and conflict of interest.
He’s being charged because he didn’t have the ability to not fuck a subordinate, for me whether there’s a crime there or not there’s certainly a lack of self control and self discipline severe enough to relieve him of any command and end his career.
Don’t fuck the help, don’t fuck a subordinate, and don’t do any of that while cheating on a spouse…the inability to abide such a simple set of rules should create a question of character large enough to disqualify such people from roles of responsibility.
That said it looks like he shit in the wrong eating area and now the folks who smelled it are looking to take him out by using any means available even if also inappropriate…
That for me looks like some additional people incapable of exercising sound command judgment, and reveals yet another corroded component of our current command component. Instead of leading impartially and listening to disinterested third parties, vengeful leadership intends to roast this man in court and to hell with due process and fair trials…if that’s not an indicator of poor command ability I don’t know what is…
None of this leaves a positive note regarding the Air Force’s senior leadership morality or command ability.
Note the original Article 32 judge said charges should be dropped. Then there’s the drinking before flying charge, which I suspect is NOT a he-said/she-said. This one was odd enough to catch my attention.
No alcohol 8 hrs before flying.
I concur with everything you said, save the undercurrent of assumed guilt.
Yep.
If only he had listened to BGen Jack D. Ripper and not been so willing to share his precious bodily fluids, he wouldn’t be in this predicament.
Ah! That phrase was written about another flag officer, Adm John Byng! (^_^)
I’m not surprised the case is being referred to court-martial. We had a saying when I was assigned to the training command, “The easiest way to make SSgt is to arrive as a TSgt.”
Many a SrNCO taught me, “never be alone w/ a female in your command. If counseling, always leave the office door open & if possible, have another person with you as a witness. And NEVER dip your wick in the company ink well.”
‘and now for a trip down memory lane. I saw a SrA get reduced to A1C, fined heavily, and sentenced to prison for a few months for having sex with her students; I saw a MSgt get a DD, 2 years in prison, reduced to E-1, and forfeiture of all pay and allowances for having sex with one of his students; a SSgt got the same as the MSgt for having sex with one of his students.
When I was first assigned to instructor duty an Amn made a quite innocent statement to me that could have been taken as a sexual come-on. She was attracted to me and everyone knew it; however, I was a strict follower of the rule, “Don’t dip your pen in the company ink”. Nothing happened so no harm no foul. Funny thing was a few years later I ran into her and she didn’t recognize me. I told my troops, don’t throw yourself into jail when she won’t remember your name.
Right about the end of my tour as an instructor, rumor went around I was having an affair with a student. I was furious and I tried everything to put an end to the rumor. The student was a very shy young woman from a small town that no one had heard of. Thing was I once lived in the same town. Had we both still lived there, she would have been my daughter’s friend who hung around too often. She came to my office once or twice to talk about the old town and to ask if we knew any of the same people.
The busy bodies endemic in the training command didn’t see it that way. They just knew something was going on. There was something going on, the Amn was a lesbian and it was don’t ask, don’t tell season.
I picked up a copy of the Fort Jackson newspaper on my way to report to Recruiter School in ’08. Two ex-Drill Sergeants made the UCMJ section for drilling female Trainees, a former E-6 and former E-7. Both lost rank (one to E-1 and the other to E-4) and their careers, and at least one got a few months. My time to wear the hat came around right as females were being integrated into Infantry OSUT. 2-58 did it right and managed their first classes without incident. I guess it looked too easy, because 2-19 was next in the chute and screwed up royally. Lack of oversight from battalion leadership coupled with weak company leadership led to some horny Drills and Trainees running rampant. All of Sand Hill was affected, as most of the uninvolved 2-58 Drills were swapped out with Drills from other battalions.
One of my last contracts was an attractive young woman who I found myself taking to New Orleans to ship. She was making some small talk that could have been taken out of context (or maybe she meant it), asking me why my wife lived 1000 miles away and saying that her husband didn’t approve of her joining and that they were basically over. I kept both hands on the steering wheel and my eyes straight forward. My first Station Commander, on the other hand, had a habit of getting young women to go into his office, where they’d spend a couple of hours behind closed doors. He got fired and sent to S3 after a few months.
