Recruiters may face dishonorable discharges
The careers of two Army recruiters may end with dishonorable discharges after their arrests last year on charges of having sex with an Osceola County teenager.
Sgts. Christopher Doner and John Back both face hearings called “separation boards” in the coming months, according to Army spokesman Brian Lepley on Thursday.
In late January, the charges of having sex with a minor were dropped after the teen turned 18 and declined to testify, according to the sheriff’s office.
Both earned about $60,000 a year and already lost their assignments encouraging students at Florida high schools to join the Army.
During the upcoming hearings, a board of Army officers will decide if Doner and Back committed misconduct and what type of discharge they should receive if expelled, according to Lepley. They do not face prison time.
Back’s hearing is set for Thursday in Tampa. The date for Doner’s hearing has not been set. The hearings are not open to the public.
They were arrested in December after the parents of a Harmony High School student told the sheriff’s office their 17-year-old daughter had been having sex for months with Doner, 30, and Back, 33, records show.
Back initially left the state, but sheriff’s detectives tracked him down in Michigan, where he was arrested and extradited back to Kissimmee.
Doner turned himself in to the sheriff’s office.
Their arrests brought last year’s statewide arrests of Army recruiters on sex charges to 10 out of 685 working in Florida. It was four more than in 2013.
Evidence in the case included many text messages on the teen’s cellphone that were “quite explicit and sexual in nature between (her) and both suspects,” according to court records.