via Press Release.
Sergeant Robert Richards Reaches Deal with the Marine CorpsI understand why Sgt Richards accepted the deal.
Guy L. Womack & Associates, P.C. is pleased to announce that their client, Sgt. Robert Richards, has been able to reach a deal with the Marine Corps that will protect his retirement benefits.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) - Jul. 31, 2013 - HOUSTON -- Guy L. Womack & Associates is pleased to announce that their client, Sgt. Robert Richards, has reached a deal with the Marine Corps that will allow him to medically retire from the service with full benefits. Richards, along with seven other Marines, faced disciplinary action after being implicated in a controversial video that depicted a group of soldiers urinating on the corpses of dead Taliban. The incident sparked international controversy after the video was uploaded to the Internet in January of 2012. The media frenzy surrounding this case has yet to subside, but the scout sniper’s attorney, retired Lt. Col. Guy Womack, is satisfied that the Marine Corps was willing to negotiate a deal. Richards will face the least form of court-martial—which is most commonly used to resolve minor military offenses.
This means that he could be demoted one rank and asked to forfeit two-thirds of his pay for one month. Aside from this, however, he will still be allowed to medically retire with full benefits. The Marine Corps’willingness to negotiate an agreement may have something to do with the fact that Gen. Jim Amos is now facing allegations that he exerted unlawful command influence. According to an inspector general complaint, Amos attempted to manipulate the legal proceedings and ensure that the eight Marines were served stricter punishment than what was due. He even went as far as to remove the prosecutor, Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, from the case after he refused to have them tossed out of the Marine Corps. In his Amos’ words, he wanted each of the video’ s participants “crushed.”
When asked why Sgt. Robert Richards chose to accept the summary court-martial, rather than take the chance to clear his name, his wife explained that they just want to “close this chapter and move on with [their] lives.”She feels as though the incident has already put the Marine Corps in a negative light and she, along with her husband, would like to avoid dragging it out any longer. Not only does this arrangement guarantee his medical benefits, but it allows Richards to finally put an end to the case. For this reason, all parties involved— including his Houston military defense attorney, Guy Womack— are pleased with the manner in which this case has been resolved. Richards will go before a summary court-martial on August 7, 2013 at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where his punishment will be decided.
I still wish he hadn't though. Amos is on the rocks right now. Light is being shined into an area of the Marine Corps that needs serious disinfection. If Amos is able to claim that all of the cases have been settled to the benefit of both the Marines and the accused then the issue is one step closer to going away.
Amos is a disease and should resign for the good of the Corps.
He's court martialed people for much less than he's being accused of and his continued service is a blemish on the face of the Corps, confusing for young Marines who are spoon fed honor-courage-commitment, and detrimental to the morale of the institution.
Where is the honor and courage in pissing on dead people again?
ReplyDeletea mistake was made, the question though is whether this mistake rose to the level of a court martial. in my mind it does not. a simple page 11 would have sufficed...even better would have been a counseling by the Marines SNCOIC.
Deletepersonally I'm more upset that they felt like they need to fuck around filming each other instead of taking care of their business like professionals. Where does the Iphone or video recorder go on the LCE according to unit SOP again...? A fucking stupid symptom of our idiot society in general that people feel everything they do should be filmed and put online....
Deletethats a damn good point. no inspection before heading out the wire? no gear check? but that's a leadership issue.
DeleteWell here is the deal Sol, they were fucked the second the video went viral. Once something embarrasses that huge its well beyond a page 11. or a chat with the top. This was international news.
ReplyDeleteIf that never went viral and turned up in a health and comfort inspection not much would have come of it.
Its pretty weird that you argue that this should be treated without political/media influence on a level behind closed doors while at the same time you call for the CMCs resignation because his crime went viral/media/political. How does that make sense?
it makes sense because the convening authority recommended the page 11's and the Commandant stepped in and replaced him after he found out what the punishment would be.
Deletethis has nothing with going viral, it has everything to do with the Commandant exercising undue command influence. then he classified information to cover up his act.
what the Commandant did is much more serious (or should be considered as such) by every Marine out there.
its not a zero defect organization right?
commanding officers that are closest to the Marines are left to exercise their judgement when it comes to disciplining their people right?
Amos violated those rules. He should go.
They recommended page 11s? which convening authority?
ReplyDelete"what the Commandant did is much more serious (or should be considered as such) by every Marine out there. "
More serious than a Marine NCO not exercising his moral authority in a combat zone? vs UCI pushing for a General Court Martial? uh ok
the General in charge of their unit. he was called to a meeting with Amos and Amos was pissed when he heard what the discipline was.
Deleteoh and what the Commandant did was much more serious. the guys involved had recently been hit by terrorist and they lost buddies. emotion, relief at surviving another bout of combat and a little getting carried away should not have ended these Marines military career.
meanwhile Amos was sitting in the lap of luxury making judgement calls on men that he sent half a world away, ignored the fact that they were dogging bullets and IEDs and made a mistake after having successfully engaged the enemy. while in comfort he decided to violate the law and then attempted to cover up that fact.
you're trying to be morally outraged by the wrong thing. instead you come off sounding like an Amos apologist.
sorry i ain't buying it.
the General in charge of their unit. he was called to a meeting with Amos and Amos was pissed when he heard what the discipline was.
DeleteWhich General? when was the meeting?
you're trying to be morally outraged by the wrong thing. instead you come off sounding like an Amos apologist.
You do realize that SECDEF called for an investigation and called the afghans to apologize? even the President weighed in on it? The bottom line is that as soon as civilians in charge found out about this video, it was basically out of Military hands. When the SecDef is calling for investigation, you ain't getting a page 11. They embarrassed a lot of people.
If we made up a charge sheet on Amos over lying about MV-22 maintenance, I wonder if we could get anyone to endorse it?
ReplyDelete11 years later?
Delete@ Anonymous....You have never been a Marine or a Marine Scout/Sniper, Your comments are specious B.S. & I think you would love to see these Marines go to Leavenworth for life.....And any other American that is killing Haji's! The only asshole in this is Amos & anyone else dogging the Marines for pissing on TRASH!!!!!
ReplyDelete