By This NCO is very lucky she was not kicked out of the Army:
An 8th Army soldier Thursday lost more than the rank she was convicted of stealing.However, Staff Sgt. Nekeda Gundy dodged a bad-conduct discharge.
An audible sigh — and several exclamations of “Praise Jesus” — passed through the audience when the head of the six-member court-martial panel read Gundy’s sentence: reduction in rank to private first class, forfeiture of one month’s pay of $1,152, a fine of $2,500 and 45 days restriction.
Gundy was convicted of larceny, conspiracy and making false official statements during a general court-martial on Wednesday.
After the trial Gundy, 23, said she was happy with the sentence, and still hopes to make the Army a career.
“This is a chance to redeem myself,” she said.
Prosecutor Capt. Blake Williams had asked the court to sentence Gundy to one year confinement, reduction in rank to E-1, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, a fine of $5,000 and a bad-conduct discharge.
Defense attorney Michael Waddington said Gundy didn’t need to spend time in jail, because she was a nonviolent first offender who is five months into a high-risk pregnancy.
He didn’t ask the panel for a specific sentence, but he told panel members they were like “tribal elders” and should use their collective wisdom to arrive at a punishment that did not include confinement.
Gundy faced a maximum 10-year prison sentence, a bust to E-1, forfeiture of pay and allowances, a fine and a bad-conduct discharge.
By falsely claiming she had an associate’s degree, Gundy had pushed past the 770 points needed to earn the rank of staff sergeant,Williams said. [Stars & Stripes]
From what I read in this article, I would have recommended she be kicked out of the Army because she is basically a thief and I have little patience for thieves. She stole something that was not hers, the E-6 rank, along with all the pay and privileges that go along with it. So we know she has little integrity and I have to wonder about her competency considering it isn’t that hard to take some legitimate college courses through E-Army U to earn the necessary promotion points. Was her intellect not up to passing classes or was she just too lazy? Either way is this the type of person we want leading soldiers?
She hasn’t seen...
11:30 pm on July 1st, 2010 1
You already covered this story.
Regardless, had she been Caucasian and/or male, she'd have been slammed.
12:13 am on July 2nd, 2010 2
What's next on ROK Drop Breaking News?
Buggy Whip Company Pays Whale Oil Bill?
12:28 am on July 2nd, 2010 3
I thought this case was like old news…(i.e. at least 2 years old). Did I miss something…?
12:48 am on July 2nd, 2010 4
“This is a chance to redeem myself,”
Wow!
I know there were times when an NCO could probably survive something like this. But when I was in, such a person's long term career plans would be gone even if they were allowed to stay in. Has this changed?
4:55 am on July 2nd, 2010 5
Stars and Stripes recently changed their layout; putting links to archived stories in their Most Read section with meaningless dates assigned to them.
8:43 am on July 2nd, 2010 6
Mark,
“Regardless, had she been Caucasian and/or male, she’d have been slammed.”
What a terribly sexist and racist thing to say!
For you to think something like that says a lot about your cynical character and lack of life experience.
You… uh… hmmm… wait a second.
Her husband was “convicted” a month later.
Maybe you are only sexist instead of sexist AND racist.
“Staff Sgt. Andre Gundy was sentenced to a reduction in rank to E-3, forfeiture of $500 a month for 24 months, a reprimand, three months of hard labor without confinement and 60 days of restriction.
The six-member panel convicted him of conspiracy to commit larceny, 11 counts of making false official statements and dereliction of duty.”
If it makes you feel better, he put sergeant back on a year later and they own a $203,420 house at 1114 Dawn Creek Court in Jacksonville, FL… 32218.
Damn. There are no secrets on these-here Intertubes.
8:45 am on July 2nd, 2010 7
I guess the "tribal elders" wanted to keep their tribe member in the army. Why a court would allow a comment like that is beyond me.
Is the army so short of personnel they have to keep cheats and crooks in the army?
10:12 am on July 2nd, 2010 8
Here is the message:
Liars and thieves are welcome in the US Army.
Way to go US Army!
Stories like this make me ashamed of my 20 years of service. The Army is suited just fine for the derelicts of American society. Those who believe this is the only time this soldier has lied, cheated or stole are stupid or just don't care. Next thing you know, she'll be accepted to OCS or WOBC.
I'm so ashamed of the Army
1:35 pm on July 2nd, 2010 9
LoL
I was in trial defense in Yongsan in 2007, this case brought back memories…..because this was from then hah! that was a nice blast from the past, we were all pretty shocked at her light sentence. (Her husband also got a light sentence for pretty much the same offense)
Nice trip down memory lane, rokdrop
-CPT K
10:04 pm on July 2nd, 2010 10
hahaha her husband was a criminal too?
as for her doesnt the army verify education before accepting promotion packets??? my question is a 23 year old E-5 or E-6???? attrition must be taking its toll on the ranks
1:38 pm on July 18th, 2010 11
Hmmm, I think they should have forfieted her NCO Academy schooling too. I'm sure she has attended PLDC. She obviously did a brain dump of all the leadership training she received there. Make herattend the course again if she's ever considered for promotion to sergeant again.
5:30 pm on February 12th, 2012 12
Since this is the most recent post and totally ignoring the fact that my conviction was in 2007 and you were wI was sitting at my computer Googling my name, and decided to just go ahead and reply to some of this foolishness out here.
