Tag: general sinclair
Army General Sinclair Tearfully Pleads With Judge At Sentencing

Army General Sinclair Tearfully Pleads With Judge At Sentencing

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — His eyes red, his head bowed, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair strode uneasily to a courtroom lectern Wednesday and glanced up at a silver-haired military judge who will sentence him for offenses he admits he committed.

Exactly two years had passed since a young Army captain who worked for Sinclair walked into the office of his commander in Afghanistan and revealed that she and the general had carried on an adulterous three-year affair in two war zones — prompting Army prosecutors Wednesday to ask the judge to dismiss Sinclair from the service.

Choking on his words and wiping his eyes, Sinclair apologized to the judge, the captain, his wife, his two young sons and to an institution he has served for 27 years. He begged to be allowed to retire at a reduced rank so that his family may collect military benefits “they have earned serving alongside me all these years.”

It was the close of the sentencing phase in Sinclair’s court-martial, where he has pleaded guilty to adultery, mistreating the captain, inappropriate relationships with two other female officers, obstructing an investigation and other charges.

Shortly after Sinclair spoke, an Army prosecutor in a blue dress uniform stood at the same lectern and asked the judge, Col. James L. Pohl, to dismiss Sinclair. Pohl, who listened to more than two hours of impassioned closing statements from the two sides, indicated he would impose the sentence Thursday.

Maj. Rebecca DiMuro said Sinclair had betrayed the Army and its officer corps by using his rank and authority to exploit impressionable young officers who came to him for guidance and leadership. She reminded the judge that Sinclair had pressured two officers for nude photos of themselves and asked a third for a date.

“Every time he chooses to harm a soldier, he harms everything it means to be an officer,” DiMuro said. “General Sinclair let the Army down.”

DiMuro, a special-victim prosecutor, scoffed at Sinclair’s profession of concern for his family. She noted that on the final weekend of home leave with his family at Fort Bragg before he was to return to duty in Afghanistan in March 2012, he pressured a young lieutenant for a horseback riding date, saying he was “smitten” with her.

“He begged you to consider his family,” DiMuro reminded the judge. But when he had the chance to consider them, she said, “he wasn’t thinking about them.”

Sinclair, 51, one of only a few generals to face court-martial in the last 60 years, pleaded guilty Monday to twice misusing his government charge card to pursue the affair, disobeying an order not to contact his mistress, and making derogatory and sexist comments about other female officers.

A week earlier, Sinclair pleaded guilty to impeding an investigation by deleting sexually explicit emails and photos from a civilian woman, possessing pornography in a war zone, conducting inappropriate relationships with two other female officers and asking the lieutenant for a date.

Under a plea agreement, the Army dismissed charges that Sinclair sexually assaulted the captain and threatened to kill her and her family if she exposed the affair. Also dropped were charges that the general had engaged in “open and notorious” sex in a parked car in Germany and on a hotel balcony in Arizona. If convicted on the most serious charges, Sinclair would have faced life in prison and registration as a sex offender.

The veteran of five combat tours now faces up to 25½ years in prison. However, an agreement between prosecutors and the defense puts a cap on his sentence. The actual sentence will be either the cap or the judge’s sentence, whichever is shorter. Terms of the cap agreement, known as a “quantum,” were not disclosed, not even to the judge.

On Wednesday, prosecutors did not request prison time. Pohl can still impose a prison sentence, but the ultimate sentence would have to be no higher than the cap. The judge will read the quantum after sentencing, then reconcile any differences with his punishment.

If Sinclair is allowed to retire at reduced rank — his lawyers proposed lieutenant colonel, the highest position in which he served honorably — a military review board will determine his retirement rank.

Sinclair said he had caused emotional distress for the captain, 34, who in sometimes tearful testimony said she was trapped and victimized by Sinclair. She said he refused to let her out of the relationship and drove her to threaten suicide. The general apologized to all four female officers.

“It was my responsibility to ensure these officers were protected and promoted, and I failed them as a leader. For this, I am truly sorry,” he told the judge in a low, hoarse voice, standing a few steps from Pohl, wearing a dress uniform and polished paratrooper’s jump boots.

