Clearing the Fog of War

'Sexual predator' gets 20 years at Lackland trial

Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker, called a “sexual predator” by Air Force prosecutors, was given 20 years in prison Saturday after he and family members tearfully begged for mercy.

Prosecutors had called on the jury, which convicted him Friday night on seven charges and 28 specifications of misconduct, to give him 40 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.

Walker faced a maximum of life without the possibility of parole. He'll instead be eligible for release after serving six years.

“Members, I stand before you a convicted man. I know you have to punish me for the crimes I have committed,” he said in a statement, standing before the jury.

“The only thing I ask you for is that you consider my family,” he added, weeping.

Stoic even when the jury president pronounced him guilty of a long list of crimes, Walker was flanked by family that included his two sons, ages 4 and 7.

His wife, sister and stepfather had just made their own emotional pleas for leniency after five of his victims told jurors tearful tales of how their encounters with Walker had broken their lives.

The Air Force charged Walker with having illicit relationships with 10 women, all of them in basic training and some in the units that he oversaw. They recounted the power he and other instructors in an often-understaffed basic training corps wielded over them.

They initially saw Walker as a friend and mentor, the rare instructor who wasn't always screaming at them. But things changed when he took the women, some 17 and 18 years old, behind closed doors and into empty “ghost” dorms.

There, Walker hugged, kissed and groped the women. Initially stunned, they shrugged off those passes only to later find that Walker wanted sex.

Several said they've lost trust in men since graduating from basic training and moving on to new assignments.

Two of the women told jurors they have struggled to maintain relationships as they had become emotionally brittle, while one, identified as Airman 9, recalled the excitement she felt in joining the Air Force and hopes she had to gain pride in herself.

“I don't enjoy the military much any more. I don't want to be in it,” she said.

“It's affected my relationship with my fiancée. We're no longer together,” she added, after telling the panel of six men and one woman that she suffers anxiety attacks. “Every time I'm laughing or smiling, I feel fake. I feel empty.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Sexual-predator-gets-20-years-3724859.php#ixzz21MvOIv4N

 

Victims testify how Lackland trainer exploited security lapses

About three weeks into a basic training camp last spring, Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker ordered one of his recruits to retrieve cleaning towels from an empty dorm.

He had special instructions for her.

“He told me to go five minutes after him because of the cameras,” said the trainee, a young woman from Abilene identified as Airman 7. “He didn't want anybody to know we were up there together.”

Once inside the building, he directed her to an office with a bed. He closed the door, pulled her to him and had sex with her.

“I was so confused that I really didn't say anything. I was too scared,” she said. “I just let it happen.”

Her account, which came last week before Walker was convicted on charges that he sexually abused 10 young female trainees, was strikingly similar to the stories told by the other women.

One after the other, in a cramped courtroom at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, the recruits detailed the apparent ease with which Walker singled them out and exploited lax security to seek sexual favors from them in stairwells, vacant offices and empty dorms. At the heart of those isolated encounters was the starkest pattern of all: In almost every case, the women submitted to his advances, although he used no force.

In the strictly regimented military setting, where rules forbid instructors from being alone with female recruits, how Walker targeted the women has raised alarms about the safety of one of the nation's largest training grounds. The case poses questions about how well the Air Force equips trainees to protect themselves against the same instructors they are conditioned to obey.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Walker-took-advantage-of-Lackland-security-lapses-3725425.php#ixzz21MuWGzFw

 

Staff Sgt. Walker found guilty on all charges of sexual misconduct

Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker, the boot camp instructor at the center of the worst Air Force basic training sexual misconduct scandal in history, was found guilty of all counts Friday.

Standing at attention and flanked by his defense team, Walker stood expressionless as Col. Michael A. Romero, the president of the jury, pronounced him guilty of seven charges and 28 specifications of misconduct. Walker was red-eyed, with tears streaming down his face, as he left the court.

In a basement room of the 37th Training Wing headquarters building at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, a group of Walker's victims also broke into tears. After hearing the pronouncements of several guilty verdicts, one woman collapsed, and others embraced her and each other on the floor. After the last specification was read, they consoled one another, sobbing, with some hugging.

“I think you define a victory by a win, and I'm not sure that any of us win when we have a situation like this,” said Col. Polly Kenny, an Air Force lawyer. “I doubt that even the victims feel like it's a victory. I'm sure that they feel vindicated somewhat that they were believed.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Staff-Sgt-Walker-found-guilty-on-all-charges-of-3723197.php#ixzz21MtjJqJq

 

Victims' accounts disputed

Six minutes into a round of questioning Wednesday, a woman who the Air Force said was victimized by her basic training instructor broke into tears.

Col. Wesley Moore, the judge in the trial taking place on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, ordered a recess after a defense attorney for Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker suggested the witness had been less than truthful.

Maj. Naomi Dennis pressed the woman, identified as Victim 7, on differences between her testimony and past statements made to investigators. Dennis did the same thing with others throughout the day.

“It took me a very, very long time to get that out of my memory,” Victim 7 sobbed while conceding she gave investigators a watered-down account of the incident. “Why would I want to talk about that?”

