This is probably one of my favorite progressions when reading the results of trial off of the US Navy JAG website.
First, we have the February 2017 bulletin where we see these three STG’s (Surface sonar technicians) went on a bit of a bender and ran around Southern California on a drug binge (I assume):
- At a Special Court-Martial in San Diego California, STGSR Matthew H. Piotrowski, USN pled guilty pursuant to a pretrial agreement to one specification of absence without leave, two specifications of failure to obey a lawful order, and four specifications of wrongful use of a controlled substance. On 10 February 2017, the military judge sentenced him to be discharged with a Bad Conduct Discharge and confinement for 7 months. Pursuant to the pretrial agreement all confinement greater than 60 days is to be suspended for 12 months. The suspended confinement may be served if the Service Member violates the terms of the pretrial agreement.
- At a Special Court-Martial in San Diego California, STGSR Jarred T. Williams, USN pled guilty pursuant to a pretrial agreement to one specification of absence without leave, two specifications of failure to obey a lawful order, and three specifications of wrongful use of a controlled substance. On 10 February 2017, the military judge sentenced him to be discharged with a Bad Conduct Discharge and confinement for 6 months. Pursuant to the pretrial agreement all confinement greater than 60 days is to be suspended for 12 months. The suspended confinement may be served if the Service Member violates the terms of the pretrial agreement.
- At a Special Court-Martial in San Diego California, STGSR Aaron Z. Buchanan, USN pled guilty pursuant to a pretrial agreement to one specification of absence without leave, two specifications of failure to obey a lawful order, and five specifications of wrongful use of a controlled substance. On 13 February 2017, the military judge sentenced him to be discharged with a Bad Conduct Discharge and confinement for 7 months. Pursuant to the pretrial agreement all confinement greater than 60 days is to be suspended for 12 months. The suspended confinement may be served if the Service Member violates the terms of the pretrial agreement.
However, it doesn’t end here for these carousers, because the very next month (March, 2017) we got this little story…
- At a Special Court-Martial in San Diego, California, STGSR Matthew H. Piotrowski, USN pled guilty pursuant to a pretrial agreement to one specification each of absence without leave, breaking restriction, wrongfully possessing drug paraphernalia and four specifications of wrongful use of a controlled substance. On 10 February 2017, the
military judge sentenced him to be discharged with a Bad Conduct Discharge and confinement for 7 months. Pursuant to the pretrial agreement all confinement greater than 60 days is to be suspended. The suspended punishment may be served if the Service Member violates the terms of the pretrial agreement. - At a Special Court-Martial in San Diego, California, STGSR Jarred T. Williams, USN pled guilty pursuant to a pretrial agreement to one specification each of absence without leave, breaking restriction, wrongfully possessing drug paraphernalia and three specifications of wrongful use of a controlled substance. On 10 February 2017, the
military judge sentenced him to be discharged with a Bad Conduct Discharge and confinement for 6 months. Pursuant to the pretrial agreement all confinement greater than 60 days is to be suspended. The suspended punishment may be served if the Service Member violates the terms of the pretrial agreement. - At a Special Court-Martial in San Diego, California, STGSR Aaron Z. Buchanan, USN pled guilty pursuant to a pretrial agreement to one specification each of absence without leave, breaking restriction, wrongfully possessing drug paraphernalia, and five specifications of wrongful use of a controlled substance. On 13 February 2017, the
military judge sentenced him to be discharged with a Bad Conduct Discharge and confinement for 7 months. Pursuant to the pretrial agreement all confinement greater than 60 days is to be suspended. The suspended punishment may be served if the Service Member violates the terms of the pretrial agreement.
Read those carefully. The dates are the same on them for some reason, but the one from February has them AWOL, failing to obey two lawful orders, and five drug violatons. In March it changes to become another AWOL charge, breaking restriction (from February), and four drug counts. The confinement time also goes up the second time around, although the Bad Conduct charge stays the same. Seeing as both instances were “Special Court-Martials”, it would not have been possible for the charges to be increased to a Dishonorable as that punishment can only come from a General Court-Martial.
