Air Force Rape Trial Halted

[Rose Siding]

RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- A military judge on Friday halted the trial of an officer accused of raping an Air Force Academy cadet whose civilian rape counselor has refused to hand over records of their conversations.

But 1st Lt. Joseph Harding will still be tried on a charge of indecent assault against another Academy cadet, said the judge, Col. David Brash, who did not elaborate on his ruling.

The indecent assault charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The rape charge carried a maximum life term.

Brash's ruling came in response to a defense motion to stop the trial. Defense attorney David Sheldon said access to the counselor's records were necessary for a fair trial.
...
A provision of military law protects an accuser's communication with psychotherapists.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-academy-rape-trial,0,6591967.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[gratuitous]

1. Thank you, Judge Brash

Imagine! A defendant not having access to confidential, private counseling records of his accuser, inadmissible as evidence and beyond the scope of reasonable discovery!

Thank the good lord above that there are activist judges looking out for the rights of accused rapists to wallow in their victims' most private, personal papers.

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

[0007]

2. This stinks to high heavens. This women was raped in 2000 and the

trial is just getting under way? And now the judge stops the trial?

The good o' boys club must be hard up for pilots, eh?

[cally]

3. Is their anyway to appeal?

I don't understand the military justice system. Does a ruling like this have any precedence?

[Gyre]

4. Freedom (for rapists) is on the march, in the USAF!

That military "judge" clearly has his head up his as$. Time for all able-bodies sex offenders to join "Team America"! Oh yeah; and while we're busy punishing the victim, why would any sane female join the American military in the first place?

Gyre

[Voltaire99]

5. "Military justice"--an oxymoron

Rape is just another form of collateral damage to these thugs.

[Senior citizen]

6. The Air Force doesn't believe he raped anyone.

They feel he was just "passionately proselytizing" his religious belief that females should be submissive.

:sarcasm: