Taking the Deal Costs Former West Point Cadet
From Courthouse News Service, here:
A former West Point cadet booted . . . after testing positive for cocaine cannot upgrade his discharge status and still owes more than $143,000 in education costs, a federal judge ruled. . . . [Troy] Wilson, a stand-out cadet who tested positive for cocaine in 2007, opted to resign from West Point after being threatened with court-martial. Later, the Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) denied his appeal to be commissioned as an officer, receive back pay and have his discharge upgraded from “other than honorable.” . . .
“The court finds that because he voluntarily resigned instead of contesting the charge leveled against him in a court-martial, Wilson cannot challenge the underlying evidence in this forum,” U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote.
For those that do Correction Board work this is an all too familiar result. The District Court’s decision is available here.
It seems to me that taking the drug is what cost the former cadet.
“I resigned to avoid a court-martial; therefore my resignation was involuntary, and I should win” doesn’t seem like a particularly compelling argument.
Still, if you’ve got nothing else, I guess you have to run with it.
JMTG–If you are in the “colateral review” stage of your Correction Board decision, I’d say most arguments for most petitioners fall into the not particularly compelling category.
Although not specifically stated, I’m inferring from the facts that Cadat Wilson would have argued that topical application of cocaine could have resulted in positive for cocaine use. While personally I don’t buy the argument, there is a decent amount of literature that supports this defense. Its better than innocent ingestion so may be worth a read for defense counsel out there.
Anon @14:55,
I think I have heard that defense before, but it involved a woman using the cocaine on herself to prevent her uncircumcised paramour’s PE issues….unbeknownst to the paramour, of course.
I’ve actually seen it work before. A senior NCO claimed that he was chasing after a bartender, so he would stay behind every night to help her clean up the tables and whatnot. Turns out there was some incidents of drug use at the bar, and his nanogram levels were near the cutoff levels. He testified, had an otherwise clean, cocaine-free record, and the panel bought it.
Still, yeah, if you don’t want the risk of a C-M (totally understand) and tender your resignation then that’s it pal. You’re done.
Nice try though.
@ No Man — no argument there.
I do lots of record correction work. I hate it because the Boards generally can’t or refuse to see beyond their noses. Now and again I am impressed, but it is almost always a Navy case and that analyst retired, leaving a bunch of week sisters. There is a presumption or regularity applied to records correction matters. I have found, over 25 years, however, that there is presumption of laziness, incompetence, and general stupidity that inheres in the decisions because the professional staff is accepts at face value everything the services say without critical examination. It is a sad situation because service members are entitled to more — what Congress envisioned when they created the Boards. Sorry perpetual, professional Board members, it is a fact and I challenge you to speak up in opposition.