The Army has dropped all felony fees in opposition to an armor officer at Fort Cavazos, Texas, who was accused of sexually assaulting a subordinate officer’s spouse in one of many service’s most high-profile and weird instances.
Col. Jon Meredith was fired as commander of the first Armored Brigade Fight Workforce, 1st Cavalry Division, in October of final 12 months. Meredith was accused of forcefully touching and kissing the spouse of one other officer beneath him within the chain of command. As an alternative, Meredith is dealing with a basic officer memorandum of reprimand, or GOMOR after it was found that the encounter was consensual.
“Primarily based on newly found proof, the III Armored Corps commanding basic withdrew and dismissed the felony fees in opposition to Col. Jon Meredith,” Brian Harris, a corps spokesperson, instructed Navy.com in an announcement. “The newly found proof was unrelated to the query of whether or not Col. Meredith engaged in conduct unbecoming an officer.”
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“Whereas Col. Meredith will not face a court-martial for conduct unbecoming an officer, there may be nonetheless adequate proof to help the commanding basic taking applicable administrative motion on the misconduct,” Harris added.
Final month, that commander, Lt. Gen. Sean Bernabe, dropped the abusive sexual contact cost in opposition to Meredith. On Oct. 13, the final felony cost, conduct unbecoming an officer, was additionally dropped.
The newly found proof was textual content messages between the accuser and the husband who labored beneath Meredith, in line with Sherilyn Bunn, Meredith’s lawyer. These messages confirmed investigators that the bodily encounter between Meredith and the accuser was consensual. Nonetheless, the 2 had a falling out when the accuser’s husband acquired a lackluster officer analysis report, or OER.
“Usually, the textual content messages between the accuser and her husband had been concerning the husband’s OER; how he may ‘blow issues up’ if he did not prefer it; and the choice to ‘go nuclear’ as soon as the husband acquired his OER and determined Col. Meredith’s rater feedback would negatively affect his score and his probability of getting promoted ‘beneath the zone,'” Bunn instructed Navy.com.
In the meantime, Col. Ann Meredith, Jon Meredith’s spouse, was fired in March from her place commanding the 89th Navy Police Brigade, additionally at Fort Cavazos, beforehand generally known as Fort Hood. She acquired a GOMOR and was dealing with accusations she interfered in her husband’s investigation. It’s unclear whether or not she’ll see any ramifications on her report in mild of the felony fees in opposition to her husband being dropped.
The accuser and her husband, a field-grade officer, couldn’t be reached for remark forward of publication, so Navy.com is withholding their names. Meredith’s lawyer and Army officers declined to verify their identities.
— Steve Beynon could be reached at Steve.Beynon@navy.com. Observe him on X @StevenBeynon.
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