A Fort Wainwright soldier is under investigation for allegedly posting a video on his Facebook site showing Iraqi children being taunted.

Navy Times reports:

A 400-cell military brig is being constructed near Naval Station Norfolk to consolidate Navy and Marine prisons closing in Virginia and North Carolina. . . intended for Navy and Marine defendants who are either awaiting trial or serving sentences of seven years or less.

Marine Corps Times reports:

A Texas man with no military experience managed to trick the Army into letting him enter a reserve unit as a noncommissioned officer earlier this year, putting an untrained soldier in a leadership position in a time of war, an Associated Press investigation has found. The revelation comes just months after the Army drew criticism for failing to flag the suspicious activities of the Army psychiatrist now charged with killing 13 and wounding dozens of others at Fort Hood.

LA Times reports that:

A fourth Marine at Camp Pendleton has been sentenced for mishandling classified documents involving investigations into possible terrorist groups in Southern California, the Marine Corps announced Thursday. Gunnery Sgt. L. Eric Froboese was ordered reduced in rank to staff sergeant and sentenced to 30 days in the brig. The brig sentence will be delayed while Lt. Gen. Keith J. Stalder reviews the decision of a court-martial. Under a plea bargain, Froboese will not be docked pay.

Washington Post reports that:

The U.S. military has begun a criminal investigation of allegations that a “small number” of American soldiers killed as many as three Afghan civilians.

As does CBS news.

Stars & Stripes reports:

A U.S. Army Europe brigade sergeant major who’d admitted sexual contact with a low-ranking soldier in his command was acquitted Thursday of sexual assault, fraternization, maltreatment and adultery.

Boston.com reports that:

A Norwell woman wanted since January for deserting the Army was arrested Sunday night by Norwell police and is now at an Army facility in Kentucky, according to police and Army officials.

Navy Times reports that:

The captain of a destroyer that struck a buoy in the Persian Gulf in March was relieved of command Tuesday in Manama, Bahrain, after a non-judicial hearing found he was “derelict in the performance of his duties.”

Holly Graf, the female “Captain Bligh,” is highly disliked and even hated by many Navy women. They feel the foul-mouthed martinet, relieved of command of the USS Cowpens for “cruelty and maltreatment of her crew,” has set back female advances in the Navy for many years.

MC also points out the consistent misunderstanding of the CO being reduced in rank, rather than the actual event which was being detached for cause.

Last summer, more than a year after completing a seemingly successful tour as commanding officer of the amphibious assault ship Wasp, Capt. Michael Hawley was removed from his post as the head of a Norfolk-based training group. . . . But a report from the Naval Inspector General’s office outlines six personal or professional violations, including pressuring deployed Wasp Sailors to buy suits and guns from visiting merchants and pilfering a set of salt-and-pepper shakers while attending a dinner hosted by the Canadian navy. The investigation also found Hawley improperly accepted a free helicopter ride and round of golf at an exclusive club during Fleet Week in New York City in 2007 and that he delayed kicking troubled Sailors off the ship in order to win an award for retention. Additionally, the report says, Hawley took leave without documenting his absence from the ship, and forced the ship’s morale, welfare and recreation committee to give him $500 for prizes he won in a golf tournament and “donated” back to the ship. Additionally, investigators noted that Hawley didn’t tolerate similar misconduct among his crew, Presiding over an administrative hearing for a third-class petty officer accused of stealing a $15 bottle of wine while the Wasp was in Colombia, the report noted, Hawley found the Sailor guilty, docked his pay for two months, kept him on restriction for 45 days and ordered him to perform extra duty, (emphasis added).

Here is a link to Kate Wiltrout’s article in the Virginia Pilot.

See here for the former CO, USS COWPENS, also no court-martial?

The issue in Harman was factual sufficiency and the conviction and sentence was affirmed.

Appellant admitted to investigators that she took a new detainee, who had been placed on a box with a hood over his head, affixed his fingers with wires, and told him he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box. Appellant then photographed the victim who stood on the box for approximately an hour. Appellant admitted it was her idea to attach these wires, though military intelligence officials had not asked her or her colleagues to do so. Appellant thought this was permissible because “[w]e were not hurting him. It was not anything that bad.”

The appellant also admitted taking photographs and taking other actions over a period of time.

Smith involved allegations of error that the military judge failed to give proper instructions on a defense of obedience to orders. The case is valuable for the question of a judge’s sua sponte duty to instruct and the amount of evidence necessary to require an instruction.

“Obedience to lawful orders” is an affirmative defense on which the military judge has a sua sponte duty to instruct if the defense is reasonably raised. See United States v. Davis, 53 M.J. 202, 205 (C.A.A.F. 2000); R.C.M. 916(d); R.C.M. 920(e)(3). “The test whether an affirmative defense is reasonably raised is whether the record contains some evidence to which the court members may attach credit if they so desire.” Davis, 53 M.J. at 205. A lawful order instruction would have been required only if the order given had been lawful or could reasonably have been believed to be lawful. See United States v. Calley, 22 C.M.A. 534, 544, 48 C.M.R. 19, 29 (1973).

Both cases have a good discussion of maltreatment and the standard of proof and type of evidence necessary for conviction. Smith holds that a detainee, while not himself subject to the UCMJ in traditional terms as a civilian, is “subject to the orders” of the accused. CAAF cited to the various Geneva Conventions to support this proposition.

Judge Efron notes an important point for both sides at trial, but most importantly the defense.

Appellant raises claims now that he did not make at trial. The record contains no instructions proposed by the Appellant. Appellant did not object to the military judge’s instructions as given.

As I frequently say, many a good appellate issue is lost because the trial defense counsel did not make a record. There are times when strategy may require doing or not doing something at trial, for example an objection. Not objecting potentially waives the issue absent plain error. That’s fine and consistent with the principle that you want to win at trial and do not litigate for appeal. But when it comes to instructions, that’s an area for action and creativity.

The commanding officer of the Yokosuka, Japan-based cruiser Cowpens was relieved of duty Wednesday after being punished for “cruelty and maltreatment” during her time in charge, the Navy announced. In an unusual move, she is being permitted to continue on to an assignment in the Pentagon. Capt. Holly Graf was brought before an admiral’s mast with Rear Adm. Kevin Donegan, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 5, after an inspector general’s investigation found problems with her “temperament and demeanor vis-a-vis her subordinates,” said Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for 7th Fleet. Her continuing into a job to which she had already been assigned is unusual for a Navy captain who has been relieved; many fired COs are assigned to the staff of their parent command and their careers effectively ended.

Navy Times reports.

And enlisted people go to court-martial for a violation of Article 93, UCMJ.

The Army’s attempt to stem a rising tide of suicides made it impossible for a Fort Bliss soldier convicted of cruelty toward subordinates to get a fair trial, the soldier’s parents say. “I still maintain that this was a miscarriage of justice,” said John Taylor, father of Pvt. Jarrett Taylor. “They needed a conviction and they got it. É This is a sham.” Taylor said his son, a sergeant at the time, was trying to help soldiers on their first deployment in Iraq survive in a combat zone.

elpasotimes.com reports on this concluded court-martial for violations of Article 93, and 107, UCMJ. This is not the only court-martial to have arisen from this case.

Charges against Daniel Weber, 24, of Frankenmuth, Mich., were dropped with the understanding that he would testify against the others. He is no longer in the Army.

Sgt. Enoch Chatman, 30, of West Covina, Calif., and Staff Sgt. Bob Clements, 29, of Eastland, Texas, face more serious charges and are scheduled for courts-martial early next year, Caggins said.