Posted on 04/28/2010 5:50:15 PM PDT by Larry381
ATLANTA, GA—EDGAR PAGAN-TORRES, 41, of Peachtree City, Georgia, a lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on child pornography production and possession offenses. PAGAN made his initial appearance before a United States Magistrate Judge on April 15, 2009 and was indicted this afternoon.
United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said, “This defendant allegedly sexually abused his own daughter and niece and then produced videos of his crimes, ‘mementos’ that he carefully organized into home video-style DVDs. This shocking and tragic conduct has no place in our nation’s military, nor anywhere else. I appreciate all the hard work the U.S. Army investigators did to bring this case to the FBI and to ensure that the Defendant now faces these very serious charges.”
“Today's indictment and continuing investigation clearly illustrates tremendous interagency cooperation with our global law enforcement partners,” said Brigadier General Colleen McGuire, the Provost Marshal General of the Army and the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. “Working hand in hand with Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies in cross jurisdictional investigations, we are continually proving our commitment to investigate crimes impacting the Army, wherever they may occur.”
According to United States Attorney Yates, the indictment and evidence in public record and in court: PAGAN was assigned to a military installation in Puerto Rico from 2004 to 2007. At that time, he and his family lived near PAGAN’s sister, who has a daughter the same age as PAGAN’s daughter. In 2008, a year after PAGAN and his family relocated to Peachtree City, PAGAN’s niece made an outcry alleging that PAGAN had molested her and his daughter. In 2009, family members passed this information to law enforcement in Puerto Rico, resulting in PAGAN’s guilty plea last month in Puerto Rico to criminal charges related to his niece’s molestation allegations.
At the same time the Puerto Rican authorities were investigating, agents from the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigations Division based at Ft. McPherson seized various computers and digital media from PAGAN’s home in Peachtree City. Searches of these items revealed sexually explicit videos PAGAN had made involving his daughter and his niece. Some of the videos were made in PAGAN’s home in Puerto Rico and others were made in his Peachtree City residence. Many of the videos had been transferred from the original recording media to home video-style DVDs organized into chapters. Additional forensic work uncovered a large collection of child pornography PAGAN had downloaded from the internet. Members of the public are reminded that the indictment contains only allegations. A defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government's burden to prove the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
This case is being investigated by Special Agents of the FBI, U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division, and the Peachtree City Police Department.
Seriously, the UCOMJ should include this on its list of capital/hanging offenses.
If rape was committed during his “production” of these videos, it is punishable by death under the UCMJ.
Under UCMJ, is there any difference between rape and statutory rape?
Got rope?
"Rape and Rape of a Child: Dishonorable Discharge, death or confinement for Life, and forfeiture of all pay and allowances."
Good for the military. I’ve read a couple of stories about the severity and the speed of military justice. Would that that apply to civilian justice.
Glad his name was Pagan, and not Christian...
Truth be told, though, the military is very reluctant to apply capital punishment. Major Hassan is an obvious exception, but the last time it was imposed was 1961...for rape and attempted murder.
He’s not being tried by court-martial. He was indicted by a civilian federal grand jury, FWIW.
As a Catholic, we are instructed to oppose capital punishment except as a very last resort. Nonetheless, a cage with 1” bars welded shut until after a natural death is certainly an interesting habitation for an individual who has raped a child.
Oh, and getting doctorates in law at the taxpayers’ expense should also be like a dog that speaks - very rare. And getting appeal after appeal after appeal should be like a dog that speaks Norwegian - even rarer.
Too bad. He might actually wind up in the Justice Department as an assistant Secretary...
This hits close to home sort of. I grew up in Peachtree City and still live in the area. Just Damn.
Not yet. He can be tried in the CivFed Court for the child porn charges, and if the court martial convening authority so chooses, they can still prefer charges for court martial. Since the CID's purview and jurisdiction are to investigate violations of the UCMJ, I suspect that may be forthcoming. The LTC is subject to both jurisdictions so it's not double jeopardy. In theory he could be found not guilty of various charges in the civilian court, but could still be tried under the UCMJ.
IMHO, capital punishment is life affirming; it places the ultimate cost on the destruction of an innocent life. Actually, I think capital punishment should be on the table for any crime in which the victim would have been justified in using deadly force. In those circumstances, it is the criminal himself, and not society, or the law that has forfeited any claim on the sanctity of life.
Capital punishment should be used in cases of child rape but the SCOTUS shot it down. Oddly enough, even BO was for it.
Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/washington/26scotuscnd.html
Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said, “I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime, and if a state makes a decision under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances, that the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that does not violate our Constitution.” He added that the Supreme Court should have set conditions for imposing the death penalty for the crime, “but it basically had a blanket prohibition, and I disagree with the decision.”
and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.”
As an aside and if he committed the crime, he will additionally harm his family through the loss of his pay and allowances whether convicted in civilian court or by courts martial. Justice in this case has interesting consequences for the victims. Not that they won’t be better off without him in one respect.
2266 The State's effort to contain the spread of behaviors injurious to human rights and the fundamental rules of civil coexistence corresponds to the requirement of watching over the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime. the primary scope of the penalty is to redress the disorder caused by the offense. When his punishment is voluntarily accepted by the offender, it takes on the value of expiation. Moreover, punishment, in addition to preserving public order and the safety of persons, has a medicinal scope: as far as possible it should contribute to the correction of the offender.67
2267 The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.
"If, instead, bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.
"Today, in fact, given the means at the State's disposal to effectively repress crime by rendering inoffensive the one who has committed it, without depriving him definitively of the possibility of redeeming himself, cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender 'today ... are very rare, if not practically non-existent.'[John Paul II, Evangelium vitae 56.]
I remember that decision well as it revolved around a Louisiana law that allowed death for the aggravated rape of a minor. I’m not sure, but I think the SCOTUS decision exempted the UCMJ provision.
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