In the News

  • Military Court Acquits Soldier in OMSJ Case

    17 May (Fort Bragg, NC) – After more than 200 days in custody, a US Army sergeant was released this week after a federal court acquitted him of four HIV-related criminal against him.

    If convicted, Sergeant TD faced 37 years in federal prison.

    Army investigators arrested Sgt. TD in 2011 after a former girlfriend accused him of assault and throwing a plastic bottle during an argument. The victim and three other women later learned that he was diagnosed as “HIV-positive” in 2010.

    The evidence against Sgt. TD was overwhelming. Faced…

  • IO recommended dropping serious charges against Staff Sergeant David Bram

    5th Stryker Brigade news
    By Dwight Sullivan

    Tacoma, Washington’s News Tribune reports here that the IO recommended dropping serious charges against Staff Sergeant David Bram in one of the 5th Stryker Brigade cases. (Friend o’ CAAFlog Bill Cassara is Staff Sergeant Bram’s defense counsel.) The IO’s report blamed the command for failing to properly train its soldiers. The article includes this quotation from the IO’s report:

    Based on testimony and evidence provided by officers and (noncommissioned officers) in this case, there is…

  • Officer faults command for “kill team” crimes, recommends dropping charges against sergeant

    by Adam Ashton / The News Tribune

    An Army investigator today recommended that prosecutors drop serious misconduct charges against a Stryker sergeant who allegedly joined discussions about plans to murder Afghan civilians during a deployment last year. Maj. John Tincher found “no reasonable grounds” to believe that Staff Sgt. David Bram plotted to kill Afghans during his deployment with the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division or that Bram planted evidence near the corpse of an Afghan after a shooting that his platoon captain regarded as su…

  • Photos with dead Afghans stirred pride, soldier testifies

    Adam Ashton | Tacoma News Tribune
    Some of the first images in a set of notorious photographs showing soldiers posing with dead Afghans were taken with a sense pride that the Army was fighting and killing its enemy, a Stryker officer testified Thursday. Capt. Roman Ligsay told an Army investigator at Joint Base Lewis-McChord that he posed for one of the pictures in November 2009 even though he knew soldiers were ordered not to take photos of casualties for personal use. He said he felt a “sense of accomplishment” when he saw an Afghan who w…

  • Evans attorney appears in Oscar-nominated movie

    The Columbia County News-Times
    By Jenna Martin
    February 24, 2008

    William Cassara, of Evans, has a role in a film that could receive an Oscar tonight.

    He isn’t an actor. Instead, Cassara’s profession as a lawyer put him on the big screen.

    “It’s pretty neat, actually,” he said, “I was quite surprised to hear it.”

    Cassara lives and works in Evans as a lawyer in private practice, most of which involves representing members of the military.

    It was that kind of work that led him to be filmed for Taxi to the Dark Side , a nominee for …

  • Military Defense Attorney Bill Cassara outwits the CID – Wins Acquittal for GI After Catching Agent in a Flat-Out Lie

    If it weren’t for a smart military defense attorney, an innocent soldier might have ended up in the Leavenworth DB on a phony “rape” charge.

    But civilian lawyer William Cassara (1-800-288-3347) out-smarted the CID when he caught one of their agents in a flat-out lie and detected many inconsistencies in the claims of a young soldier’s female accuser.

    As a result, the GI was acquitted and spared a life-destroying prison sentence for something he didn’t do. However, the unprofessional conduct by the CID unfortunately went unpunished.

    “CON…

  • Army private cleared of Afghan abuse charges

    Court-martial panel acquits Corsetti of mistreating prisoners in Afghanistan
    Associated Press

    FORT BLISS, Texas — An Army private was acquitted Thursday of charges that he abused inmates at a U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan. Pfc. Damien M. Corsetti was the last soldier charged in the Army’s investigations of prisoner abuse in Afghanistan. He cried with relief when the court-martial panel cleared him of charges of assault, maltreatment, dereliction of duty, using hashish and drinking on duty. The panel deliberated about 30 minutes…

  • Court-martial of Ft. Carson GI to go on

    By Arthur Kane
    Denver Post Staff Writer

    A military judge refused Wednesday to dismiss the charges against a Fort Carson soldier accused of killing an Iraqi general during an interrogation.

    Attorneys for Chief Warrant Officer Jefferson Williams argued last week that he is a victim of selective prosecution because two other soldiers in the case might not face charges and a prosecutor compared Williams to a Nazi.

    Defense attorney William Cassara also charged that prosecutors told him Williams would go to trial no matter what evidence is …

  • Documents Tell of Brutal Improvisation by GIs

    By Josh White
    Washington Post Staff Writer

    Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush was being stubborn with his American captors, and a series of intense beatings and creative interrogation tactics were not enough to break his will. On the morning of Nov. 26, 2003, a U.S. Army interrogator and a military guard grabbed a green sleeping bag, stuffed Mowhoush inside, wrapped him in an electrical cord, laid him on the floor and began to go to work. Again.

    It was inside the sleeping bag that the 56-year-old detainee took his last breath through br…

  • Soldier gets 15 months in prison for refusing Iraq duty

    Objector acquitted of more serious charge of desertion

    FORT STEWART, Georgia (AP) — Before being sentenced to 15 months for refusing to return to Iraq with his Army unit, Sgt. Kevin Benderman told a military judge that he acted with his conscience, not out of a disregard for duty.

    “I am not against soldiers,” Benderman said at his court-martial Thursday. “Though some might take my actions as being against soldiers, I want everyone to be home and safe and raising their families. I don’t want anyone to be hurt in a combat zone.”

    Benderm…

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