This is a comment made at http://www.caaflog.com/2015/01/26/media-reports-on-the-court-martial-conviction-of-army-major-erik-burris-formerly-the-chief-of-justice-for-the-82nd-airborne-division/ , based on the Article 32 Report that was uploaded to scribd at http://www.scribd.com/doc/254466182/Investigating-Officer-s-Report-US-v-Burris :
ContractLawyer says:
February 3, 2015 at 2:34 PM
“Tickle Torture” and “Tushie Squeeze.” This was one of the assaults against one of the children. There are no redactions here. Not sure if that is normal to release this without redacting vicitims’ names, even the children.
It appears that one of the children is from the ex ex wife, so it is the case of two ex-wives, though the first ex became involved only after the allegation of the second ex. One of them went to the doctor for a rash around her privates and difficulty/pain while urinating. This is something that can inflame the situation regardless of the merits of the case.
The main victim, ex-wife #2, claims that she was a virgin even though she was previously married and divorced. Her ex-husband testified that this is BS (or words to that effect). The claim is pretty much continuous rape from the marriage all the way up to the report to CID. The victim was dissatisfied that MAJ Burris did not continue to send her flowers and give her bubble baths like he did when they first met on Match.com. The victim testified that she did not have access to a bank account set up for her by MAJ Burris, but yet bank statements showed that she made withdrawals and wrote checks on the account. MAJ Burris was also guilty according to the victim of “unsafe gun storage,” though the only photo produced was a picture of ammo and a cleaning kit. Ironically, the facts state that MAJ Burris even purchased his wife a 9MM. If ten percent of what she claims is true, she should have used it (on him). Testimony shows MAJ Burris was passed over for promotion and had some performance issues, though that is not an indicator of guilt. The victim testified that their daughter is a result of a rape and that she informed her mother the day after that rape, though the mother testified she did not hear of it until the hearing for the protective order. Generic allegations about bathtub abuse. There are other references that are not described in the report.
Though the IO did not recommend court-martial, she did recommend an Art. 15 or GOMOR and a Show Cause Board for some of the charges.
We do not have the transcript here and I am not sure if this will be coming, but this does show more information than I have seen so far. If additional transcripts of the 32 or ROT become available, I am not reading it except to review the victim testimony to see how all the factual inconsistencies were handled on direct and cross. Or perhaps there motions to avoid most of the damaging testimony? In any case, if the Government managed to keep out the damaging information, then the Art 32 experience allowed them to improve their case.
One thing is for sure, regardless of guilt or innocence, any man who considers dating or marrying this woman should give this a read.
Some of the comments at the other site talk about the ex-wife first using these claims in the divorce. She had never intended to move when he got stationed elsewhere and was filing for divorce so she could have sole custody of the kids. She made these claims in family court and couldn’t get anybody to take them seriously so she went to the military, which - according to Burris’ testimony in the other court-martial - pressures for courts-martial and convictions even without evidence. She must have thought she’d have it made there. Seems like the military is INVITING women of her caliber to do exactly what she did.
And the sad thing is that it appears that Burris’ colleagues just confirmed what Burris had testified...
What was the high-visibility court-martial where undue command influence was claimed by the defense? The high-ups wanted convictions of war crimes after some bigwig (Kerry?) made some political statement and they wanted to give his claims credibility. What case was that? There’s just too much to remember - all of it big, important stuff but each instance overshadowed because of the sheer bulk of big, important instances of lawlessness.
Then of course there’s the Lt Col Lakin court-martial. After that it would be really tough to claim that the military justice system has much integrity. He wasn’t even allowed the opportunity to defend himself. I wonder if Denise Lind is driving a Corvette these days...