Wednesday, February 27, 2008

What The F**k !!!!!!

One of the stories that I have wanted to blog about and that has festered like a naugahyde boil on your posterior while on patrol has finally made it’s way into my brain enough to put to words.

The Bremerton Sun has run a series (2)of articles in regards to CMC Edward E. Scott, who was granted a OTH(or honorable, depending on where the information is gleaned) discharge following conviction for a sexual predator offense. The Boil part is that because he fulfilled the 20 plus mark in the navy and no one in his upper Chain of command had the intestinal fortitude to COURT MARTIAL this slimy P. O. S.

He walks; without losing any benefit other than not being able to make the 30 yr mark and to continue to surf for child porn on NMCI (Navy Marine Computer idiocy)or (Now My Computer’s Incapable) systems while at work. The fact that he arranged the crime while at work and on an “official” computer should have been enough to nail him and have him keel hauled.

Quoted below are the two articles from the Bremerton Sun, and the Time line of this ass hat’s crime. I just don’t understand why the Skipper didn’t have someone skin this guy and nail his hide in a public place as a warning to all others to dare not to tread.

I usually don’t go on a “Khaki” rant very often, because I have worked from some damn good men who make the Anchor’s count. But this smacks of some CYA and Good Old Boys taking care.

Read the articles, Formulate your own opinion, Post Comments; I want to hear from you.

BREMERTON
The Navy has granted an honorable discharge to a former Naval Base Kitsap command master chief who was convicted last year of attempted child rape.
Edward E. Scott, 44, once the local base's highest enlisted man, was arrested after a sting operation in which an officer posed as the mother of young twins in an online forum. Scott was met by police at a Bremerton motel where he had arranged to have sex with what he believed was the mother and both children.
Convicted and sentenced in June to nine months in jail and three years of intensive sexual deviancy treatment, Scott retired from formal service in the Navy on Jan. 31.
His rank was reduced to senior chief petty officer, but he was allowed to retire with benefits.
Discharge records are covered under the Navy's privacy act. Naval Base Kitsap spokesman Tom Danaher could not comment, but the Kitsap Sun has reviewed a report confirming Scott's status that has circulated through the criminal justice system.
The result is surprising to Kevin McDermott, a former Navy Judge Advocate who's worked in military law since 1978. He now practices in California, and has most recently defended war crimes suspects from the Iraq war.
"I don't know if I've ever heard of a serviceman being convicted of a sex crime, getting an honorable discharge," he said.
Scott, who served 25 years, chatted from his home and work computers with an undercover detective posing as a mother of twin 12-year-olds in early 2007. The detective arranged a meeting with Scott for sex at a Bremerton hotel before work March 16.
Detectives arrested him, and a month later he pleaded guilty to attempted child rape and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes, both felonies. Though he faced a 90-month sentence, a Superior Court judge allowed Scott to opt for a nine-month sentence if he would undergo treatment.
The Navy wouldn't comment on what proceeded internally before his retirement was completed. But McDermott said that according to protocol Scott would have had a hearing before a commanding officer, perhaps a captain or admiral, who would have likely conducted what's known as a "mast" hearing.
Such a hearing would have given his commanding officer the authority to reduce him one rank — which did occur — and to take away a limited amount of pay as well as restrict him to a base or quarters for a limited span of time.
However, his commanding officer could have referred Scott to a court martial, where he could have faced a dishonorable discharge, or a Navy "administrative separation board," which could result in a slightly less harsh bad conduct discharge.
Ultimately, McDermott said, the Navy could have tried him again for the same crimes as were filed in the civilian Kitsap County Superior Court, as the concept of double jeopardy doesn't exist in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
In actuality, Scott was demoted one rank, honorably discharged, and retired with the benefits of the senior chief rank. He's due to finish the sexual deviancy treatment in March 2010, according to court documents filed in Kitsap County Superior Court.
The Navy's decision sends the wrong message to servicemen and women everywhere, said Glenn Maiers, a retired Naval Base Kitsap senior chief petty officer.
"What does that tell the (lower ranks)? The higher up in pay grade you are, the more you can get away with," he said.
Part of a wider trend, McDermott contends the Navy and the armed forces have not been "coming down as hard" on service members post-September 11th. From the military's point of view, the best theory McDermott has on the rationale is simply: "We need bodies."
In Scott's case, McDermott believes his honorable discharge could be a result of "karma." His long and successful career were simply too vast to overlook.
Scott, who joined the Navy in 1982, served as command master chief of not only Naval Base Kitsap, but also the USS Camden and the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group. His tour of duty has included time in Guam, Hawaii, Whidbey Island and San Diego.
He was the recipient of the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and Good Conduct Medal.
"(His command) said, 'Thank you very much for your long and hard work,'" McDermott posited. "We're going to give you one tremendous kiss when you go."
TIMELINE
Feb. 12
Edward Scott enters "fetish12" a Yahoo! chat room, and meets "navydubletruble," a detective posing as a Navy wife. The topic turns to sex, involving the "Navy Wife's" fictitious 12-year-old twin children.
March 13
Scott tells the undercover detective to get a Bremerton motel room "with two beds."
March 16
Before work, the then-Command Master Chief of Naval Base Kitsap goes to a local motel in Bremerton at 5 a.m. He is met by Bremerton Police Detectives, who arrest him and interview him downtown.
March 19 and 20
Scott makes his first appearances in court after being jailed, as prosecutors file charges against him.
April 19
Scott pleads guilty to immoral communication with a minor and attempted rape of a child in Kitsap County Superior Court.
June 18
After delays, Judge Leonard Costello sentences Scott to a nine-month jail stay and a 3-year sex offender treatment program, known as a "special sex offender sentencing alternative."
Jan. 31
After completing his jail time, Scott is allowed to retire from the Navy under an honorable discharge — with one reduction in rank and no loss of benefits.




