And that was the reason why my case was handled the way it was., Well after midnight, with Paddys about to close down, Vallejo invited Scanlon and Tina to the after-afterparty at a place he called Warehouse 13. Thinking it was some kind of lounge or club, they took a cab to the location on Worth Street in downtown Fayetteville, only to find that it was literally a warehouse. Everything revolved around drinking booze and hooking up. On one occasion, she says, she had to hide in the bathroom after he walked into a tavern in Southern Pines. Over those five years, it paid out grants totaling $187,143. The doctrine, long a target of legislative reform, bars soldiers and sailors and Marines from recovering damages resulting from wrongful acts by the military. I dont see how anyone could have believed that consensual sex occurred there., When she finished using the toilet and opened the door, she was startled to find Vallejo standing right there. On the way to the staff sergeants house, where shed spend the night, she looked at her phone and saw that Vallejo had sent her a text: How are you? He always had something in his hand, Locklear says. Scanlon and Tina arrived at Macs shortly before 10 p.m. A number of motorcycles were parked out front. At the time Lavignes path crossed Scanlons, his cocaine habit was firmly established, but he remained a team member in good standing on Delta Force, and still had a clean arrest record in Cumberland County. The main one came back and said, Because it occurred in Fayetteville, we cant help you.. Scanlon maintains that her case was mishandled. During a stretch of Janes military career, her social and professional circle overlapped with the five men, who made up the core of the motorcycle club, all active-duty soldiers on Delta Force. This is classic, let's cover it up. Finally, on June 25, 2018, the court-martial convened: United States v. Sergeant First Class Cristobal Vallejo. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, Vallejo, dressed in camouflage cargo shorts and a T-shirt, was tall, lean, strong, and fiercely handsome, with a black beard and shaggy brown hair much longer than most soldiers get to wear. The nurse took swabs from Scanlons vagina and cervix, and collected as evidence her soiled underwear. That August, two investigators, Maj. Brent Goodwin and Arthur Chancellor from CID, paid a visit to the Leshikar family. Leshikar was found by police officers and the medical examiner in a prone position with multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and neck. They even took his license plates off., Billy, we love you and will miss you, the Coast x Coast club posted to its Instagram page two days later. Instead, her aunt and grandmother relayed what she described. And that was the reason why my case was handled the way it was. (Phyllis B. Dooney for Rolling Stone). And no one seems to know quite why. from 67] house in Fayetteville, he had shot and killed his closest friend, a Green Beret named Mark Leshikar, with whom he had been drinking and doing drugs for days on end during a family vacation to Disney World. When USASOC announced Lavigne's death, and homicide, at a training area on Fort Bragg this month, Leshikar's mother described her reaction: When I found out he died, I wasn't happy, it made me sick. That is not accurate, a spokesman for Army CID, Jeffrey Castro, writes in a statement. A third juror asked the nurse who did the rape kit, In your experience, is it abnormal for the victim to smile in an exam photo?, Scanlon was called in for the reading of the verdict. On March 21, 2018, at his Anhinga Drive home, LaVigne shot to death his friend, Army Sgt. The hard-partying antics of the Coast x Coast club could certainly be seen as a manifestation of that sort of attitude, a sense of exemption from ordinary strictures and petty rules. She looked up and saw Scanlon emerge from the warehouse and start toward the only outlet to the street, a narrow strip of dirt parallel to the train tracks. No arrests have been made nearly five months after a Special Forces soldier and veteran were found dead Dec. 2, at Fort Bragg, an official said last week. Because otherwise I would not be using a port-a-potty., She went outside and crossed the blacktop to where the toilet was set up against the exterior wall of a metal building. . How the Army Finds Out Who Has What It Takes to Join Delta Force . She yelled something unintelligible before disappearing. Its possible that it was expunged, a clerk tells me. The third was a superficial grazing wound across the left side of his neck, the bullet arching at a 45-degree downward angle, the bullet passing from back to front. Reach Jack Murphy:jack@connectingvets.comor@JackMurphyRGR.Want to get more connected to the stories and resources Connecting Vets has to offer? He busted a few rounds in the direction of Ian Detar, an inveterate burglar who has no fewer than 29 mug shots on file with the county. She was just five years old at the time of her father's death. The blond 25-year-old from suburban Phoenix had secured a lieutenants slot in the storied 82nd Airborne Division thanks to the good offices of one of her ROTC instructors at the University of Arizona. Soldier and veteran found dead at Fort Bragg were BOTH 'being He was charged with a felony for allegedly harboring an escapee. US report shows China taking steps toward space dominance, Biden to allow Afghans to stay longer in US, sources say, Michigan expands absentee voting for military members, Some companies charge hefty fees to help vets with disability claims, Meet 12M+, the new community app for military spouses, Your next tech and incoming AI | Defense News Weekly Full Episode 4.28.2023, Home Improvement Loans What are my options? Scanlon was on the stand for eight hours, she says. There are a dozen-plus local-news hits under his Anglicized name, Cris Valley, and a simple Google search turns up numerous photos and videos of him. Thats a significant omission, because Scanlons case is also a signal example of another systemic issue in the military: the entitled attitudes and hard-partying lifestyles of some elite soldiers more than two decades into the war on terrorism; the apparent breakdown in good order and discipline in the Special Forces in recent years, with rising instances of alleged criminality among Green Berets and Navy SEALs; and the special treatment