Army Special Forces Col accused of sexual assault acquitted
Col Kevin Russell (US Army photo)
Stars and Stripes is reporting that Colonel Kevin M Russell has been acquitted of all five sexual assault charges levied against him at a court martial this week that lasted less than two days. The jury deliberated a little over an hour, which is very quick on a case of this seriousness. That quick deliberation tells this court observer that the case was overwhelmingly in Colonel Russell’s favor.
We’ve talked about COL Russell before here. From the article, more details have now been made public.
Prosecutors accused Russell of raping a woman who was an Air Force captain at the time while they were deployed in Pakistan in June 2015, The Fayetteville Observer reported Wednesday after the first day of the court-martial. Before the trial, Army officials refused to make public any documents describing the allegations against Russell, a 28-year Army veteran now assigned to U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg.
…
Russell’s accuser, the former Air Force captain who was not named as a reputed victim of sexual abuse, testified Thursday that she had a consensual sexual relationship with Russell during the deployment, the Observer reported. She testified that while Russell was away on a temporary assignment in Jordan, she had begun a sexual relationship with another captain who shared a house with Russell, the Observer reported without naming the male captain.
The woman said she was no longer interested in Russell. But on June 5, 2015, after having dinner with him and meeting with others for drinks she grew hazy, lost track of events and remembered “waking up to Col. Russell having sex with me,” she testified, according to the newspaper. The woman testified she believed she had been drugged. She also testified she had three consensual sexual encounters with Russell after the June 5 episode.
Russell denied the charges, testifying Thursday that the woman had initiated the sexual interaction on June 5, during which she seemed coherent and did not appear intoxicated, the Observer reported. He said they continued to have a friendly relationship afterward.
He also testified Thursday that he was not made aware of any accusations of sexual assault until 2017, when the woman “threatened to ruin his career,” according to the Observer.
Another witness, an unnamed lieutenant colonel, testified the woman had filed a restricted report of sexual assault sometime between October 2015 and early 2016, the Observer reported. A restricted report allows service members to disclose assault accusations confidentially without the possibility of a criminal investigation. She allowed that report to become unrestricted in April 2019, opening up a criminal investigation into the incident.
[Russell’s attorney] Waddington said Russell was clearly innocent of the charges. He accused prosecutors of building their case on “a pack of lies.” The attorney said Russell had been vindicated by the truth and never should have faced the charges.
“The charges were brought because in today‘s political climate, almost every sexual allegation is sent to trial, even when the evidence is weak or nonexistent,” Waddington said Thursday.
Source; Stars and Stripes
One hour to find him not guilty on all 5 charges? I’ve taken field dumps longer than that. No wonder the Army wouldn’t make anything public before the trial,they knew they had a wet paper bag of a case.
No group of officers in todays military sitting on that jury would let him slide with not guilty across the board that fast.
I sat on two court martial panels…. Both of the court martials were serious allegations against enlisted personnel. Believe it or not the CID agent who testified against the sergeant 1st class was completely ate up. It was another officer and I who saved that man’s career I’m not saying he wasn’t guilty but the evidence they laid out just did not prove a thing.
Wait a minute.
Are you a fuckin officer???
*takes the Grunt out of retired grunt*
Just so that you know…Sergeants Major also sit on CM panels. Most panels were 3 officers and 4 Sergeants Major.
At Fort Hood we would get the duty for a year…sitting on CM panels is both hilarious and tedious at the same time.
I sat on 11 panels…deployment to Iraq was a welcome relief to that dog and pony show…
12 Months? WTF. Did you have to go through some sort of train up and evaluation, like they do with the SGMs that are pulled for the E7/8/9 boards?
I wonder how this affect his career? Will he just say F it and retire?
Probably… can’t get out from under this cloud easy.
He would never survive the hearing before congress for his star. And I wonder if the prosecutors office will try for a second or third bite at the apple? Time to find a desk to drive until the retirement packet comes back from S1.
Probably wouldn’t even be a hearing, Andy11M. Were he to be nominated, the nomination would be DOA. I’m guessing one of the Senators would put a “hold” on the nomination (the Senate would have to confirm him) and the nomination would never even be voted on by the full Senate.
He probably needs to put in his paperwork to retire. He’s actually quite lucky he didn’t get tried and convicted for fraternization if the lady in question was actually working for him.
Agreed.
I am sure they would have charged him with something else if she had been in his chain of command. If having a relationship with a junior officer outside one’s command is a crime, a great many of us who romanced Army nurses should have been court martialed.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but according to at least one briefing I was inflicted with, “Fraternization” can also be applied to when Married Personnel decide to go romp around.
Possibly, possibly not. By the other party’s own admission, the relationship was consensual – and here testimony also implicated a third party in similar conduct. The prosecution might have decided that they didn’t want to have to answer questions about why only one of the three involved was being prosecuted. (The 3rd individual, presumably male, might not have been subject to prosecution for fraternization in any case depending on rank and unit of assignment.)
Further, there may have indeed been no fraternization – but still have been a violation of Article 92. See my comment to Dragoon 45 below. Drinking and doing the horizontal mambo in-theater is generally proscribed behavior under CENTCOM GO#1 for all personnel assigned/attached to CENTCOM. There’s fairly strong circumstantial evidence that he was (his prior assignment in mid-2018 was as Chief, SOCCENT Theater Liaison Element Chief to CENTCOM).
So she was doing the nasty on a deployment with another guy, in violation of orders?
