Head of Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit charged with sexual battery

[Plow]

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...rld&id=9093036

May 7, 2013 (ARLINGTON, Va.) -- An Air Force officer who led the branch's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit has been charged with groping a woman in a northern Virginia parking lot, authorities said Monday.

Arlington County Police said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski of Arlington faces a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery following an alleged assault about 12:30 a.m. Sunday in the Crystal City area of the county.

A police report says that the 41-year-old Krusinski was drunk and grabbed a woman's breast and buttocks. Police say the woman fought him off and called police.

Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck says Krusinski did not know the woman involved.

Susie Doyle, a spokeswoman for the Arlington County Sheriff's Office, said Krusinski was released Sunday on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond. An arraignment is scheduled for Thursday.

A working phone number for Krusinski could not be found Monday and court records did not list an attorney.

Air Force spokeswoman Natasha Waggoner said Krusinski was removed from his post in the sexual assault unit after the Air Force learned of his arrest. He started in the post in February.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has spoken with Air Force Secretary Michael Donley about the matter and "expressed outrage and disgust over the troubling allegations and emphasized that this matter will be dealt with swiftly and decisively," Pentagon press secretary George Little said in a statement Monday.

The spokesman said Hagel has been trying to raise the Pentagon's focus on sexual assault prevention and response, and will soon announce new steps to address "this vile crime."

"Sexual assault has no place in the United States military," Little said. "The American people, including our service members, should expect a culture of absolutely no tolerance for this deplorable behavior that violates not only the law, but basic principles of respect, honor, and dignity in our society and its military. Secretary Hagel is firmly committed to upholding the highest standards of behavior in America's armed forces and will take action to see this through."

An Air Force website says the "Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program reinforces the Air Force's commitment to eliminate incidents of sexual assault through awareness and prevention training, education, victim advocacy, response, reporting and accountability."

The website continues: "Sexual assault is criminal conduct. It falls well short of the standards America expects of its men and women in uniform."

Krusinski's arrest comes as the military continues to wrestle with how best to handle reports of sexual assault and other sexual misconduct.

Outrage over an Air Force officer's decision to overturn a jury's guilty verdict in a separate sexual assault case has prompted Republicans and Democrats to join forces on ambitious legislation to change the military justice system.

Lawmakers have interpreted Hagel's recent proposal to essentially strip commanding officers of their ability to reverse criminal convictions of service members as an opening to revise the decades-old Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Congress repeatedly has challenged the military's lack of resolve in fighting sexual assault in its ranks, an offense considered far more prevalent than the reported cases of 3,192 in 2011, the most recent figure available. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that because so few victims report the crime, the real number is closer to 19,000 assaults.

Also, the Air Force recently said it had disciplined five former commanders at a Texas base for not reporting problems quickly or taking appropriate action in what has turned into the military branch's worst sex scandal.

The confirmation came as the 18th military trial in the scandal started Wednesday. A former wing commander, a former group commander and three former squadron commanders, as well as a senior noncommissioned officer, were disciplined last fall after an investigation into instructor sexual misconduct at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, officials said. In some cases, they said, a commander was not informed of problems in a timely manner and at other times a commander didn't take appropriate action after knowing about a problem.

(Copyright ©2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

tl:dr dude's been in charge of air force sexual assault prevention unit for about 2 months, got drunk and grabbed some chick he didn't know's tits and ass in a parking lot


is it can be deal with worthless rapist trash time now?

[Plow]

also, results:

[Mazmaz]

inb4 Chari.

Also, this reminds me to go watch The Invisible War

[GoggleHead]

This seems like a case of the foxes watching the hen house. Symptom of a larger problem.

[Churchill]

if this is rape, i am raped all of the time

also, officers cant reverse civilian convictions, lol. terrible reporting.

[Callisto]

What part of the article 1) calls it a rape and 2) implies that they can overturn civilian convictions? Only terms I see are 'assault/battery' and 'criminal conviction'.

[Plow]

He's just really not bright. It actually specifically states the overturning thing was an issue with the military justice system, it's just that it takes a reading comprehension level above kindergarten to read entire sentences.


also the connection of the guy in charge of rape prevention violently groping at women to the point they have to physically fight him off to the rampant problem of rape in the military is a tough one to make

[Callisto]

also apparently military women hit hard, remind me to limit my unwanted sexual advances to civvies

[Churchill]

Outrage over an Air Force officer's decision to overturn a jury's guilty verdict in a separate sexual assault case has prompted Republicans and Democrats to join forces on ambitious legislation to change the military justice system.

