NEW DETAILS: Congress presses ahead with military sexual assault prosecution changes
Jun. 23—A day after the joint chiefs presented united opposition to sweeping changes in how the military prosecutes sexual crimes, members of Congress, including Dayton's congressman, reiterated their support for a bill that would enact such changes.
The joint chiefs and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III are at loggerheads over reforms that would remove from the chain of command the decision to prosecute uniformed members for the military for sexual crimes.
Current legislation in this arena has the support of two-thirds of all senators, a filibuster-proof majority.
Supporters, such as U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, say the change would combat the growing problem of sexual assault and harassment in the military.
Turner's bill, the Vanessa Guillén Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, mirrors the Senate bill, shifting the decision to prosecute serious felony crimes from the chain of command and placing that call in the hands of trained, independent military prosecutors.
"We will pass this bill this year," said U.S. Rep Jackie Speier, D-Calif., chair of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee.
Turner, a Dayton Republican, noted that members of both parties on both sides of Congress support the proposal.
"When we have a system that has failed victims, everyone is failed, because everyone is a potential victim," Turner said at a press conference at the Capitol Wednesday.
Turner cited the 2007 rape and murder case of Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach, 20, whose family lived in Vandalia.
In May 2007, Lauterbach accused a fellow Marine corporal, Cesar Laurean, of sexually assaulting her at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Commanders denied her request for a transfer, and in December that year, Lauterbach was murdered and was buried in a shallow grave in the backyard of Laurean's home.
In August 2010, a North Carolina jury found Laurean guilty of murdering Lauterbach, who had been eight months pregnant at the time of her death.
His voice growing thick with emotion, Turner said Wednesday: "Today I dedicate my amendment to this bill to Maria Lauterbach."
In April, a sexual assault charge was referred to general court-martial in the case of Air Force Maj. Gen. William Cooley, former commander of Air Force Research Laboratory, which is headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) Commander Gen. Arnold Bunch Jr. referred against Cooley one charge under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, including three specifications of sexual assault under Article 120 against Cooley. Article 120 concerns sexual assault.
AFMC has not yet announced a time and place for the court-martial.
Turner's bill concerns all serious, high-level felonies, not confining itself to sexual crimes. The congressman is co-chair of Congress's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response caucus.
In expressing his opposition this week, Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote that removing commanders from the prosecution decision process "may have an adverse effect on readiness, mission accomplishment, good order and discipline, justice, unit cohesion, trust, and loyalty between commanders and those they lead."
However, he also wrote that "in the specific and limited circumstance of sexual assault, I remain open-minded to all solutions."
Despite concerns from the joint chiefs, Austin late Tuesday said the Pentagon will work with Congress to amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
