Contrary to popular belief, MilitaryCorruption.com isn’t just a bomb throwing organization. We advocate for military reform to battle against the judicial atrocities we continue to witness over and over again.
The United States military and the Russian military want absolute control. The last thing they want or need is a bunch of whistleblowers exposing billions of dollars in fraud. Whistleblowers in Russia probably don’t have a long life expectancy. The American military prefers a death by a thousand cuts all under the cloak “due process.”
American military commanders use their malleable judicial system to deal with those pesky whistleblowers, or just kick people out administratively with hand-picked board members to hand down an Other-Than-Honorable discharge. (REF: Army Major Andrew Higgins)
The American military keeps a close eye on Congress to look for and deflect any issue that might expose their misconduct or their lack of leadership.
The chronic sexual assault on women suddenly became a hot button for Congress prompting the military to serve up heads on a platter to provide “proof” they take sexual assaults against women “very seriously.”
MICHAEL CONZACHI
MilitaryCorruption.com has a very high regard for the skills and ability of Mr. Michael Conzachi, an Army Infantry veteran of the 82nd Airborne, and a retired Homicide Detective and Private Investigator based in Southern California, whose unique investigative skills and relentless pursuit of truth and facts, make him a highly sought after investigator across the country.
Mr. Conzachi specializes in investigations of sexual assault and domestic violence cases, prosecutorial misconduct, and judicial accountability, primarily in the military.
Conzachi serves on several national boards and committees that advocate for fairness and high ethical standards in our nation’s courts, including the military and various administrative processes including the Executive Committee for the Center for Prosecutor Integrity.
He specializes in the identification of public official and military misconduct and corruption in all forms and takes pro-active remedial action through oversight and investigative organizations and entities.
Several years ago, he provided a candid observation about the lack of prosecutorial integrity in the American military. It remains as true today as ever, and it’s the very reason that MilitaryCorruption.com exists. Our military is in dire need of reform, whether they know it or not.
Author: MICHAEL CONZACHI
Published in the “Daily Caller” on June 28, 2016
Defense Secretary Ash Carter proclaimed in a recent letter to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand that the military’s criminal justice system is now superior to the civilian system in winning convictions of sexual misconduct. How was this feat accomplished? Mr. Carter reveals it was achieved through the practice of charging individuals with “collateral” allegations:
“…in both civilian and military judicial systems, defendants are often tried for ‘collateral misconduct’ charges, such as lying to an investigator, in addition to an underlying crime. In both the military and civilian systems, it is sometimes difficult to obtain a conviction for sexual assault.
It is a common practice for prosecutors to attempt to obtain convictions for collateral charges as well, which provide additional methods of holding an individual responsible for his or her acts in the event of an acquittal for the charge of sexual assault.”
Carter explains that “collateral” refers to charges that would not be available in the civilian criminal justice setting, such as conduct unbecoming an officer, adultery, and orders violations. Former Army JAG Officer Michael Waddington, now in private practice, makes a similar point:
“A common tactic is to charge a service member using the “shotgun approach,” with as many charges as possible to leave defendants little choice but to plead guilty. Court martial charge sheets of three pages aren’t uncommon, often the same charge repeated time and time again in different ways.”
In case after case, we are seeing collateral charges being “stacked” on top of sexual misconduct charges to ensure that the accused is found guilty of “something.” The attitude seems to be, “if we can’t get you for rape, we’ll get you for not turning in that old pair of boots six years ago.”
In order to bolster the charges, investigators contact women who had a prior relationship with the accused and implore them to get a “rapist off the streets.”
These women include former wives, girlfriends, or any other female with whom the accused service member had an intimate relationship.
This practice has been documented in recent Army cases involving…
Sergeant First Class Kelly Stewart,
Major Christian “Kit” Martin,
Major Eric Burris,
and Air Forces cases involving…
Master Sergeant Michael Silva
Major Michael Turpiano.
Military investigators are known to incentivize these “victims” with the prospect of receiving transitional compensation payments. The women may be advised of the possibility of receiving Veterans Administration disability payments based on claims of PTSD as a result of Military Sexual Trauma.
In many cases, the alleged incident occurred many years previously and there is no corroborative evidence of misconduct. Nonetheless, benefits may be conferred following a diagnosis of PTSD due to Military Sexual Trauma based on the existence of depression, marital problems, or other life disruption.