The clash isn't unusual in a sexual assault trial, at which defense attorneys try to punch holes in stories. In the trial for Walker, who could face life in prison on charges of illicit sexual contact with 10 women in basic training, it's a risky strategy but inevitable given the roles attorneys play.

“A prosecutor's duty is to do justice. A defense lawyer's duty is to zealously represent his client,” said Geoffrey Corn, a professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston and a former military lawyer. “He has no duty to hold back because it might be a little bit rough on the victims.”

That's an outcome, however, that former Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Norris, a military sexual trauma advocate, said puts victims on trial rather than their attackers.

After being assaulted in technical training, Norris, 40, of Rumford, Maine, said she didn't report it “because I did not want to deal with a big investigation where I was going to end up getting re-victimized.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Victims-accounts-disputed-3717405.php#ixzz215BLLIbI

 

Sergeant goes on trial in sexual assault cases

An Air Force basic training instructor went on trial today on charges of having sex with recruits.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys were expected to make opening arguments just after 1 p.m. as Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker faces charges that could land him in prison for life.

Walker is accused of making sexual overtures with 10 women in basic and technical training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, and having intercourse with four of them. A seven-member jury made up of two officers and five NCOs is hearing the case.

Charged with rape, aggravated sexual assault, sodomy, obstruction of justice and violating the Air Education and Training Command's professional conduct code, he faces seven charges and 28 specifications of wrongdoing, and could get life in prison.

One of Walker's accusers is an airman who gave birth to a child two weeks ago, prompting the defense to ask that she be required to testify rather than admit a videotaped deposition.

Air Force Col. Polly Kenny, staff judge advocate for 2nd Air Force in Biloxi, Miss., told reporters that the issue would come out during the trial but wouldn't say if the child is his.

That would be unlikely, though, because Walker is not accused of having intercourse with the woman, identified as Airman 1.

A document outlining the government's case stated that Walker would make flirtatious comments, some of them vulgar, and sometimes kiss or grope trainees. He also would seduce some of the women, in four of the cases having intercourse.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Sergeant-goes-on-trial-in-sex-cases-3710656.php#ixzz20qu395GS

 

'Core values' in question at Lackland

The Air Force has three core values, and they're drilled into recruits from their first hours of basic training.

As they march at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, they pass signs saying, “Integrity,” “Service before self” and “Excellence in all we do.”

“There is a reason there are three core values,” said retired Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman, who created the ethos for his service in the wake of a series of disciplinary problems during the mid-1990s. “You can remember them.”

As the first of a series of basic training instructors prepares to go on trial this week on charges of sexually assaulting 10 women at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Fogleman is angry, disappointed and confused. Somehow, something so simple and often repeated was forgotten.

The instructor, Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker, is one of 12 under investigation for misconduct with recruits and among six who have been charged so far with sexual misconduct. The Air Force lists 31 women in basic and technical training here as victims. Walker is charged with raping one of the women, and could be sentenced to life in prison.

At least one other instructor admitted to having been involved with 10 women and also sharing steroids with two other trainers — both charged with having sex with recruits.

“This is so basic to what it means to be a part of the United States Air Force, an enlisted troop, a noncommissioned officer, an officer,” Fogleman said, “that I just have trouble understanding how an organization that is charged with inculcating the core values of the organization into new recruits can slip to the point where we see these apparent actions that took place.”

In his “Little Blue Book,” a manual on core values he ordered given to recruits and airmen throughout the service, Fogleman defines integrity as “the inner voice; the voice of self-control; the basis for the trust imperative in today's military.”

“Integrity is the ability to hold together and properly regulate all of the elements of a personality. A person of integrity, for example, is capable of acting on conviction. A person of integrity can control impulses and appetites,” he states.

Retired Gen. Donald Cook, who once headed the Air Force's training command here, continued it this way: “Integrity is simple: doing what's right when no one is looking or doing the harder right than easier wrong.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Core-values-in-question-at-Lackland-3707875.php#ixzz20iTyKJKj

 

Training boss ousted in Lackland sex scandal

The Air Force on Wednesday relieved the commander of a basic training squadron in which three instructors have been accused of illicit sexual contact with recruits.

Lt. Col. Mike Paquette lost his job as commander of the 331st Training Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. An Air Force lawyer stressed that the decision by Col. Eric Axelbank, commander of the 37th Training Wing, wasn't driven by disciplinary violations or misconduct allegations.

“Col. Axelbank, based upon a whole bunch of factors, has lost confidence in (Paquette's) ability to lead that squadron, and he has removed him,” said Col. Polly Kenny, staff judge advocate for the 2nd Air Force.

“And I can say that to remove a squadron commander, there does not have to be an allegation of some kind of criminal misconduct,” she added. “A loss of confidence is a sufficient basis to remove a commander.”

The action, which Kenny and others described as rare for the wing, is the latest development in a growing sex scandal involving instructors on the base, home of Air Force basic training.

