Hovey Safe Burgulars Caught

You have to read this entire article in today’s Stars and Stripes to really appreciate how stupid this criminal is:

On Dec. 18, Dwelly was hanging out with Pfc. Juan Antonio Rivera.

“[Rivera] asked me if I wanted to ‘do’ the Iron Triangle, and I said all right,” Dwelly testified.

Dwelly and Rivera pushed open a door of the Camp Hovey club together. They found two safes and carted them on a dolly to an abandoned barracks.

The next day, they discovered one of the safes was unlocked. Rivera — who officials say will likely be court-martialed as well — bought a tool at the post exchange to bust open the other safe. The two split the $15,000 inside the safes, Dwelly said.

Read the whole thing because this is not even half the story. Stupid criminals are always the easiest to catch. His sob story didn’t seem to work to well either considering he received three and half years in jail.

He did get some time reduced from his sentence due to improper confinement by his command back at Camp Hovey:

Military judge Col. Gregory Gross ruled Thursday that three incidents involving Pvt. Bud L. Dwelly’s command, a criminal investigator and the Camp Humphreys confinement facility were unlawful.

Each action violated Article 13 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Gross ruled, and they earned Dwelly 36 extra days’ credit for time served toward the 42-month prison sentence given during his court-martial Thursday.

Those extra 36 days bring Dwelly’s total to 128 days of pre-trial confinement.

Article 13 bars anyone from punishment other than arrest and confinement before a trial; it also prevents punishment any harsher than that required to ensure the person’s presence.

Prior to his transfer to Camp Humphreys facility in March, Dwelly slept on the floor of his Camp Hovey barracks common quarters area without bedding or hygiene products, using pipe insulation as a pillow, according to his testimony.

Capt. Henry Opolot, Dwelly’s commander, testified that he put Dwelly on 24-hour watch in the common area because weapons found in Dwelly’s room “were indicators of future criminal activity.”

Opolot said he also considered the half-Korean soldier a flight risk. He said he did not know that Dwelly hadn’t been sleeping in a cot, had little entertainment and hadn’t been allowed to shower during the first two days of confinement.

I have seen this happen before, but just because someone is suspected of a crime doesn’t mean you can lock them down.  Remember innocent until proven guilty.  The commander can remove pass priviledges which means the soldier can’t leave their installation or even the immediate company area but they still have to access to places like the chow hall, church, clothing sales, etc.  Also you cannot put guards on their doors or have people follow them around everywhere.  This is still considered unlawful confinement.