Sex scandal sinks a star on the rise as Army demotes, retires general
Former three- star officer down to one for misbehavior
One of the Army’s most promising generals will be demoted to one star and retired after a scandal that involved sex clubs in Seoul and Rome, high- priced booze and indiscretions with young female troops, the Army announced Thursday.
Ron Lewis, who had been a three- star general and top aide to Ash Carter when Carter was Defense secretary, will lose about $ 10,000 a year in pension payments because of the demotion.
The Pentagon inspector general “substantiated allegations that Maj. Gen. Lewis misused his government travel charge card for personal expenses, made false official statements regarding his ( credit card) misuse and engaged in conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman on multiple occasions,” Cynthia Smith, an Army spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Lewis was a high- flying decorated attack helicopter pilot whose ascent to the highest ranks of the Army seemed unlimited. Allegations of an improper relationship with a female subordinate prompted Carter to fire him in 2015.
The devastating report from the Pentagon inspector general detailed particulars that showed Lewis lying about a bar tab of more than $ 1,000 to have it expunged from his government- issued credit card.
Lewis disputed many of the report’s findings. In his rebuttal, Lewis acknowledged mistakes and “errors in judgment” but denied visits to sex clubs and maintained that his relationship with a woman on an official trip to Hawaii with Carter had been mischaracterized.
Lewis lost one star immediately after being fired as Carter’s top aide. The discipline meted out Thursday drops him from a major general to a brigadier general.
That decision follows one last week in which Defense Secretary Jim Mattis approved the decision by the Air Force to claw back two stars from Gen. Arthur Lichte, who was found to have coerced a subordinate officer into sex. Lichte, who is married, said the relationship was consensual.
The military has struggled in the past year with a series of high- profile flameouts of general officers caught up in illicit sex scandals. Chief among them was Maj. Gen. David Haight, the “swinging general,” whose extramarital affair and alternative lifestyle prompted the Army to demote him to lieutenant colonel.
The Haight case, brought to light in a series of stories by USA TODAY, prompted the Army to suspend his clearance to view classified information.
Lewis’ transgressions were more prosaic by comparison: booze, strip clubs and eyebrow- raising relationships with subordinates.
Army investigators found that Lewis spent more than $ 1,100 in April 2015 during a visit to the Candy Bar in Seoul. The bar, in the city’s red- light district known as “Hooker Hill,” had been declared off limits to troops. When questioned about the charge, Lewis denied it was his, the Pentagon challenged the ex- pense and got him a new card.
In October 2015, Lewis ran up a bill of $ 1,755 at the Cica Cica Boom club in Rome. Unable to pay the bill with his debit card, Lewis returned to his hotel with a “female foreign national employee” of the club to get his government credit card. Lewis woke a female subordinate, who told investigators “she thought it was ‘ very odd’ that MG Lewis asked for his ( government credit card) and that she ‘ felt like something wrong was about to happen, but I wasn’t in a place to tell him no.”
A month later, on a trip to Hawaii with Carter, Lewis downed 11 alcoholic beverages with a female enlisted service member, who was also drinking heavily, the inspector general found.