Phony sergeant gets six months
I wrote about Jesse Bernard Johnston last Spring.. Johnston fooled the Army into believing he'd been a Marine and entered the Army as a sergeant. Hismilitary experience was limited to six weeks of a 12-week Marine commissioning course. Well, he's been convicted now and sentenced to a mere 6 months in jail;
He pleaded guilty to one count of making a false official statement, two counts of larceny, two counts of wrongfully wearing a skill badge and two counts of wrongfully wearing a combat patch.
6 months for putting the lives of soldiers in danger with his inexperience.
While at Fort Rucker, Johnston received advanced training for use with the Army's Corps Support Airplane Company. That unit, based in Fort Worth, has supplied pilots and intelligence and support personnel for missions aimed at destroying improvised explosive devices in Iraq.
Army Secretary John M. McHugh, in a July 19 letter to U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, said military authorities acted "swiftly and appropriately" once they suspected that Johnston had never been a Marine. McHugh described himself as "deeply troubled" by the incident but said he did not consider it a sign of a more serious problem in the recruiting process.
"We believe that this is an isolated incident and not a larger systematic failure," he wrote.
The boy deserves years in prison to contemplate how he was lucky that he didn't get anyone killed.
Category: Phony soldiers
I don’t completely agree that it wasn’t a good sentence, but that stems mostly from my dislike of prison as the only available punishment. How often do you read the paper and complain because some child rapist got 10 months and a guy who got in a bar fight gets 2 years?
(cuyahoga county prosecuter Russo just got 21 years for a extensive bribe scandal, with the promise not to prosecute his family. HOW IS THAT JUSTICE? He’s doing THEIR time?)
Anyway– I’m glad the guy got some jail time, and I hope it’s the beginning of a trend. I would like to see some ad-on like, barred from public service, gov’t job, etc. but you and I both know that won’t happen.
Actually Boo, in a lot of states, a felony conviction IS a bar from elected office, although I don’t believe six months is indicative of a felony conviction. Over a year, yes, but not six months.
Did nobody verify this clown’s DD-214 when he joined the Army?
NH Sparky
one more reason Ohio sucks.
http://www.vindy.com/news/2010/sep/01/in-less-than-a-minute-traficant-is-on-th/?newswatch
on top of that- he was speaking at a tea party in Portage county!
(he is funny, tho… “Stevie Wonder could see this coming!”)
http://www.fallsnewspress.com/news/article/4892323
Traficant? Tea Party? WTF are they putting in the water up there?
@ Sparky: That’s my question, too……… As former recruiters, we KNOW the process. I’m kind of thinking that either the Army recruiter dropped the ball, was complicit, or the Army dropped the ball. ALL DD214s are available and it doesn’t take much to get a legit copy. I remember reading about how Army recruiters were “making” high school diplomas and other malfeasance.
There are recruiters who just want numbers. The big issue is that he only gets 6 months….on par with white collar crime or reckless driving.
We need tougher penalties so that this idiots believe it is IMPOSSIBLE to pull crap like this and stick to bar room tall tales and IVAW rallies.
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But, but, that shit for brains judge said it is this scumbag’s right to lie whenever it suits him, as it is freedom of speech. I don’t understand why they got so pissed about it….nothing is more important than an abstract concept applied incorrectly by a Clintonista judge, not even people’s lives. Where are your priorities people?