often accorded to special operators by civilian and military law enforcement in and around Fort Bragg. soldier who had been accused of rape, and published his photo. A Defense Department memorandum noted that Lavigne wasn't credible but Leshikar's death was in the line of duty, while the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office described it as "justifiable homicide." Leshikar's family has alleged evidence was tampered with and that Lavigne called another Delta Force Operator to come to the scene. Special Forces soldier, William Lavign, who was found - KonnieMoments Cumberland County sheriffs deputies named him as a suspect on incident reports for crimes including possession of cocaine and crack paraphernalia, weapons infractions, hit-and-run, harboring an escapee, maintaining a dwelling place to manufacture a controlled substance, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Another struck hit him in his right side. Once out of uniform, Scanlon began to meet advocates, lawyers, and people knowledgeable about sexual assault in the military. William J. Lavigne II, 37, was one of two men found dead Dec. 2 in a training area on Fort Bragg, N.C., the Army said in a statement. The nurse who did the rape kit noted in her report that Scanlons eyes were red and her makeup was smeared. Those guys, they would drink, and they would need to have sex, she says. A Defense Department memorandum based on the Cumberland County Sheriff's report revealed additional inconsistencies. At times, she observed their operations on a video feed. He learned to read and understand Arabic, but could not speak it. Four .45-caliber shell casings were found at the scene. Sketchy-looking, Scanlon describes it, comparing it to a rundown CrossFit gym, with a roll-up garage door, by a railroad track and a junkyard.. Three of four gunshots struck Leshikar, according to the ME report. For reasons that remain a mystery, Lavigne had pulled out the .40-caliber sidearm he carried and double-tapped his best buddy right in front of two horrified little girls, his daughter and Leshikars. He never denied having sex with Scanlon, but maintained that it was consensual. Fort Bragg officials announced that the Master Sgt. I knew him, Joe says of Lavigne. Master Sgt. (U.S. Army) But Scanlon was in the courtroom on the first day of trial, and Rolling Stone obtained the trial record, which includes a list of witnesses, the lawyers written motions, the judges orders, his instructions to the jury, and other documents that make it possible to reconstruct much if not nearly enough of what happened. Ultimately, both CID and the sheriffs office determined there was no criminal culpability.. Finally, at the end of the first day of trial, she was allowed to step down. When Scanlon learns that the audio was destroyed, she unexpectedly breaks down in tears. A senior defense official told ABC News in late March 2018 that the shooter was an active-duty member of a Special Missions Unit, known as Delta Force. William Lavigne II, 37, pictured above, was found in Fort Bragg on December 2. Scanlon says the detail initially slipped her memory. So Marky just took everything, the pride in America that I have, she continued. They would have been able to see from the many badges, patches, stripes, and braids on Vallejos embroidered blue coat that he was a military superstar, a veteran operator of the sort that all of USASOC exists to support. Seven soldiers face charges after Fort Bragg trooper's - Reddit The Delta Force Operator Who Went Rogue - YouTube She filed a FOIA request for the transcript in 2019, and the Army gave her the trial record instead. St. Louis man telling stories of his thousands of 'capture or kill Looking back on the court-martial, it was a solid case and my testimony was powerful, Scanlon says, but I was this lowly lieutenant up against Delta Force and USASOC and JSOC, and all that entails. Scanlon claims that Vallejo raped her that night, and says that the trauma still haunts her to this day. A spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command said the investigation continues into the deaths of Master Sgt. She understood that beyond a reasonable doubt was a high burden of proof, and evinced no particular desire to see Vallejo in prison. But the warehouse had no plumbing; there was only a portable toilet out back. Then, just before the opening arguments were scheduled to take place, military lawyers from Fort Bragg intervened. If you felt that 1LT Scanlon was sexually assaulted, why was she not taken to the hospital as soon as possible? another asked the staff sergeant. She felt the implication was clear: Obviously youre a liar.. Seven soldiers face charges after Fort Bragg trooper's severed head found Shortly after she and Tina arrived at Macs the night of the fundraiser, Scanlon recognized the Coast x Coast clubs logo from a Facebook photo of her old ROTC mentor, the ex-Delta soldier, which made her implicitly trust Vallejo and his crew, she recalls. Connecting Vets reached out to members of Lavigne's family for comment, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication. Leshikar's daughter said that, Uncle Billy was acting strange and that's why I let my daddy in, to the house. Lavigne then went into the home, and locked himself inside with both of their daughters, who were around five years old at the time. He had been in Delta Force. Scanlon lived off-post in an apartment in Fayetteville, a moody military town in the North Carolina pines just outside of Fort Bragg, the biggest Army base in the U.S. On the evening of Sept. 9, 2016, a friend of hers from the gym, a military wife whom Ill call Tina to protect her privacy, invited her to a charitable event at a barbecue restaurant and bar called Macs Speed Shop. She wasnt credible, Poppe says. Female soldier slams military for clearing operator of raping her in The girl then mimicking how her father collapsed to the floor. As a senior non-commissioned officer of Delta Force, the most elite and secretive special operations unit in the U.S. military, Command Sergeant Major Tom Satterly fought some of this country's most fearsome enemies. She said that when she opened the door, and her daddy was mad and walking towards uncle Billy and uncle Billy came around and shot him, and then my daddy did this, her family described.
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