BREMERTON
The U.S. Navy has released new information on the discharge of a former command master chief convicted of attempted child rape, indicating that his official discharge status is "other than honorable."
The new information contradicts a document from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service stating that Edward E. Scott, 44, was to receive an honorable discharge.
Both discharge statuses allow Scott to retain his full retirement benefits, which would only have been lost had he received either a bad conduct or dishonorable discharge.
The Kitsap Sun sought comment from the Navy numerous times before reporting Sunday on the information in the NCIS document. The Navy refused to comment or indicate that the NCIS document was not authoritative.
The Navy bypassed its own privacy act Thursday to release details on Scott's discharge status, and Friday allowed the Kitsap Sun to review Scott's "Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty," or DD 214, which the Pentagon says is the authoritative source on Scott's retirement. Earlier in the week the Pentagon had denied access to the DD214, and would not respond to questions about the information it contained. After consulting the Pentagon's lawyers, Jeff A. Davis, U.S. Navy commander and assistant chief for information at the Pentagon, said the Navy "concluded that the Scott case is of notoriety and interest and that the public's need to know outweighed his privacy interests."
There are other stipulations of his retirement, Davis said. Scott cannot be recalled to active duty for any purpose, and he is barred from most facilities on Navy Region Northwest installations. His retirement entitles him use of medical and dental offices and the commissary, or grocery store. He must also notify a commanding officer when he does go to those places.
But it is the decision to allow Scott to retain retirement benefits that has drawn strong criticism from retired Navy officers and others in online military communities in wake of the initial report.
The initial report of Scott's retirement benefits was cited in a Naval Criminal Investigative Service document obtained through a public records request and does not list the "other than honorable" discharge. Dated Feb. 1, 2008, the "report of investigation" document states that Lt. Ben Pickens, a Navy Judge Advocate General, advised that "Scott applied for his retirement and the military determined he will be given an honorable discharge as an E-8 (or senior chief) with full benefits."
Melanie Reeder, spokeswoman for Navy Region Northwest, said the NCIS documents are "internal reports" and are subject to revision. She reiterated that Scott's DD 214, which does not have a specific date listed on it along with Scott's signature, is the authority on his retirement.
The Navy was faced with an unusual and uncommon decision in Scott's case, said Kevin McDermott, a former Navy Judge Advocate who's worked in military law since 1978. How do they discharge Scott, formerly the highest enlisted man in Naval Base Kitsap and a 25-year service member, despite his sex convictions?
"What they usually do is say 'here is your resignation letter, go home, you're done,'" he said.
Scott could have been court-martialed for the crimes along the way — at his arrest, during his guilty plea, or at his release from jail — but the Navy chose not to go that route, which could have led to a bad conduct or dishonorable discharge without benefits.
That decision would have been made by his command at Navy Region Northwest, Davis said.
But, as McDermott notes, "Somebody made that call."
Scott was arrested following a Naval Criminal Investigative Service sting in which an officer posed as a mother of 12-year-old twins in an Internet chat room in February 2007. Scott requested that the undercover officer get a motel room, and when he arrived there in an early morning rendezvous last March at a Bremerton hotel, he was arrested by authorities.
He pleaded guilty to communication with a minor for immoral purposes and attempted child rape in April, and under a special sentencing alternative, was granted a nine-month jail stay in an agreement to undergo three-year intensive sexual deviancy treatment.

