By Another career ruined by stupidity:
A night involving vodka, a camera phone and “heavy petting” in a barracks room cost a preventive medicine soldier his rank plus much of his freedom for the next three months.
Spc. Sean Welch, 5th Medical Detachment, was sentenced Tuesday in a general court-martial to a demotion to E-1, two months of restriction and three months’ hard labor without confinement after pleading guilty to committing an indecent act, conspiracy to commit an indecent act and falsifying an official statement.
According to his testimony, he was drinking vodka mixed with an energy drink and playing video games in his barracks on Aug. 9 with his roommate, Cpl. Lee Woo-sang, a Korean Augmentee to the U.S. Army.
They were later joined by a female soldier and Pfc. Michael McPhatter of the 121st Combat Support Hospital, who had been drinking at an off-post bar.
Lee and McPhatter left the room and the woman became flirtatious and took off her shirt, Welch said.
Welch said he and the woman then engaged in “heavy petting, fondling and moving toward … not quite intercourse, but playing.”
Lee and McPhatter returned to the room and stayed to watch Welch and the woman carry on, with Lee recording it on his cell phone camera.
Welch told judge Col. Donna Wright that he knew Lee was filming, and at one point smiled for the camera.
Welch said he was sure the woman was aware of other people in the room, though she may have been unaware of the camera.
During sentencing, the woman testified that she considered Welch a friend until the incident. She said she found out about the video a few days after the incident when another soldier told her about it. [Stars & Stripes]
Here is what his friend was convicted and sentenced with:
An all-male, five-member court-martial board found Pfc. Michael McPhatter, of the 18th Medical Command, not guilty of conspiracy to commit indecent acts and indecent assault in connection with an Aug. 9 barracks-room incident. He was, however, found guilty of a lesser charge of committing indecent acts with another.
The panel reduced him to E-1, put him on restriction for 30 days and hard labor without confinement for three months, and ordered him to forfeit $500 a month for three months. McPhatter faced a maximum possible sentence of dishonorable discharge, five years of confinement, reduction to E-1 and forfeiture of all pay and allowances. [Stars & Stripes]
Let me summarize this to make sure I everyone understands what happened. The female soldier is drunk and initiates contact between the two and then is only upset about it after she finds out it was recorded on a cell phone. If no video was made then nothing would have become of this incident. However, this video probably made its way around the barracks and the female soldier was embarrassed by it and notified her command I’m assuming.
Both of these soldiers’ careers are seriously screwed over by this incident not to mention the punishment they received, but what is interesting is that the person that actually made the video, the KATUSA received only 10 days in ROK jail after a ROK Army review of the case. What else is interesting is that this KATUSA actually received more jail time then an active duty ROK Army soldier received for sexually assaulting a US Army female last year.
Here is what the prosecutor had to say about the two soldiers convicted:
Prosecutor Capt. Cesar Casal asked the jury for a sentence of 30 days of confinement, reduction to E-1 and a bad-conduct discharge, saying that America expects more of its soldiers.
America does expect more of its soldiers and that should include the female soldier involved in this incident that got herself drunk and then began to have sexual contact with another soldier in front of a group of other male soldiers. Not exactly a golden girl we are dealing with here. Then she claims she was so drunk that she didn’t realize that someone in the crowd was even filming her. The male soldiers involved in this incident are being held accountable for their actions, but will she?
The female soldier should at least be command referred into the Army Substance Abuse Program (ASAP) and then have a no drinking order placed on her because she obviously has some serious alcohol issues judging by this story. There are other measures that can be taken depending on her past history but the ASAP program would be a good start.
5:20 am on March 15th, 2008 1
GI,
There is even a BETTER angle to this story.
'She also said Lee’s family had offered to settle with her, and that she had demanded $100,000.
“I feel that if they’re trying to pay me off I deserve that much,” she said.'
And we all thought Koreans had the monopoly on this kind of behavior.
This toxic biaaatch should go die in a fire.
8:22 am on March 15th, 2008 2
Lesson learned. File sexual assault charges first before the girl does.
12:00 pm on March 15th, 2008 3
It sounds like Welch was basically minding his own business in the dorm when trouble came to him.
9:49 pm on March 15th, 2008 4
Good point Chickenhead I forgot to highlight in the posting how she was demanding $100,000 from the KATUSA. I think it is pretty clear that she is no angel herself.
2:39 am on March 16th, 2008 5
No drinking orders are illegal. Despite the Army's assertions otherwise.
Plus people have to enter alcohol treatement programs of their own volition. Otherwise it never works. Since most military treatment programs are AA based anyway-all it does is really screw them up in the head.
3:25 am on March 16th, 2008 6
You can issue no drinking orders, I have done them before. There are ways of wording them that just needs to be cleared with JAG. Just like it is technically illegal to have a policy that says you cannot have sex in the barracks but once again there are ways a JAG can word a barracks policy to get around it. The Army issues blanket no drinking orders all the time to include the Marines in Okinawa just this month.
Also when a soldier is enrolled in ASAP they are not supposed to drink and if they do they can become an ASAP failure or be admitted for in house treatment. An ASAP failure opens the soldier to being chaptered from the military.
The ASAP does group meetings and then more intensive one on one counseling. Most soldiers find the group meetings a waste of time while others I have seen receive surprisingly improved results with one on one counseling. Unfortunately there is not enough one on one counselors available to deal with the demand thus most are regulated to the group counseling which does little good.
Judging by the article the female soldier has alcohol issues that led to a huge incident within her unit that has probably effected morale and caused tension between male and female soldiers in the unit especially when she is making demands for $100,000 to settle the case. I would recommend enrolling her in ASAP and if she doesn't show progress in ASAP then she opens herself up to being chaptered.
4:16 am on March 16th, 2008 7
Hey GI.
I'm in this Soldier's unit, so figure I'd throw some info out here. First off, she was 19 at the time, so no drinking orders were in essence already in place. ASAP was part of the aftermath, along with an Art 15 that took rank/pay because of the alcohol.
As for the $100k, from what I understand, that was taken a little out of context. I think the point was more along the lines of a refusal to make a deal because she felt there should be criminal charges.
And that's all I've got.
9:41 pm on March 16th, 2008 8
Thanks for the info Anon. It is good to see that her command is holding her responsible for her part in the incident.
8:54 am on March 17th, 2008 9
First of all I want to say that I think any conduct that is not consensual should be punishable. That said this was obviously not the case here. SHE voluteered to remove her own clothes and take part in the 'heavy petting". So she was caught on tape…good I think they should post the video on youtube under the title "Don't be This F***ing Stupid" Another thing I get so pissed about is all this blaming Alcohol. The Alcohol isn't the problem, it's the soldier. She chose to drink, Not only that but she is underage. Obviously she should be punished and in my opinion she should get a greater punishment than the males. We as leaders should be taking a harder line on these "sexual assault" cases because they end up ruining good soldiers careers. All this tip-toeing around because we want to be politically correct and EO compliant and non-sexist whatever is just BS. Rape is one thing but this is a whole other issue in itself.
3:15 pm on May 1st, 2008 10
Umm, Hate to say it, but I think you've got your sexual assault cases and Soldiers mixed up. Guess it happens.