Part of my Crim Law duties was pre-trial confinement. When a crime warranted a soldier's confinement prior to trial, I was the one to make that happen. The prosecutor would send up a request then I'd have to cut the orders (type out the orders) and set them up for the CG to sign. All pre-trial confinement had to be approved by the CG. Each week, I had to prepare a report on how many soldiers were in pre-trial confinement and how long they had been there because just like the civilian system, their pre-trial time served counted towards their sentence.
I didn't do any post-trial work so I'm not sure how that was handled but I do know if confinement was sentenced, we had to cut those orders. I never went to court or rather, I had only been in court maybe two times so the defendants were just names to me, not people. I had no face to put in front of that name and in my eyes I saw most cases with "prosecutors eyes".
One day I was at my messy desk sitting next to gold dusty curtains, probably breathing in dust mites and carcinogens, just doing my pre-trial work. Never ever had a defendant come into our building and in fact, we were not even located were the trials took place (and we liked it that way, thank you very much). I left my office to do something and there standing at the top of the stairs was a prisoner. It was a male soldier, dressed ever so sharply in his Class A uniform (as was required for court), wearing ankle braces and handcuffs. The sight of him caught me off guard, stopping me dead in my tracks. I didn't mean to gawk, didn't want to stare but aside from being surprised, I was also maybe a little bit scared. There was an armed guard with him and a NCO from his unit. He had just been tried and was on his way to jail. There was something about his confinement orders that was of an urgent matter such as possibly we were coming into a holiday weekend or something of that nature. I don't really remember. What I do remember, and will never forget, is the look on his face.
When I looked at him shame and remorse were written all over his face. He bowed his head and looked down at the ground. Even now tears well up in me recalling this image. My heart was over come with mercy. He didn't look like a criminal to me. He looked like a young soldier, someones son, someones brother. All I could think was here was this young man who joined the Army, serving his country and made some bad and stupid decisions and here he was now. . . on his way to jail.
Here's the part that used to get me most. He was tried on a rape charge and this type of case was very common in our division. A young soldier say --18 or 19 goes downtown to a club has a bit to drink, picks up a German girl and they end up in a "compromising way" that night. Later the German girl has guilt or remorse or whatever or her family finds out (usually through a chatty girlfriend) and then it comes to light that this young girl was under 18. Now we have statutory rape. Does not matter if the girl was 17 and soldier 18. Does not matter if the girl lies about her age (which they often did). Doesn't even matter if the girl produces a fake ID or looks like she's 20! Remember, there was no drinking age in Europe so anyone could get into a club and buy alcohol. So now this dumb soldier goes to jail, Army career over, dishonorable discharge to follow him around for the rest of his life.
Now listen, I understand the concept "If you play with fire, you'll get burned". I do not condone any of the above actions. If you choose to live a certain lifestyle, you must be prepare to suffer consequences of such. I get that. I support that. I believe that 100%. Its like, "Here's a little tid bit, Soldier, if you don't want to go to jail for statutory rape - DON'T SLEEP AROUND!" But it was still hard for me to watch when it happened. My tender heart couldn't bare it sometimes. These soldiers were young and dumb and they'd be just blind-sided when the charges hit because like I said, often times the girls would lie about their age.
Anyway, this was the same charge this particular soldier was found guilty of. I believe in justice. I know justice was served.
I just hated to see it happen right in front of me.
I didn't do any post-trial work so I'm not sure how that was handled but I do know if confinement was sentenced, we had to cut those orders. I never went to court or rather, I had only been in court maybe two times so the defendants were just names to me, not people. I had no face to put in front of that name and in my eyes I saw most cases with "prosecutors eyes".
One day I was at my messy desk sitting next to gold dusty curtains, probably breathing in dust mites and carcinogens, just doing my pre-trial work. Never ever had a defendant come into our building and in fact, we were not even located were the trials took place (and we liked it that way, thank you very much). I left my office to do something and there standing at the top of the stairs was a prisoner. It was a male soldier, dressed ever so sharply in his Class A uniform (as was required for court), wearing ankle braces and handcuffs. The sight of him caught me off guard, stopping me dead in my tracks. I didn't mean to gawk, didn't want to stare but aside from being surprised, I was also maybe a little bit scared. There was an armed guard with him and a NCO from his unit. He had just been tried and was on his way to jail. There was something about his confinement orders that was of an urgent matter such as possibly we were coming into a holiday weekend or something of that nature. I don't really remember. What I do remember, and will never forget, is the look on his face.
When I looked at him shame and remorse were written all over his face. He bowed his head and looked down at the ground. Even now tears well up in me recalling this image. My heart was over come with mercy. He didn't look like a criminal to me. He looked like a young soldier, someones son, someones brother. All I could think was here was this young man who joined the Army, serving his country and made some bad and stupid decisions and here he was now. . . on his way to jail.
Here's the part that used to get me most. He was tried on a rape charge and this type of case was very common in our division. A young soldier say --18 or 19 goes downtown to a club has a bit to drink, picks up a German girl and they end up in a "compromising way" that night. Later the German girl has guilt or remorse or whatever or her family finds out (usually through a chatty girlfriend) and then it comes to light that this young girl was under 18. Now we have statutory rape. Does not matter if the girl was 17 and soldier 18. Does not matter if the girl lies about her age (which they often did). Doesn't even matter if the girl produces a fake ID or looks like she's 20! Remember, there was no drinking age in Europe so anyone could get into a club and buy alcohol. So now this dumb soldier goes to jail, Army career over, dishonorable discharge to follow him around for the rest of his life.
Now listen, I understand the concept "If you play with fire, you'll get burned". I do not condone any of the above actions. If you choose to live a certain lifestyle, you must be prepare to suffer consequences of such. I get that. I support that. I believe that 100%. Its like, "Here's a little tid bit, Soldier, if you don't want to go to jail for statutory rape - DON'T SLEEP AROUND!" But it was still hard for me to watch when it happened. My tender heart couldn't bare it sometimes. These soldiers were young and dumb and they'd be just blind-sided when the charges hit because like I said, often times the girls would lie about their age.
Anyway, this was the same charge this particular soldier was found guilty of. I believe in justice. I know justice was served.
I just hated to see it happen right in front of me.
0 comments:
Post a Comment