Air Force instructor enters plea (relationship w/ student)

[rainbow4321]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D88452N80.html


Sheppard Air Force Base instructor pleaded guilty Monday to charges accusing her of having an unprofessional personal and sexual relationship with a student last summer. Staff Sgt. Jennifer Jones received a reprimand, was ordered to forfeit $500 for two months and was reduced in rank to senior airman.

"I have to work very hard to overcome the mistake that I made," Jones said in a story in Tuesday's editions of the Wichita Falls Times Record News.

The relationship occurred while Jones was an instructor with the 383rd Training Squadron. Jones also was charged with breaking a no-contact order by seeing the man again.

Lt. Col. Donnie Bethel, Jones' chief defense counsel, asked the military judge to dismiss the charges based on selective prosecution. He pointed to the case of former Judge Advocate General Maj. Gen. Thomas Fiscus, a two-star general, who was dismissed in September at the outset of an internal investigation that concluded he had engaged in "unprofessional relationships" with female subordinates.

[Charon]

1. Major General Fiscus

I believe MG Fiscus was required to retire as a Colonel. The "demotion" cost him about several hundered thousand dollars in retirment.

[DistantWind88]

2. Not enough. That bastard

SHOULD have been court-martialed. At the VERY least, he should have been forced to retire as a Lt Col, not a full Col, costing him even MORE money.

[atreides1]

3. $900,000 to be exact

[Mithras61]

4. Re: selective prosecution

Please bear in mind that my military experience was 25 years ago, but during training, instructors having relationships with trainees, while forbidden by regulations, was so common that no one even bothered to try and investigate. The general method used was "meet me at <supply name of off-base establishment> and we'll go from there" so that it was officially something that took place off base and out of uniform, so "how could they have known that the person they were having the relations with was a soldier/subordinate/trainee?"

I'd be very surprised if the same types of methods weren't still in use. Based on that, I would have to agree with her attorney that it was selective prosecution, unless SSgt. Jones was caught either in uniform, on base or in flagrant violation of the regulations (e.g. - passing an obviously unqualified trainee because of the relationship).