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From Page 1 = i-sion’s staff judge advocated office.The girl,:now! 13 and living in tbb United States* will give birth.ih.tne spring, her father said. The identity of the baby's father is unknown. :. •'. •Both Orange*. 34* and Okimey*. 20, were; originally charged with rape, according to information from the 1st infantry Division staff judge advocate's office.. Orange was also Charged with commiting adultery and making a false ; statement. .TA division legal officer said a court-martial _ for each of them likely would have resulted in a finding of carnal knowledge with a child under the age of16. '•=‘The victim essentially told the trial counsel that this was consensual, that thiswas not a case where she said, ?No. No.’ or fought/' said M aj; Robin L, Hal!, chief of justice and operational law for the 1st Infantry Division.“Carnal knowledge is consensual sex with a child under the age of 16/'She said the maximum penalty for a carnal knowledge charge i 20 years' confinement, a dishonorable discharge, andforfeiture of all pay and benefits,The decision not to seek courts-martialwas made by Maj. Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, thexomfnander of 1st Infantry Division; Meigs is. now in Tuzla, Bosnia and ■Herzegovina* as head of the American task force taking part in the peacekeeping process the re.-Meigs accepted each defendant's application-of a Chapter 10, a request fordischarge instead of a court-martial.Hah noted that this is consistent with the disposition other soldiers have re-ceivedjor consensual sex with a child.A .statement late Friday from 1st In--•fantry Division officials said the soldiers admitted guilf and were given discharges to spare the girl from testifying. The statement, said inconsistencies in the evidencev would have subjected the girt tointense cross-examination at trial if she had to testily.” • --.7 - • -The statement also said that the gir! • and her I'ather.toldTho trial counsel thatthey .did not-want her to'testify, and that they were consulted before, the dis- ' charges were approved.Indetermining punishment, a court- 'martraI pLtnef uonid con-ader the- recordof the soldiers, the statement said., and with the exception of the misconduct in this, matter, theif prior service was char-. actcrized by their chain of command as ■ -'good.”Had the soldiers been tried, only thecarnal knowledge offenses could - have been proven, the statement said;Karen ..Johnson, a retired Air Forcelieutenant colonel and. officer with the National Organization for Worn en inWashington, D.G,; said Thursday of thepunishment:“I think that’s outrageous. I can’t imagine a 12-year-pId consenting tosex and that being considered valid in escaping judicial punishment.. A spokeswoman for an organization for child sexual-abuse survivors said the sddiers' punishment - essentially beingfired from their jobs dadoes not fit the • crime. - 7Nina Corwin mentioned former US Rep. Mel Reynolds from Illinois, who was found guilty of consensual sex withan underage campaign worker one year ago. The girl was 16 at the time the relationship began. Reynolds was given afive-year prison sentence for that and related charges.“Out here in the world, we’re holdingnS^ctC? ^CC(?unt1 •_ sa id Convin of •voices in Action. “People in our military need to be held to account.”j . • ? * i i*1st Infantry Division statement Friday, five other 1st ID soldiers have faced similar charges of carnal knowledge this year; four received Chap-ter 10 discharges and one was .cburt-mar-'Ualedr~ — - ' :VOICES in Action is the shortenedversion of Victims Of Incest Can Emerce Survivors in Action, a Chicago-based national organization that is an advocate for child sex-abuse. victims. Convin is a pro-iessiona! therapist in private practice The girl’s father said. “It is not punish-ment.. It is not justice.”He was a neighbor. He was in my umt, he said of Orange. “We had noreason to suspect him.” .He said Okinjey. worked for.0ranee in -the same unit. b. .1 he father acknowledged that: his-r was far more sexually aware and active than he,could.have imaeined 1 he seventh-grader even detailed her ad' ventures in-explicit language in a diarv which mentioned two sexual encounterswith Orange and one will, Okimev lie said.The father said he . leli betraved hv Orange, a man near his age-.'and a’ fatherhimself. He said his own reaction would have been different had a 12-year-old presented herself to him for,sex*“I'm going to take her by the ear and take her to her father: and say, -Lcibk, 7 you've got a problem,’: ” he said. “As a soldier, wouldn't you have enough moral character to.walk away from the situation and not take advantage of it?”Hall said the case left a bad taste in y ' her mouth. .“I am not happy that there are soldiersout there having sex with 12-year-olds,” she said. “At the same time, I am not happy that, there are 12-year-olds out there soliciting sex with soldiers.”Corwin said the age of the victimmakes iu hard to understand how theArmy could call this a consensual situa-' lion. ' ' 'f;- :* 4 . • ( . , • . iHow consensual could it be? Here’s aguy who's- much more knowledgeable,”Corwin said. “This rrian had no concern for her or the consequences. This is not - what we call a consensual relationship.”.She said, the soldiers may: have represented authority figures to the girl —■ especially Orange, who was the father of a.friend as well as a man in uniform, justlike the girl’s father.“We have. laws-about statutory rape so that we can say that when there is this type of age difference the child is not capable of making that decision,” she said. ~ 7 Allowing the men to resign, she 'said, does.not send a strong message to military members that such behavior is inap--propriate. _‘‘The psychological damage to the 1.2-_year-old — hot to mention how her life is going to be affected by having the baby, not to mention how her baby’s life is . going to be affected by having a 12-year-old mother — is quite.out of proportion” with the soldiers' punishment, Corwinsaid. .“We're really very concerned, whensuch a significant public institution sends out the message that the exploitation of achild is going to be given a slap on thewrist.” . .Johnson of NOW agreed. She said the military will continue to have problems with equality of the* sexes , because theleaders lack a will to change it..“There's mo will,” she said. Tfy^u• XF a major general saying, ‘OK. bo vs will be boys and we’ll kick you out of the Army instead of putting vou in jail.’ th - 'outrageous.” / T' ; - Jlt;-,j?.QrI!nbu,in9 JO this report- Karen Blakeman in Lx.^Ofmany.) — r
Newspaper Details
European Stars and Stripes
Darmstadt, Hesse, DE
Sat, Dec 21, 1996
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Tyson M.
IL, USA 24 Dec 2021
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Allgemeine Kirchen Zeitung
European Stars and Stripes