6 comments:

bothenook said...

that sick bastard should have been nailed to the main gate, with a sign around his neck "SPIT ON ME".
shame on his command for not pressing charges to shitcan that dude.
bad apples are bad apples.

blunoz said...

Boggles my mind they didn't court martial him. I believe from the second article that he got an OTH, which means he had to go to an admin board. NJP can't give him an OTH. At the same time, an admin board can't give him a BCD - that requires a court martial. OTH does have some significant negative impacts on his future, but I would have referred the case to court martial. Court martial could have busted him more than just one paygrade and could have given him the NJP. Being a master chief, he was probably smart to realize that fact and NOT elect to receive a court martial and just took his lumps at Captain's Mast.

Anonymous said...

I am dumbfounded, but it's not entirely original.

Just after I left the Groom Team for CivLant, a STSCS (an asshole) I knew there got chummy with a female Pho-trog-graphers Mate who worked for him (SSEP has PHs to calibrate the scopes for missions). She was a golden girl in the command, and everyone kissed her ass. And this STSCS did as well - literally. They were busted having sex in a classroom at Nimitz Hall.

She was NOT busted, but she was sent elsewhere. The STSCS, who had put in his papers to retire, was courtmartialled the day BEFORE he retired. He was busted to E-6, and recieved an OTH.

The most a-fucking-mazing thing was somehow he kept his clearance. How do I know? I saw him down at EB one night working for another defense contractor on the Virginia class. We saw eachother, but that was about it.

Nereus said...

Nook, I am there with you. I like your idea.

Blunoz, you have a better grasp of the full in-and-out of Navy law. From my prospective, I know that if this had been a "Dirty blue shirt" he would have been ridden out of town on a rail and shown the gate. This P.O.S. Should have had the same treatment.
If he had been caught with a minor crime (DUI, for example) He should have been taken out of the chain and dealt with, and shown the door with his Retirement, But we are talking a convicted Pedophile Sex crime, and what should have been a felony. Added, he did it on GOVT time and Equipment.
Instead, Because he was a senior "Khaki" they allowed him an easy out to avoid a fuss and let him have his Ret. for his previous "Service" (IMHO, was erased the minute he started to formulate a plan to meet in this hotel)

Sonarman, Thanks for stopping by, Yes, I know the shanangahns that go down. Depends on where you are in the food chain and how much Kiester you kiss on your overall punishment. If you hold the line, Do your job... you get in trouble you will take your lumps hard because you have probably pissed someone in the NJP process off. On the other hand, If you spend your time kissing kiester and not doing your job. You are quietly shuffled out the door.

The Security issue is a whole other story. A few years ago, I had a neighbor who was a Yard bird in the Nuc side of the house, I Spent quite a bit of time with the county NARC's because he was dealing Meth out of his house. He was busted, and GO figure, Not fired, still working not only in a clearance job, But a Nuc job.

Anonymous said...

I'm with bothenook. I served under a skipper back in fittyawtseven and eight that damn sure would have fried his balls.

I got out after 4 years with a lesson that served me well that I learned on the BREAM. Hold everyone to the same standard. End of discussion. That certainly doesn't seem to be the way things are now.

blunoz said...

Nereus, I couldn't agree with you more. I think he deserved a court martial and a harsher sentence than what he got for all the reasons you mentioned. Not sure why his command felt like he deserved the NJP vice a court martial.