The three instructors in the 331st Training Squadron and a fourth in another squadron have been accused of improper sexual contact with airmen in basic and technical training. The fourth, Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker, accused of having sexual contact with 10 women and raping one of them, could face life in prison.

A former staff sergeant, Peter Vega-Maldonado, admitted that he had sexual contact with 10 women. His revelation came after he cut a plea bargain that gave him a light jail sentence.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Training-boss-ousted-in-Lackland-scandal-3650765.php#ixzz1ylp4AtbV

 

Number of instructors ousted at Lackland is extraordinary

The Air Force said Monday that it has removed 35 instructors in San Antonio from their jobs in less than a year for a variety of reasons, including illicit sexual conduct.

The one-time head of the service's Security Forces command called the number “extraordinary.”

“For that many people to have been removed from that program, in my knowledge and experience, is unheard of, because the numbers in that period of time are mind-boggling,” retired Brig. Gen. Richard Coleman said Monday.

The 35 instructors make up about 8 percent of the 473 men and women who will train 36,000 recruits in San Antonio this year.

The Air Force revealed the removal number under a federal Freedom of Information Act request by the San Antonio Express-News, saying the instructors at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland had been “temporarily or permanently removed from duty for unprofessional conduct” since last summer.

“I can say this,” said Col. Polly Kenny, staff judge advocate for the 2nd Air Force in Biloxi, Miss. “A majority of the 35 were removed for things other than sexual misconduct.”

The Air Force, which had refused to release the number, began removing the instructors after Col. Glenn Palmer, commander of the 737th Training Group at Lackland, took over July 1, the service's FOIA manager said in his letter to the newspaper.

Just a week before Palmer took command, Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker was removed from his instructor's job over misconduct allegations. He is charged with having illicit sexual conduct with 10 women in basic and technical training, including intercourse with four of them.

But Walker, who faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, was only the start of a sex scandal that is the worst of its kind ever at Lackland, according to base officials, triggering a makeover in training for new instructors and warnings to recruits to be on guard against misconduct.

Walker, Staff Sgts. Kwinton Estacio and Craig LeBlanc, and Airman Peter Vega-Maldonado have been charged with sexual misconduct. The Air Force is studying cases against other instructors, but it won't say how many.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Number-of-instructors-ousted-at-Lackland-is-3626310.php#ixzz1ylnGt6yY

 

Twist in Lackland sex scandal

Months after the Air Force accused an instructor of having illicit sexual contact with 10 women, it is grappling with the stunning revelation that another trainer admitted to improper involvement with 10 other fledgling airmen.

Although Peter Vega-Maldonado admitted in a plea bargain to having sex with one woman after her graduation from basic training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, he told prosecutors after striking the deal that he actually had improper contact with 10 trainees.

The Air Force would not detail what he is alleged to have done.

While Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker, the instructor accused of improper sexual contact with 10 women, could get life in prison, Vega was given 90 days in jail, 30 days of hard labor, reduction in rank from staff sergeant to airman and forfeiture of $500 a month in pay for four months.

He also will be thrown out of the Air Force, but without a bad-conduct discharge.

The Air Education and Training Command's top commander and military legal officials said they're continuing to investigate the growing sex scandal on Lackland, but they declined to say how many instructors are being scrutinized for misconduct. Some of the cases might not involve sexual improprieties.

Gen. Edward Rice Jr. told the San Antonio Express-News he couldn't say much about the cases and stressed that the majority of Lackland's 473 instructors are “great Americans.”

“I think the fact that we continue to identify suspects is indicative of the thoroughness of that investigation,” he said, noting that the Air Force is trying to help Vega's possible victims.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Second-Lackland-trainer-involved-with-10-women-3611696.php#ixzz1ylhUu7ns

 

Two more Lackland instructors face sex charges

The Air Force said today that it has charged two more Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland instructors with having sex with trainees.

So far, four military training instructors, or MTIs, have been charged with improper relationships with trainees at the base, home of Air Force basic training.

One, Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker, is accused of having sexual contact with 10 women in basic and technical training.

The Air Force has called the case the biggest of its kind ever at Lackland.

“There are others as well,” said Brent Boller, a spokesman for Joint Base San Antonio, which provides logistics for Lackland and two other installations here. “These are not connected to the Walker case.”

The latest instructors to be charged are Staff Sgts. Kwinton Estacio and Craig LeBlanc, both assigned to Lackland's 737th Training Group.

Estacio — who's accused of sexual misconduct with a female basic training student, violating a no-contact order and obstruction of justice — will face an Article 32 evidentiary hearing on the base Friday.

LeBlanc is accused of sexual misconduct with two female training students, violating a no-contact order, adultery and obstruction of justice. His Article 32 hearing will be next Tuesday.

The Air Force is not releasing the ages or hometowns of the instructors implicated in the cases, citing federal privacy law.

The growing sex scandal began nearly a year ago when the Air Force launched an investigation in the Walker case. Since then, Walker has faced an evidentiary hearing and had a jury selected in his case.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/2-more-Lackland-instructors-face-sex-charges-3592449.php#ixzz1ylf8uGw3