A buddy of mine was working at the Army Recruiter’s office when he asked me to do him a favor; I don’t recall exactly what but I think he wanted me to pick something up. So I went down to the office to deliver the favor when the SGM walked in. The SGM asked where the SFC was; my buddy said he’d gone to MEPS (AFEES at the time) with a woman who was going for her delayed enlistment physical. My buddy didn’t know when to stop talking. He added they’d be delayed as they were stopping at the BX at the local Air Reserve base to pick up some beer. This was the first time I had seen smoke coming out of someone’s ears. I made haste to the door; but, I often wonder why I don’t recall seeing the SFC again.
Aha. You were the “cover story”.
I hated that advice.
I followed it and it is probably the only reason I made it through my career without a SHARP complaint that wasn’t immediately tossed out – I also ensured that, whenever I lived off-base, I had both a roommate and a time-stamped camera on a motion sensor aimed at the door.
I doubt any of that would be enough for more than reasonable doubt but reasonable doubt is all an innocent man should need – once, I had to show not just a plane ticket but a receipt from a cab to show that I wasn’t even in the same state at the accused time IOT avoid what the chain of command felt was a legitimate he-said/she-said compromise: No loss of rank and a permanent GOMOR.
Fuck them, court-martial me. The sad part was the accusation was from a woman who had a consistent practice of banging her superiors for special treatment and, because I wouldn’t do the whole quid-pro-quo thing, she wanted to punish me (no, there was neither quid nor quo). Even after it was clearly demonstrated that the accusation was a complete fabrication, there was zero consequence for her. I can’t say for certain, but I’m fairly sure everyone in that chain had been effectively honey-trapped by that homegrown Bathsheba and were willing to scapegoat me in the process. I kept my hair.
Yes, I’m paranoid. No, I’m not crazy.
Still, long story aside, you cannot fully mentor a soldier if you can never have a private conversation with her. There are a lot of adages we like to throw around as NCOs – “praise publicly, punish privately” is one of the big ones. It is, inherently, at odds with always having another person present. I get it, and it has absolutely saved my career – but the idea of protecting oneself against one’s soldiers is the antithesis of “my mission, my men, myself.”
Sadly, I don’t have a workaround – at least, not one that will satisfy everyone who insists women belong in combat arms.
Cool. Now do all the congress and senate critters who have been using tax dollars to pay hush money to their almost significant others. And let the real significant others finish cleaning them out.
Catastrophic zipper failure.
Way more common than “Did you order the Code Red?!” in real life
P.S. And, as expected, it’s poor zipper control:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/air-force-general-pleads-guilty-223525394.html
Just read an article (San Antonio Express) that says of the 13 2-stars called in already, 7 have been seated. But they ran out of potential 2-stars and have to call in another batch by the close of business today. Court-Martial is expected to start Monday.
A Two-Star being Court-Martialed. See, this is what happens when you play dick-around and have six Air Medals and the past CSAF/current CJCS doesn’t have any. / s
Allotment of GOs in the USAF in 2024: Total military personnel Air Force by rank U.S. 2024 | Statista
By law, no more than 25% of the general & flag officer corps can be above 2 stars. So, these numbers seem to make sense.
1 star – 108
2 stars – 78
3 stars – 49
4 stars – 13
I’m not real clued in on the courts-martial selection process, but I’m betting that at least half of the two-stars don’t have an older date of rank/more time in grade as Stewart (DOR 11 May 2020). Wouldn’t the two-stars need to have an older DOR/more TIG to be considered his “peer”? So that leaves only 101 Generals eligible to be called up, which is still way too many for any branch of the service.
“Even more worrisome, Lt. Gen. Robinson also chose the potential panel members for this case. … The process hardly seems fair.” Fair!!! What world do you practice law in? This is under the UCMJ, not civilian court rules.
Having trouble seating a jury.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-phillip-stewart-court-martial-jury-candidates/
Hate to say it but I have a different take. Yes he must have pissed someone off, but how many times have we seen a Flag Officer or senior enlisted get the opportunity to retire rather than go to jail for something that would get an E-5 sent to Leavenworth? I’m thinking he must have done something really bad and the victim was smart and said if they didn’t do something she would press charges on the civilian law enforcement side.
And its… Adultery and Dereliction of Duty:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/air-force-general-pleads-guilty-223525394.html
Shocker… Not!