Adultery charges against 5 Marines at Camp Pendleton

MARINE CORPS COMES DOWN HARD ON 5 LINKED TO ADULTERY
Staff sergeants claim they were falsely accused and couldn’t get a fair trial
UT San Diego
By Gretel C. Kovach
JUNE 2, 2013

As the armed forces put the spotlight on sexual misconduct, the Marine Corps is kicking five senior noncommissioned officers from Camp Pendleton out of the military because of accusations of adultery and fraternization with a female lance corporal.

The staff sergeants, dismissively called “The Fab Five” by some on base, said they have been falsely accused by the woman, who is not being named because she has not been charged with a crime. They said they are unable to receive a fair trial, even in front of a jury of fellow Marines, because of undue influence from their commanding general and pressure to eradicate sexual misconduct.

According to court documents, the woman was in the process of being separated from the Marine Corps for drug use and was in intensive outpatient treatment for suicidal depression before the allegations came to light.

Other Marines reported in March that she was sexually involved with several male colleagues in Communications Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 17, 1st Marine Logistics Group.

The woman had reported being raped by her Marine recruiter and abused on other occasions before she joined the military in 2010. After the command began investigating her relationships in the company, she tried to commit suicide again by cutting her arm with a kitchen knife in the Camp Pendleton barracks, according to court documents.

Adultery, like oral sex with one’s spouse or anyone else, is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The command recommended that the woman who said she had sex with the “Fab Five” be charged with fraternization and adultery. Others apparently decided the woman had experienced enough troubles.

The night before her third suicide attempt, she sent a text to one of the defendants, saying: “I should just burn in hell. I don’t want to live and I don’t know when to say ‘no’ because I just want to fit in and be nice. All I want is a nice house, a husband who adores me and beautiful healthy children. I just want to be normal, and apparently I am an outcast.”
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