Did I read that?
Yup. Like Santa says, “Ho Ho Ho!”
Yep. And so was he. Both frankly are lucky they didn’t get nailed under Article 92 (violation of lawful general order or regulation). I’m pretty sure GO#1 still in general prohibits both drinking and coed horizontal calisthenic sessions during deployments to the CENTCOM AOR.
Hondo, There were troops in Afghanistan when I was there that did not fall under the command of CentCom. They were actually still under the direct command of NATO HQ. As such they were not subject to GO#1. They got to go to all the cocktail parties at the various embassies and could hit the bars and beer halls on various NATO bases in country. I’m not sure what orders they were under as far as fraternization, but the prohibition against alcohol did not apply to them.
That is true. And some embassies – the German embassy in Kabul, for one, which as I recall had a biergarten on their grounds – reputedly didn’t much care what unit an allied soldier was assigned to when the alcohol was flowing.
That biergarten reportedly cost many soldiers who DID fall under CENTCOM quite dearly.
However, I’d bet against that being the case here. His background and specialties (Engineer and SF) would be quite unusual for attache duty, and SF host nation liaison would almost certainly be to the host nation’s MoD vice through the US embassy. Further, this article states that in 2018, his previous assignment was to SOCCENT HQ (Chief of SOCCENT Theater Liaison Element Team Chief to CENTCOM).
https://www.southcom.mil/MEDIA/NEWS-ARTICLES/Article/1580119/jtf-bravo-continues-legacy-new-leader-assumes-command/
Pretty sure assignments for senior SOCCENT personnel are generally for 3 or 4 years – which likely would have put him under SOCCENT (and thus CENTCOM) in 2015. I’d guess the 2015 deployment was a 1-year rotation in-theater at the beginning of his tour with SOCCENT (perhaps an initial rotation after which he became the Liaison Team Chief). But I could be wrong.
I served under him at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras. He’s a great Officer (other than having sex with a subordinate). Everyone I know…including me…were shocked when we read that he was charged.
Concur. Served in Germany w/ future pornstar Harmony Rose. Was shocked, shocked I tell you, by her film career.
I deployed with Barley Legal dot com girl (Verified) and stayed away from it. She went home from deployment about a month in. Just long enough to open a V.A clam.
This shit is more common than I ever imagined…
Barley Legal?
The “homebrew advice” folks?
Best auto-corrupt this week!
Glad that at least, this part of it went the Colonel’s way. Won’t do his career any good tho. As posted above, he may as well sit back and wait for his papers to come in. He may want to ride a few more years, if need be, for retirement pay purposes, but after a career like his, who wants to be an 06 SLJO?
In a joint service command? He was banging an Air Force ossifer that started banging another ossifer? And then came back to the real thing?
Good Luck in the future Colonel. Do all of your future thinking with your other head!
Sounds like the officer’s house’s were a happening place. And some of them got around.
Stuff happens in those places.
Well I did meet my future wife on deployment but we were single. Fifteen (15) years next week.
Hahaha.
Someone bought a used cow…
Don’t be an asshole, Yef.
When I was on board the OKIE 3 there were not women on board the ships at that time. We had plenty of skin magazines and A-Gang (A Div.) had a fart sack inside the chilled water space above the chilled water tanks unseen when entering the space and was loaded with skin magazines. Great place to skate.
So does my prediction of DA/CID screwing this case up warrant some sort of TAH award? Participation trophy?
That does it ,,Friggin in the rigging..
https://youtu.be/Dh_i7nZT_Qs
A lot of grief could be saved by following the old adage to “Keep your pants zipped” or “Keep your knees together.”
Poking your pecker where it don’t belong is asking for long-term grief for short-term relief.
When I was in M Div., we were going to San Juan PR for Liberty and this was my first Liberty port so while I was in Main Control I told everyone about this being my first liberty port and Chief Masterson gives me advice and says to keep my pecker in my pants and drink soda pop.
And did you follow the Chief’s advice?
Remember the 12th Commandment…
Thou shalt not boink the hired help.
CAN I GET AN AMEN FROM THE TAH CONGREGATION!!!!
AMEN!!!!!
AMEN
AAAAAAAAMEN!!!
Testify!!!
AMEN
” The jury deliberated a little over an hour,…”
And that hour probably included a lunch beak with cigars and brandy afterwards.
Never dip your pen in Air Force Ink.
Them chicks are Bat-Shit-Crazy !!!!
Trust Me I did one
She was Fuking Crazy
Problem is, you don’t know they are crazy until afterwards.
Word ^^^^^
You don’t -care- they are crazy, until afterwards.
-that- is why
True but crazy women usually most fun for purpose at hand
Not all of us.
You’re right about crazy. As an SFC at Ft Sam Houston, I went to an AF ball at Lackland Air Base with an AF Major. Rented a tux and ditched anything that said Army. But her craziness was worth it.
Processed the Paper work on a CPT that gave a whole Platoon blow jobs in Iraq! She resigned. She was a Fox and I mean a 10! Wow I never had a Commander like that!
A chaplain that was asking for Troops to sign their Insurance over to him! Told some he was a Devil worshiper!
A CSM that was banging a married SP4, and wanted a CM because he got Relived for Cause! The female NCO that were banging the officers got reduced. The Officer kept there Grade, UCMJ needs overhauled!!!!
There were at least 50 Female Soldiers that were sent home Pregnant that were married! that was in 9 months that I managed RPL Operations