1. I didn’t fake my promotion packet, nor did my husband “give” me promotion points. When E-MILPO changed over all of the schools and information dates changed to 1900. Its amazing how my records were fraud because my husband updated my dates to the correct dates.
2. The only part of my packet that was even questionable was my college education. I admit that. But it was not my intention, I didn’t know that the conversion from the site was fraudulant. But I take responsibility for that. In hinesite-I should have known better and I apologized because at the end of the day it was wrong. period.
3. I have ALWAYS scored 250 or above on my PT Test
4. I have ALWAYS shot high sharpshooter or expert
5. I have ALWAYS maxed out my promotion board, Soldier of the month boards, Soldier of the quarter boards, AG Solider board.
So my actually soldiering is not the issue.
Here are some more facts for you:
I told the truth about the ACCP courses. Everyone has passed the ACCP book around with the answers. But by the time that I got the book. I was over 3/4 done with the hours needed to MAX out the courses. Not only that. I did way more than the amount required for promotion. And because it was done for years and passed down from SNCOs to JNCOs, I passed it down to my Soldiers. But what kind of coward would I be to throw the dozens of Soldiers I helped under the bus?? I can take this one for the team.
At the the time of this investigation I was working for LTG Valcourt as an administrative assistant, during the investigation to clear his own name, he illegally received a copy of the ongoing investigation and had already given me a very bad NCOER that included comments from this “unreleased” report and relived me. How did he get it? He was the CDR of the installation, can you say pulling rank.
Because he had already given me an NCOER that pretty much marked me as guilty prior to the investigation being complete using material that was not supposed to be released to any one outside of CID, 8th ARMY as a whole from the CDR down was given a gag order for the Gundys to be guilty. We were told that numerous times. I mean how could he go back on his word now? You cant say I forged that? It was digitally signed. When asked about it they denied it, their copies of the NCOER disappeared, but guess what? Mine didn’t. Read your regs, we all know that you can’t use information in an NCOER that is said to be factual and it’s not. Also the NCOER was suppressed to be entered into evidence, I wonder why. Now let’s play the covering our tracks game…………………..
After I left Korea I was sent information from one of the jurors that stated that they had been given instructions from the prosecution prior “to lets make this quick,so that you all can go home, guilty” Everyone on my jury was supposed to be neutral, But surprisingly everyone was from my unit the 8th army, they were hand picked and guess who the commander is?
Again LTG Valcourt.
Out of all of the units in Korea, there was not one Juror from another USFK unit. How is that fair? As big as Korea is, every Juror was from Yongsan. Is that fair and impartial. Everyone here already knew what was going on. How about let’s get a Juror from another command? 8 jurors and all of them from Yongsan. Don’t we have Soldiers in Pusan, Daegu, Osan, Humphreys, just to name a few? Isn’t that odd?
Another fact:
I was found not guilty for my awards being fraudulent despite what the newspaper said. Alot of my awards were awarded prior to my active duty service. I was in the reserves prior. The prosecution said that they were fake too. But I was not guilty on that….They made no attempt to find out the sources of my awards.
Another fact: Some of the awards that they said were “fake” for husband-there were numerous witnesses who appeared to testify either recommended the awards or processed the award recommendation.
The light sentence was told to the jury prior to sentencing also. Do not send us to jail and do not kick us out of the Army. Reason being- All other than honorable discharges and jail sentencing automatically go to the Supreme court of appeals, and the prosecution knew that with all of the non-sense evidence that they had. IT WOULD SURELY BE OVER TURNED. Which equals a loss and an embarrassment to the 8th Army command.
Not to mention, the CID agent who investigated the case, didn’t even consult with an EMILPO chief, we brought that witness in. He didn’t call the website used, request for them to be a part of the trial. When we did, it was denied. The CID agent said in court that I took the ASVAP over because of promotion.. Really? Last time I checked that was not a requirement in my promotion package. He also stated that I was using the scores to go warrant? Really? Where is that package? As a matter of fact, I had just declined to re-enlist.
So where I am today:
I stayed in the Army another couple of years, and yes I made my rank back, and guess what I bet you nothing there could be fake, huh? Still appeared before the board had points shaved off because of my record!! Still maxed my PT, Still maxed the range, and redid my correspondence courses the right way, in front of my new squad leader and maxed that also. Enrolled in school and went full time in conjunction with being in the military full time. I was determined to clear my name. And those people who know me, know that this was all a point to prove because of where I worked.
I have a beautiful family, a good conduct discharged, was begged to stay in the army-Yes because I am a GOOD Solider.
I also thank all of the understanding people around me that KNOW that this was foolishness and that I was to be made an example of.
Side note- After I made a big fuss after my demotion they looked into a couple of other SGMs, CSMs, and other SNCOs files to verify their college and guess what? They all did the same thing, used the same website, and guess what happened to them? Nothing not even a letter of reprimand. With them it was “Just a misunderstanding, the website is defrauding, not the Soldier’s.”
As a matter of fact, one of the CSM’s that I am speaking about was the CSM over PLDC at the time. Oops did I say that, I sure did!!!
Thank you for your time and for those who know me on this blog, thank you for defending me and upholding my name. I could have made a career out of the Army, but I chose to leave. I chose to leave my guaranteed 1st and 15th check, with 10 felonies on my civilian record, determined to give my family better life, because I know that I am better than what this conviction made me out to be.riting about this in 2012, I have decided to respond.