Posted on 09/27/2016 3:20:37 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
An Air Force colonel facing court-martial next month on multiple counts of sexual assault was found dead Sunday at his Colorado home, according to the Air Force.
Col. Eugene Marcus Caughey, formerly the vice commander of the 51st Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base, had been charged with rape, assault, adultery and other crimes. His court-martial was scheduled to begin Oct. 17 in what would have been a rare instance of the military placing a senior officer on trial for sexual assault.
Officials at Peterson Air Force Base said Caughey, 46, was found dead at his off-base residence in Colorado Springs. They released no other details and said the cause of death was under investigation by the Colorado Springs Police Department. A police spokesman did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Caughey's attorney, Ryan Coward, declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding the colonel's death. "This is very unfortunate for an officer that served our nation honorably for over 20 years," Coward said in an email. "His family is grieving and asks that folks respect their privacy during this tough time."
According to charging documents filed by the Air Force in December, Caughey raped one woman as he held her against the wall and floor, groped women on two other occasions, and violated an order from a two-star general to stay away from another victim.
The married colonel also was charged with six counts of adultery - a crime in the military - for allegedly having consensual sex with four other women, according to the documents.
Caughey's defense team generated headlines in June when they sought to toss out the adultery charges, arguing that the military's prohibition on extramarital affairs discriminates against heterosexuals. Under military law, adultery is defined as sexual intercourse between a man and woman who are not married to each other. According to Caughey's attorneys, the provision does not apply to same-sex couples.
And yet he’s still done less than Hillary’s husband.
This should be an OSI case. They aren’t even mentioned. Yes, they would work with the police but they should have the lead on this.
Prayers for the family and his victims. Got nothing for the skeaze bag
I don’t think under the Obama administration the media is
the first to know and blab it through their various outlets, so the military gets another black eye. (Let me tell you what I think of the media)
OOPS!!! Drop the second word “don’t) proof till, proof read!
Some think so because of NCIS TV show where the NCIS takes over off-base cases.
They do not have authority off -base.
They will work with local police.
I just checked. Apparently the jurisdiction is geographic. He was off base. The former agent I checked with thinks OSI’s mission has changed and they don’t do this kind of investigation now.
Must have been a kernel of truth to the charges.
[ Col. Eugene Marcus Caughey, formerly the vice commander of the 51st Space Wing ]
I didn’t know the air force had spaceships?????
Sure they do. They're called satellites.
The Colonel didn’t want to go to the klink.
I don’t believe anything. I’m suspicious of everything that comes from this administration.
It used to. Several Shuttle crews were all military, and there was one “secret” mission whose launch time was hastily sprung, yet news crews were able to photograph it.
I noted that its “roll maneuver” took it on a distinctly northern heading.
He got caught with the help. One of the most important rules my Father taught me and he was a USAF lifer is that one doesn’t “use” the help. This Colonel broke that cardinal rule.
Negative Ghost Rider. Persons subject to the UCMJ are under military jurisdiction regardless of their physical location. Yes, those powers are typically (in the US and overseas) exercised in conjunction with local authorities (many installations have formal agreements with local authorities regarding such) so for example and MP town patrol in a bar district frequented by GIs is normally conducted with the local PD. Army MPs, AF Security Forces derive their authority from the installation commander who is tasked with maintaining law and order on the installation and hence their authority is limited to such.
AFOSI, like the Army CID and NCIS are federal agents with both military and civilian special agents in their ranks and their arrest powers differ. Military agents have no authority over civilians. Civilian agents do, and have arrest powers both on and off post.
Your correct that the military is always under the UCMJ - but that doesn’t mean that the locals give up their jurisdiction. Often they will, provided they are allowed to continue working on the case because they know that the military will typically provide the greater punishment. Or they will work to ensure that UCMJ charges are preferred in parallel or serially for different charges not available to civilian prosecutors. They are not required to and often will not.
SOFA agreements with locals do not always give up jurisdiction, but will ensure that US rights are protected and the punishments follow US mores and standards.
Of course not. But frequently the locals will waive jurisdiction entirely, and sometimes the service member will face charges in both civil and military jurisdictions. This used to be real common with DUIs where an off post offense resulted in the soldier being charged with state law and Article 92 UCMJ. It's not double jeopardy, their two separate offenses. I was just responding to the poster's assertion that military law enforcement didn't have arrest powers of post. This would mean that service members could violate UCMJ all they wanted provided they were off post and there was no analogous civilian offense. Heck, the US Army MP Corps used to have AWOL apprehension teams that did nothing but arrest people off post.
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