General pleads guilty to sex-related misconduct
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A military judge Thursday accepted guilty pleas from Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair to a range of misconduct charges, including inappropriate relationships with other soldiers and possession of pornography, ahead of his trial on charges that he sexually assaulted a junior officer with whom he had an extramarital relationship.
After the judge, Col. James L. Pohl, accept
ed the pleas, Army prosecutors said they would dismiss two outstanding counts against Sinclair, including an allegation of maltreatment, which centered on an accusation that he pressured another female captain to provide him with nude photographs. Sinclair,
51, faces up to 15 years in prison on the charges
and could be dismissed from the military.
But the general still faces the more serious charge of sexual assault of a female captain with whom he had an affair, and then threatened her
after she tried to break off their relationship. The court-martial is scheduled to begin today with opening statements before a jury of five generals.als
Sinclair faces a sentence of life imprisonment if convicted of the sexual assault charge.
The decision by Sinclair and his defense team to plead guilty to the lesser charges hinges on their strategy of trying to focus the trial on the credibility of the Army captain, the only person to accuse him of sexual assault.
The defense team asserts that the captain lied under oath during a pretrial hearing in January, and initially fabricated claims after she realized she could be prosecuted for adultery after reporting her affair with the general. One month ago, the former lead prose- cutor on the case quit after telling his superiors that he could not proceed to trial unless the most serious charges were dropped, citing his concerns that the woman had indeed testified untruthfully during the January hearing.
But Army officials have said the former prosecutor, Lt. Col. William Helixon, was under extraordinary stress from health and personal issues when he voiced those misgivings about the witness. They say that the pros
ecution remains convinced that the captain’s account of sexual assault is true.
“We got rid of the charges that should have been the heart of this case,” Richard Scheff, the civilian lawyer from Philadelphia who is leading the defense, said during a news conference outside the courthouse Thursday afternoon. “They’re done, it’s history, and now we’ll fight the accus
er head-on.”