Now a male service member who is accused of any type of sexual misconduct, whether it be assault, harassment, or “unwanted sexual contact,” will also face collateral charges. These charges involve previously ignored or unenforced violations, minor peccadilloes, or violations that arose during the course of the inquiry.
In the end, there is a near-certainty that the accused will be convicted of something. This allows the Defense Secretary to proclaim to members of Congress that the military is in fact obtaining “convictions” in military sexual assault cases.
These dubious cases end up harming the falsely accused, their families, and friends. Ultimately they cause long-lasting damage to unit morale, personnel retention, military readiness, and the safety of the nation as a whole.
No one seeks to deny benefits to persons who have been truly victimized. Legitimate sexual assault victims should be afforded the necessary resources, and actual offenders should be punished in accordance with applicable laws.
But now a person can make a claim with little or no proof that they have been a victim of sexual misconduct and become entitled to lifelong taxpayer-funded compensation.
In the former Soviet Union, prosecutors achieved a near-100 percent conviction success rate. The secret to their success was the proliferation of broadly crafted and vaguely written laws that could be enforced according to the whim of law enforcement officials.
Lavrentiy Beria, head of Joseph Stalin’s secret police, reportedly summed up the Soviet solution this way: “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.”
In their zealous quest to eradicate sexual assault, is it possible that American military prosecutors are resorting to the same horrifying Soviet tactics?
UPDATE ON MAJOR CLARENCE ANDERSON
Even though Major Clarence Anderson was not included on Mr. Conzachi’s list above, probably because he was still serving time behind bars for a crime he never committed – Major Anderson’s situation is a clear example of a system designed to initiate witch-hunts at a moment’s notice.
Major Anderson was embroiled in a nasty divorce and custody battle. His x-wife was not awarded custody, so she decided to go nuclear and went judge and jury shopping to ensure a conviction so she could gain custody. Man-O-Live, talk about playing the system to the hilt!
Realizing the military was looking for heads to chop off, she found a receptive military who was more than happy to use their biased judicial system to railroad this excellent officer right into prison.
What was done to Major Anderson by the United States Air Force is beyond outrageous.
Because Investigator Conzachi so clearly identified the problem in his article above, we felt it was appropriate to bring our readers up-to-date about the status of Major Anderson after he was released from an American military gulag.
UPDATE…
The United States Air Force Inspector General, Lieutenant General Said, briefed US Congressman Barry Moore (R-AL) on the conclusion of the USAFs investigation into the court martial of Major Clarence Anderson III, but merely briefed only the procedures of the case e.g. the date of his trial, the charges, the decision from the appeals, without actually investigating the merits of how the USAF broke the law e.g. did the USAF withhold exculpatory evidence, did the USAF mislead Congress, did the USAF follow Court Martial rules, or anything that was covered in his congressional to the USAF:
https://www.majorandersoniii.com/Moore_Letter_to_USAF.pdf
Lieutenant General Said didn’t have any answers to these questions, nor did anyone from his IG team interview Major Anderson which is certainly a violation of the Air Force IG manual that specifically mandates that the complaintee ‘must be’ interviewed.
So with hat in hand, Lieutenant General Said was sent back for more answers. If you remember we wrote a previous article last September on the Air Force’s investigation into Major Anderson’s court martial:
The Air Force was just interviewed Sunday on 60 Minutes where it’s Chief of Staff, General Brown, provided testimony on how it’s enlisted black Airmen are discriminated against. It seems like General Brown wants to make sure his Inspector General doesn’t open up the can of worms to expose that these biases also extend into the Officer ranks as well.
Railroading an innocent man into a military prison is just one of many examples of egregious misconduct by the American military and the Congress that has the duty to oversee and reign in military misconduct.
The chronic judicial misconduct and the failure of Congress to properly oversee the military are among the many reasons why reform is desperately needed.
Look for a new YouTube TV network to better describe these military atrocities. And, by the way, allowing an admiral or general to retire to avoid prosecution is also an atrocity, make no mistake about it.
Outrageous behavior by military leaders will be addressed on a regular basis until credible reform is adopted to correct the failings in the military judicial system… a judicial system which continually allows and promotes unwarranted discharges, unlawful prison sentences and horrendous over-sentencing… all under the color of authority.
It’s wrong and its got to change!