Sinclair said he had no one to blame but himself: “I put myself and the Army in this position with my selfish, self-destructive and hurtful acts.” He described “a deep and abiding sense of shame and remorse.”

He paused several times to wipes his eyes. It was the third time the general had broken down in tears, first when he told the judge about lying to his mistress about divorcing his wife, and again when a defense lawyer read a statement Wednesday from his wife describing how his behavior had devastated their family.

DiMuro reminded the judge of a military skit at a roast for Sinclair in Germany in 2010, when one male officer portraying the captain donned a brown wig and knelt before another officer, portraying Sinclair, as if to perform oral sex. The skit was attended by more than 500 people, including Sinclair’s wife, Rebecca, and the wives of other officers.

Rebecca Sinclair was sitting next to her husband that humiliating evening, a contrast to “the family he desperately wants you to think of now,” DiMuro told the judge.

DiMuro noted that 24 defense character witnesses, most of them active-duty or retired officers, had described Sinclair as an inspirational and charismatic leader devoted to his men. The general spent more than two decades honing a reputation as one of the Army’s most dynamic and promising officers, she said.

“He forsook all that collateral — every dime of that collateral, in exploiting junior subordinate soldiers,” DiMuro said.

Sinclair’s defense team, led by Philadelphia lawyer Richard L. Scheff, selected a soft-spoken officer, Maj. Sean Foster, to deliver a sentencing closing statement that recounted Sinclair’s service and his wife’s military volunteer work.

A video screen displayed photos of the Sinclairs’ engagement and marriage, and their sons, now 10 and 12. Also on the screen were testimonial letters from Army officers, some retired, about Sinclair’s sterling performance before his career was destroyed by his offenses.

Foster described the captain as “flirtatious” and said his accuser was not trapped in the affair. “It was a relationship she wanted to be in. … She chose to stay.”

Foster said the charges that led to Sinclair being called “a rapist wearing stars” by a member of Congress had been dropped. “The reason we are here today is because of the stuff they dismissed.”

He added: “General Sinclair has been punished enough.”

The general was removed two years ago as deputy commander of U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan. He has spent two years defending himself in court with the help of a civilian law firm and a New York public relations agency.

“Now I have lost my ability to work at my calling — leading soldiers and planning battles,” Sinclair told the judge.

AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards

Army General Sinclair Breaks Down, Asks Judge To Not Punish Family

Army General Sinclair Breaks Down, Asks Judge To Not Punish Family

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

FORT BRAGG, NC — Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair broke down in tears Wednesday at his sentencing hearing, asking the judge to allow him to retire at a reduced rank instead of dismissing him from the Army, which would deprive him of military benefits and “punish” his family for his adulterous affair with a captain.

“I have squandered a fortune of life’s blessings, blessings of family, work and friendship,” the one-star general said in court. “I have put myself and (the) Army in this position with my selfish, self-destructive and hurtful acts.”

He said he “failed as a leader” and apologized to his accuser and the two officers he pressured to send him nude photos of themselves.

The judge, Col. James S. Pohl, is expected to sentence Sinclair on Wednesday for mistreating an Army captain with whom he conducted a three-year adulterous affair in Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany and the United States.

Speaking for the prosecution, Lt. Col. David Leach, who served under Sinclair in 2012 in Afghanistan, said the general’s actions were “not a minor mistake. It was a matter of internal moral and ethical direction and that was most disturbing. … He failed his family, soldiers he served and the American people.”

Sinclair, who has remained composed during most of his court-martial the last two weeks, bent forward, his hands clasped, as attorney Ellen Brotman read a statement to the judge from Rebecca Sinclair. The general wiped his eyes with a tissue when the statement mentioned the impact of Sinclair’s adultery and prosecution on the couple’s sons, ages 10 and 12.

“My boys and I are the only truly innocent victims to these offenses,” Rebecca Sinclair’s statement read. She referred to charges against her husband that have been “so publicly and horribly aired.”

