|
Army charges 7 with having sex on video
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-25 16:28
RALEIGH, N.C. - The Army has charged seven paratroopers from the celebrated
82nd Airborne Division with engaging in sex acts in video shown on a Web site,
authorities said Friday.
Paratroopers from 82nd Airborne
Division prepare to raid during an operation in central Baghdad, January
2005. Seven soldiers from the US Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division have
been charged with engaging in sex for money on an Internet website, the
army said. [AP] |
Three of the soldiers face courts-martial on charges of sodomy, pandering and
engaging in sex acts for money, according to a statement released Friday by the
military.
Four other soldiers, whose names were not released, received nonjudicial
punishments.
The Army has recommended that all be discharged.
The charges do not mention the name of the site, but the division has said
previously it was investigating allegations that soldiers appeared on a gay
pornography Web site. A spokesman for the division said Friday the charges are a
result of that investigation.
The military-themed Web site on which the Army has said soldiers appeared
does not make any direct reference to the division or Fort Bragg, a sprawling
post about 70 miles south of Raleigh.
"As far as we're concerned, it's isolated to the unit, and our investigation
determined that these seven individuals were the only ones" involved, said 82nd
Airborne spokesman Maj. Thomas Earnhardt.
Earnhardt said the three soldiers charged criminally under the Uniform Code
of Military Justice had been appointed military attorneys, but he said the
lawyers would be unavailable for comment on Friday.
The three soldiers who face courts-martial are: Spc. Richard T. Ashley, Pfc.
Wesley K. Mitten and Pvt. Kagen B. Mullen. The Army did not release their ages
or hometowns, but said all seven paratroopers were members of the 2nd Battalion
of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
The nonjudicial punishment received by the four other soldiers included
reduction to the rank of private, 45 days of restriction to the unit area, 45
days of extra duty and forfeiture of a month's pay.
The registered owner of the Web site's domain name lists an address in
Fayetteville, the city that adjoins Fort Bragg. A phone number listed for the
registered owner was not in service Friday, and e-mails to the owner have been
regularly returned as undeliverable.
The 15,000 paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne are among the Army's most elite
soldiers, all having volunteered to serve in a unit that trains to deploy
anywhere in the world within 18 hours.
The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy states that "homosexual
orientation alone is not a bar to service, but homosexual conduct is
incompatible with military service." Service members who violate the policy are
removed from the military.
|
