An Army lieutenant colonel assigned to the Nationwide Geospatial-Intelligence Company at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, was formally charged this month with 16 counts of home abuse and different violations beneath the Uniform Code of Army Justice, a cost sheet obtained by Army.com revealed.
Lt. Col. Ashley R. Ellis was arraigned in a Fort Belvoir courtroom Feb. 20. The cost sheet particulars how he allegedly beat, harassed and emotionally abused his spouse, doing so on two separate events in entrance of an unnamed youngster, over a nine-month interval between late 2022 and mid-2023 in Chantilly, Virginia, roughly an hour from Fort Belvoir.
The case was referred to normal court-martial Feb. 1. “On the time of the costs, he was a community engineer assigned to the U.S. Army component at NGA,” a spokesperson from the Nationwide Geospatial-Intelligence Company instructed Army.com in an e mail. The company and the Army didn’t present Ellis’ full service file regardless of a request from Army.com.
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On one event in October 2022, Ellis allegedly strangled his spouse by wrapping an arm round her neck and took her telephone from her, in entrance of a kid. On a separate event about two months later in January 2023, he allegedly assaulted his spouse once more when he shoved her right into a automotive and beat her chest and neck together with his elbow.
The day after Valentine’s Day in 2023, Ellis allegedly once more struck his spouse, whom his protection lawyer revealed to be an active-duty Army main. In additional separate incidents famous within the authorized paperwork, between February and late June 2023 Ellis allegedly hit his spouse with a door, took her telephone away whereas holding a holstered gun, hit her at the back of the top, and strangled her.
In June, Ellis allegedly stole his spouse’s beginning certificates, passport and Social Safety card in “an try and intimidate or threaten” her, in keeping with the doc.
Different costs in opposition to Ellis embrace alleged violations of Article 133, conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman, and Article 119b, culpable negligence.
In a single rely, Ellis was claimed to have despatched his spouse a video disparaging her seems and garments, stating, “I suppose my cousin taught you actual good the right way to costume like a ho, proper?” In one other, in entrance of a kid “lower than 16 years of age,” Ellis allegedly referred to as his spouse a “b–ch,” inflicting psychological misery to the kid.
“LTC Ellis categorically denies the allegations in opposition to him and he seems ahead to combating these costs by way of the navy justice system,” Andrew Cherkasky, Ellis’ legal professional and the founding father of New York-based Golden Regulation, instructed Army.com in an e mail. “LTC Ellis is presumed harmless. The allegations in opposition to LTC Ellis had been the results of a considerably delayed report by his estranged partner amidst a bitter divorce course of.”
A request for remark from the prosecution was not answered earlier than publication.
The trial is about to start at Fort Belvoir in Could.
— Rachel Nostrant is a Marine Corps veteran and freelance journalist, with work revealed in Reuters, New York Journal, Army Occasions and extra.
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