“Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. is currently in pre-trial confinement in the Regional Brig for Marine Corps Installations East aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune pending an Article 32 preliminary hearing,” said Capt. Sam Stephenson, a spokesman for Training and Education Command. “The time, date, and location of the proceedings have not been determined. Lt. Col. Scheller will be afforded all due process.”
Read the Task and Purpose article here.
Anonymous JAG
9/27/2021 09:25:51 pm
To keep him in confinement there has to be a serious offense. Can crazy speech qualify?
1984
10/1/2021 02:58:08 am
Yes, if it's against a Democratic administration.
CTC
9/27/2021 10:19:21 pm
I have in other posts advocated that Lt Col Scheller should be court martialed. Putting that aside, pretrial confinement sounds unduly harsh. I suspect that Command believes him unable to refrain from engaging in ongoing misconduct. He has stated his much in his own posts, suggesting he could not be silenced. It appears Command accepted Lt Col Scheller's challenge.
Brenner
9/27/2021 10:22:03 pm
I agree that in this case it is reasonable.
Poster
9/28/2021 09:43:29 am
Officers are segregated, so in solitary. This will go on for months. So by the time trial hits it's almost guaranteed there will be an insanity defense. If he can be considered competent at all. Good job Marines, these are Soviet dissenter themes playing out over Afghanistan. 9/28/2021 11:57:22 am
Might we assume that the command and the relevant SJA know more about the case than we do from news reports?
Attorney
9/28/2021 09:22:06 pm
Is this correct? Wardle expressly declined to reach the issue of whether a suicide attempt can be valid basis for PTC. Wardle, 58 M.J. at 159 ("However, we need not reach the issue of whether suicide risk in this case, or under other circumstances, would warrant pretrial confinement.")
Scott
9/28/2021 12:08:17 pm
Wonder whether the charges will focus on the original conduct or on disobeying the apparent order to stop.
Former DC
9/28/2021 12:38:28 pm
CTC - I completely agree that pre-trial confinement is unduly harsh. It strains credulity to argue that mere speech (and orders to discontinue said speech) is a serious enough government interest to justify PTC. That's especially true in this case - after his initial post, the coverage around all of his follow up posts have been dramatically reduced (until the USMC decided to prefer charges and impose PTC).
AnnoyingProle
9/30/2021 12:29:38 am
Senior Officer publicly and fragrantly criticizes his leadership via Youtube. Ordered to stop. Continues to do it, and even in one video, says he'll resign his commission and "come and follow me and we'll bring the whole f*--ing system down." Ordered to stop. Posts video saying he's going to issue criminal charges against CENTCOM. Subsequently posts on Facebook repeating the same. Told to stop posting without exception.
Nathan Freeburg
9/28/2021 01:18:29 pm
a couple of thoughts: 9/28/2021 03:30:14 pm
And, not many get released during the confinement hearing?
Nathan Freeburg
9/28/2021 08:06:36 pm
I shouldn’t have said every other PTC decision at CL was done on a whim. But many are.
Gilbert
10/5/2021 01:17:16 pm
1. "Very Large" is incorrect. The brig there might have 100 beds and they aren't near capacity. While it is true that Bragg doesn't have as large of a PTC population that is because they do not have a brig and use either local jails or more specifically the Lejeune brig.
Rachel E. VanLandingham
9/29/2021 06:13:12 pm
Am a bit late to this party, but find the thread interesting -- not so much whether speech crimes in the abstract can ever justify pretrial confinement (of course they can -- threatening to kill someone, a classic speech crime, will land one there pretty quickly in the right circumstances), but whether a continued pattern of disobedience can. That is, if an officer continuously fails to obey orders, at what point does their continued disobedience, even if the particular order disobeyed seems not so serious in the big scheme of things, become such a bad example, is destabilizing to good order and discipline, that it warrants PTC? It's the disobedience here that seems the worse alleged offense, IMHO, versus his rants. Of course we don't know the whole story, the details those in command are privy to, but throwing this out there. Also, on the mental health side, if concern about his mental heath was the paramount issue, shouldn't a psychiatrist be involuntarily hospitalizing him versus a lay commander ordering PTC? Separately, is PTC linked to an increased chance of suicide? Finally, why the blank are lay commanders (not judges) allowed to order PTC in the first place in 2021?! Shameful. 18th Century military justice.
Burt B
9/29/2021 07:46:12 pm
I assume you mean judge advocates versus judges? In what system do judges make an initial confinement decision? That is made by the state/DA and then reviewed by judges.
CTC
9/30/2021 08:06:41 am
I don't love the idea of him being jailed, but I can't reflexively dismiss it as an abuse of discretion, either. I do expect tomes of UCI motions. Still, I can't abide the sentiment that Lt Col Scheller's disobedience "was not so serious in the grand scheme."
Brenner M. Fissell
9/30/2021 10:08:56 am
well said!
1984
10/1/2021 03:05:05 am
No he did not set a "precedent". There's plenty of stories in the media involving disobedience that made national news. It's just one group is against a Republican President, and the other a Democrat President. As you see, some animals are more equal than other animals. Comments are closed.
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