Sinclair, 51, one of only a handful of generals to face court-martial in the last 60 years, pleaded guilty Monday to mistreating the captain. He also pleaded guilty to twice misusing his government charge card to pursue the affair, disobeying an order not to contact his mistress, and making derogatory comments about other female officers.

A week earlier, Sinclair pleaded guilty to adultery; impeding an investigation by deleting sexually explicit emails to and from a civilian woman; possessing pornography in a war zone; conducting inappropriate relationships with two other female officers; and improperly asking a female lieutenant for a date.

The 27-year veteran of five combat tours technically faces up to 25 1/2 years in prison. However, an agreement between prosecutors and the defense puts a cap on any punishment; the actual sentence will be the lower of the two — the cap or the judge’s sentence.

Terms of the cap agreement, known as a “quantum,” were not disclosed. Pohl has not seen the document, but will read it after he sentences Sinclair. The judge will then reconcile any differences between his sentence and the quantum.

If convicted on the original charges of sexual assault, sodomy and making death threats, Sinclair would have faced life in prison and registration as a sex offender. With those charges dismissed, his sentence is expected to be far less severe.

Sinclair’s lawyers have asked for no prison time, and for Sinclair to be allowed to retire at a reduced rank of lieutenant colonel — the highest rank at which he was not accused of misconduct.

It was not clear Wednesday whether, if Sinclair is sentenced to prison time, he would be placed in custody immediately or given time to put his affairs in order. That decision would be made by Army officials, not by the judge, according to military legal officers.

AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards

Accuser In General’s Sex Assault Trial Says She Feared She’d Be Fired

Accuser In General’s Sex Assault Trial Says She Feared She’d Be Fired

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

FORT BRAGG, NC — The accuser in the sexual assault court-martial of Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair testified Friday that she continued to have sex with the general for two years after she says he threatened in Iraq to kill her and her family if she revealed what became a three-year affair.

The accuser, a military intelligence captain, told a court-martial panel that she continued to have sex with Sinclair because she believed she had no other option, and also feared the general might fire her.

“I felt the best way to move forward was to continue sleeping with him,” the captain said during a sometimes tearful hour on the witness stand.

The captain has accused Sinclair of twice forcing her to perform oral sex after their affair soured. The general is charged with sexual assault, sodomy, groping her against her will, having public sex, and abusing his government credit card in pursuit of the affair. He faces life in prison if convicted on all charges.

In opening statements earlier Friday, Sinclair’s lawyer, Ellen C. Brotman, told a panel of five male two-star generals that the accuser continued the affair and at times pursued Sinclair, telling him in emails and text messages that she loved him.

Even on the day in March 2012 that the accuser told Sinclair’s immediate superior that he had forced her to perform oral sex, she exchanged emails with Sinclair. “I owe you,” she wrote him at one point; “owe” was code between the lovers for “love,” according to Brotman.

The defense contends that the captain leveled the sexual assault allegations as retaliation against Sinclair after she discovered sexually charged emails between Sinclair and another female captain. The accuser exploded in fury, Brotman said. Using the general’s email account, the accuser fired off three angry emails to the captain.

“Her dreams are crashing down around her,” Brotman said.

The accuser was also furious with Sinclair, Brotman said, because she had concluded that he was not going to leave his wife, as he had indicated earlier. In her private journal, the accuser did not mention fearing for her life or for her family’s safety, Brotman said.

“My biggest fear is that there is still something there in his marriage,” the accuser wrote in her journal, which Brotman read aloud to the panel.

According to Brotman, the accuser also threatened to commit suicide “as a ruse to get Brig. Gen. Sinclair’s attention.”

“False suicide claims, false sexual assault claims,” Brotman told the panel.

On Thursday, Sinclair pleaded guilty to adultery, improper relationships with three other women, impeding an investigation and viewing pornography on his personal computer while deployed.

Defense lawyers said the guilty pleas, accepted by the trial judge, were designed to remove what they call prejudicial and inflammatory material about pornography and an extramarital affair. That now allows them to focus on the accuser, whose allegations are the basis for the most serious remaining charges.

AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards