Tag: adultery

I can understand this guy getting demoted for blatantly violating the UCMJ for many years, but it seems this guy has been punished worse than other senior leaders that have defrauded the government, had highly inappropriate relationships or inappropriately shared classified intelligence.  The ironic thing about this is that if he was having a gay affair it would not have been considered adultery:

The Army has stripped Maj. Gen. David Haight of three ranks, Army Secretary Eric Fanning said Friday, following revelations contained in documents and interviews of Haight’s decade-long extramarital affair and “swinger lifestyle.

A board of his peers called for Haight to be busted to lieutenant colonel, a demotion that will cost him nearly $43,000 per year in pension pay. Fanning, in an interview, said he had accepted the recommendation after a panel of three officers reviewed Haight’s conduct — and his secret second life — and determined that lieutenant colonel was the last rank in which he had served satisfactorily.

Fanning spent hours discussing the case with other general officers and read the investigative report twice before accepting the recommendation, he said.

“He’s going to be retired as a lieutenant colonel,” Fanning said. “Pretty big drop.”  [USA Today]

You can read more at the link.

Here is an update in regards to one of the recent stories of senior military officers getting themselves in serious trouble.  This was the case that was going to be interesting going to trial because his lawyer was using the defense that the adultery regulation in the UCMJ is unfair because it only applies to heterosexual couples.  It would have been interesting to see how that defense would have played out which now we will never know:

The Air Force says a high-ranking officer who was charged with rape has been found dead in his off-base Colorado home.

Colorado Springs police Sgt. Tim Stanke says officers responded to a report of a suicide when they found the body of Col. Eugene Caughey on Sunday. Stanke says police are awaiting autopsy results.

The 46-year-old Caughey had been vice commander of the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base outside Colorado Springs. The unit operates key military satellite systems.

Caughey was charged with adultery, indecent filming or photography, dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer.

Caughey is accused of raping a woman at Schriever Air Force Base, also in Colorado, in late 2014 or early 2015 while “holding her against the wall and floor using physical strength or violence,” court documents stated.

Prosecutors also accused him of photographing his exposed genitals while in uniform and groping women twice.

His court-martial was scheduled for Oct. 17.  [CBS News]

You can read more at the link.

What was this guy thinking if he thought this could be kept under wraps:

Maj. Gen. David Haight, Army Ranger, combat veteran and family man, held a key post in Europe this spring and a future with three, maybe four stars.

He also led a double life: an 11-year affair and a “swinger lifestyle” of swapping sexual partners that put him at risk of blackmail and espionage, according to interviews and documents. Jennifer Armstrong, 49, a government employee, said she and Haight had been involved in the torrid love affair that began more than 10 years ago in Baghdad and ended this spring.

Badly.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see what rank this guy is forced to retire at considering how long we was living this lifestyle.

You would think the adultery charges this guy is facing would be the least of his troubles considering he is charged with rape as well:

Lawyers for a Schriever Air Force Base colonel argued Monday that a half-dozen adultery charges against him should be thrown out because the military’s law banning extramarital sex discriminates against heterosexuals.

Col. Eugene Marcus Caughey is headed for an August court-martial on charges of rape, assault, taking a dirty selfie and the adultery counts. He was in court Monday for a formal reading of the charges and to argue pretrial motions.

Maj. Keith Meister, one of three attorneys defending Caughey, told Air Force judge Col. Wes Moore that the military’s definition of adultery as sex between a man and a woman hasn’t keep place with its definition of marriage, which now includes same-sex couples. That’s because the military’s adultery law requires “sexual intercourse” as an element of guilt, which the Pentagon defines as an act between a man and a woman.

“A homosexual man or woman couldn’t commit adultery as defined,” Meister argued.

Caughey’s defense team maintains that because gay people get a pass, the charges violate the colonel’s rights under the 14th Amendment, which mandates equal protection under law.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read much more at the link, but one way to look at this is that the defense lawyer thinks the rape charge is weak and needs to get the adultery charges dropped because that is what the Air Force could use to really crush this guy.  It will be interesting to see how this case turns out because it could lead to an entire redefinition of what is adultery in the US military.

That is what the writer’s at the Marmot’s Hole tried to determine by signing up for an account and testing to see if the Ashley Madison website is legitimate or not:

Now, according to the claims of Christoph Kraemer, director of international relations for Ashley Madison, “. . . Membership is growing quickest in India, South Korea and Japan.” (cite)
When I read about this, I checked and, yes, the site is accessible now from Korea and does offer support in Korean, however, since there are quite a few complaints of this service being fraudulent.  Several people I know thought that this site was a typical dating scam setup, where there are fake accounts setup just to drawn in the unsuspecting, so we thought it would be a good idea to test this and to ascertain if previous complaints had any merit and the following is what we found.  [Marmot’s Hole]

You can read the rest at the link, but basically they found the site to be misleading with bots posing as women to get people to sign up for accounts.  They never did interact with any real women.  I think their advice of learning some Korean and just being a pleasant person is much better way to meet people in Korea than depending on a website like Ashley Madison.

With the repeal of the adultery law in South Korea, this has opened the door to the reopening of the Ashley Madison website that is used by people looking to have an affair:

A Canada-based website facilitating extra-marital affairs among its clientele is back in business in South Korea, authorities said Tuesday, in what seems to be a quick move after the country’s top court abolished a decades-old anti-adultery law late last month.

Ashley Madison, an online dating site which hooks up married individuals as well as singles, has resumed service for local customers under a new domain, www.ashleymadison.co.kr, the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), the local watchdog for online materials said.

The controversial website, operating in more than 20 countries worldwide, first began its service here last year, luring customers with aggressive marketing until the KCSC banned the site in April, citing the demoralizing nature of the business.

The KCSC, however, lifted the ban on Ashley Madison on Tuesday, following the decision by the Constitutional Court to repeal the anti-adultery law on Feb. 26. [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

The anti-adultery law has been repealed by a South Korean court:

South Korea’s Constitutional Court threw out a decades-old anti-adultery law on Thursday, reflecting a growing importance of personal choice over marital order in a traditionally group-oriented society.

In a 7-2 decision, the nine-member bench ruled that Article 241 of the criminal code was unconstitutional.

“The article violates individuals’ freedom to choose their sexual partners and their right to privacy,” said an opinion presented by five of the justices. “Not only is the anti-adultery law gradually losing its place in the world, it no longer reflects our people’s way of thinking.”

Two other justices supported this view, saying family issues should not be criminal, or even if so, the weight of the penalty should vary according to the intricacy of the matter.

The remaining two justices voiced opposition, saying the law was necessary to protect sexual ethics and the institution of marriage.

Under the landmark ruling, some 5,400 people indicted or convicted of adultery after Oct. 30, 2008, when the law was last upheld, may ask for a suspension of indictment or a retrial.

South Korea had been one of the few remaining countries in Asia that prohibits infidelity, next to North Korea and Taiwan. Extramarital affairs here had been banned under the criminal law since 1953, and before that, only women were held accountable for some fooling around.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but this decision made me think of the good, old Sergeant Han case who was a Camp Red Cloud Non-Commissioned Officer who faced 10 months in prison for adultery and lying about an offer of marriage to his girlfriend.

SGT Han the CRC soldier convicted and sent to Korean prison for cheating on his wife and lieing to his mistress may have his prison sentence reduced if he can pay off his mistress:

After a U.S. soldier in trouble for his relationships with two Korean women offered a $21,500 payment to his wife, a South Korean judge dropped one of two charges against him.

Sgt. Jin-hong Han, an American, pleaded guilty in December to adultery and breaching a promise of marriage.

He was in Uijeongbu District Court on Friday to be sentenced on an appeal decision from Chief Judge Bae Jun-hyun. Han had appealed his sentence, saying he felt remorse for his actions and didn’t realize he was breaking local laws.

The judge dropped the adultery charge after hearing of Han’s settlement offer to his wife.

But Han told the judge that he has yet to find his ex-girlfriend to offer her a similar settlement, a common action common in South Korean criminal cases that can lessen a defendant’s final jail sentence.

What does the mistress think of this?:

Have you ever made any contacts with Kim Hyo-jin? the judge asked Han of his former girlfriend.

Ues, I have, Han said. But I wasn’t able to get through to her. I think that she is not in Korea.

So before issuing a final decision on Han’s current 10-month sentence, the judge gave Han two more weeks, postponing his sentencing until May 26.

Stripes, however, was able to contact Kim on Friday at a telephone number she said she’s used for years. She said she has not heard from Han.

He never intended to make any settlement with him; I never will, Kim told Stripes. Even if he would offer me billions and billions [of] won. I cannot forgive him because he completely destroyed my life and my future.

It looks like SGT Han better get used to jail for a little while longer.