Thursday, June 23, 2005
Ramstein sergeant pleads guilty to sex charges
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=29923By Scott Schonauer, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, June 23, 2005
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — An Air Force staff sergeant pleaded guilty at a court-martial Wednesday to trying to get a 13-year-old girl to have sex with him and pose for nude photographs.
Staff Sgt. Brian D. Bishop, an assistant chief of weather flight operations with the Ramstein-based 86th Operations Support Squadron, will be sentenced Thursday. He faces a maximum punishment of 22 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.
During the trial, Bishop admitted to sending the girl, the daughter of a U.S. servicemember, an e-mail last August asking if he could take pictures of her for money. The girl had put up fliers advertising her services as a baby sitter in housing, and Bishop said he got her e-mail from a co-worker. The mother of the girl found the e-mail and sent it to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, sparking an investigation.
Special agents testified Wednesday that they set up an undercover operation, using the girl’s e-mail account to correspond with Bishop. During the e-mail exchanges, Bishop agreed to pay $300 for the girl to pose nude and another $100 to have sex with him, Special Agent Carlita Scott testified.
He wrote asking if she was “willing to do anything sexual” and “are you a virgin?” He said he agreed to set up a meeting with the girl not knowing that special agents were on the other end of the e-mails.