Lawmakers have interpreted Hagel's recent proposal to essentially strip commanding officers of their ability to reverse criminal convictions of service members as an opening to revise the decades-old Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Bad journalism. Officers can't overturn civilian court rulings.

Plow calls it rape because its plow, don't fall into the web callisto. he is etched in an everlasting battle of trying to fuck a football.

[Callisto]

uhhh you still lost me, the only thing I see wrong in there is that they referred to the tribunal as a 'jury'

[Lucavi]

Absolutely an issue of the fox watching the henhouse. How much of this kinda stuff is going to have to go public before something is done? Hell, what -CAN- be done? How does this not get swept under a rug of the usual "we'll see justice done" PR rhetoric that comes flying out?

[Churchill]

I'll be more clear since you aren't plow.

The article is pretty vague as to what it is referencing (and was aired on TV similarly here) when it mentions Gen. Franklin reversing LTC Wilkerson's conviction. It probably would have taken less words to be accurate than it was to be misleading. When I heard it on the news I was given the impression they were discussing CO's having the ability to just say fuck it, he's not going to jail. While we may do that overseas we certainly can't do it here.

I admit I may be reading too much into it because I wouldn't (or anyone I know) refer to UCMJ as criminal court because stateside that is actually handled by civilian courts. You are also punished via UCMJ and most CO's defer to the civilian courts, though sometimes not.

[Churchill]

Absolutely an issue of the fox watching the henhouse. How much of this kinda stuff is going to have to go public before something is done? Hell, what -CAN- be done? How does this not get swept under a rug of the usual "we'll see justice done" PR rhetoric that comes flying out?

I would actually just remove women from the military as they don't belong there. Set up brothels, be done with it.

[Callisto]

I'll be more clear since you aren't plow.

The article is pretty vague as to what it is referencing (and was aired on TV similarly here) when it mentions Gen. Franklin reversing LTC Wilkerson's conviction. It probably would have taken less words to be accurate than it was to be misleading. When I heard it on the news I was given the impression they were discussing CO's having the ability to just say fuck it, he's not going to jail. While we may do that overseas we certainly can't do it here.

I admit I may be reading too much into it because I wouldn't (or anyone I know) refer to UCMJ as criminal court because stateside that is actually handled by civilian courts. You are also punished via UCMJ and most CO's defer to the civilian courts, though sometimes not.

I grant that semantically they did a poor job of referring to UCMJ decisions as 'criminal convictions', but I barely follow this stuff at all and even I knew immediately that they referring to the Wilkerson case(I didn't know the case by name but anyone who has glanced at the news in the last month probably was at least vaguely aware of the case itself). I don't believe it's all that misleading, even if they can only do it overseas it's probably not something they should be able to do anywhere and is still a cause for concern.

[Churchill]

They can only do it with UCMJ, it was prosecuted criminally by UCMJ because it happened overseas (or on post, I don't really know the details. Kuishen might). That's the only reason he had the power to overturn it and personally I don't disagree with it. What he decided to use his power for may have been a bad decision but the power exists for other reasons than this one guy.

[Plow]

again, if you can't make the extremely simple connection it requires to realize I wasn't saying this was rape, you are in fact thinking at a roughly kindergarten level


but go ahead, grasp at straws to defend the honor of your favorite institution's policy of rape allowance by attempting to insult the messenger


maybe we should get you a pope hat

[Churchill]

[Callisto]

They can only do it with UCMJ, it was prosecuted criminally by UCMJ because it happened overseas (or on post, I don't really know the details. Kuishen might). That's the only reason he had the power to overturn it and personally I don't disagree with it. What he decided to use his power for may have been a bad decision but the power exists for other reasons than this one guy.

I'm legitimately curious as to the the positive aspects of a rule that allows someone who has been determined to be guilty of something that would get them jailtime States-side to be fully pardoned by one person's discretion just because it perpetrated overseas, not being snide I'm just wondering what you think the good uses of it would be.

[Xno Kappa]

I'm legitimately curious as to the the positive aspects of a rule that allows someone who has been determined to be guilty of something that would get them jailtime States-side to be fully pardoned by one person's discretion just because it perpetrated overseas, not being snide I'm just wondering what you think the good uses of it would be.

It's a vestigial policy before any autonomous military investigative agency like CID or OSI were put in place. Prior to that, an investigation into any violation of the UCMJ fell directly onto the chain of command. JAG has made it a point several times over the years to the DODIG that action commanders should be stripped of their discretionary powers in reference to a court-martial.

[Plow]

cuz sometimes you can't hold soldiers responsible for insane shit they do or else they might start having to think about what they do before they do it, and we can't have that