Jury: Cadet should get reprimand for sex with fiancée
By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com
Air Force Academy - A military jury decided Friday that an Air Force Academy cadet found not guilty of rape should receive a written reprimand for having sex with his girlfriend while other cadets tried to sleep in a hotel room last year.
Benjamin Kuster, 21, of Clinton, Iowa, was found guilty Thursday of indecent acts for having sex with Katherine Ivey, his fiancée, in a hotel room during a trip with the scuba-diving club to New Mexico in May 2004. Four other people were in the room at the time and two of them either heard or saw the activity.
Kuster could have faced up to five years in prison, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and dismissal, the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge in the military.
Richard Stevens, a civilian attorney from Washington, D.C., who represents Kuster, said he would ask Lt. Gen. John Rosa, academy superintendent, to throw out the federal conviction on the indecent-acts charge, allow Kuster to receive his diploma and commission him into the Air Force. All of those decisions will be up to Rosa.
Stevens said he is concerned about "inequitable treatment" for Kuster, who has a federal conviction for the indecent acts while Ivey received a letter of admonishment and graduated with distinction on Wednesday. She is now a second lieutenant.
On the night of May 2, 2004, Kuster said, he had sex with a woman in the darkened hotel room but believed it was his girlfriend. That night, the alleged victim and Ivey kissed, an Air Force major removed the alleged victim's bra, male cadets drank alcohol from the alleged victim's navel, and the alleged victim engaged in three-way kissing and groping with Kuster and Ivey. Kuster's accuser is a second lieutenant in the Air Force.
She maintained that she was asleep when Kuster had nonconsensual intercourse with her. The defense said she accused Kuster of rape because she was only three weeks from graduation in 2004 and feared her misconduct that night would prevent her from graduating. Reporting the rape would excuse her of any wrongdoing.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or [email protected].
http://www.denverpost.com/portlet/ar...rticle=2778774
These two deserve each other.
By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com
Air Force Academy - A military jury decided Friday that an Air Force Academy cadet found not guilty of rape should receive a written reprimand for having sex with his girlfriend while other cadets tried to sleep in a hotel room last year.
Benjamin Kuster, 21, of Clinton, Iowa, was found guilty Thursday of indecent acts for having sex with Katherine Ivey, his fiancée, in a hotel room during a trip with the scuba-diving club to New Mexico in May 2004. Four other people were in the room at the time and two of them either heard or saw the activity.
Kuster could have faced up to five years in prison, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and dismissal, the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge in the military.
Richard Stevens, a civilian attorney from Washington, D.C., who represents Kuster, said he would ask Lt. Gen. John Rosa, academy superintendent, to throw out the federal conviction on the indecent-acts charge, allow Kuster to receive his diploma and commission him into the Air Force. All of those decisions will be up to Rosa.
Stevens said he is concerned about "inequitable treatment" for Kuster, who has a federal conviction for the indecent acts while Ivey received a letter of admonishment and graduated with distinction on Wednesday. She is now a second lieutenant.
On the night of May 2, 2004, Kuster said, he had sex with a woman in the darkened hotel room but believed it was his girlfriend. That night, the alleged victim and Ivey kissed, an Air Force major removed the alleged victim's bra, male cadets drank alcohol from the alleged victim's navel, and the alleged victim engaged in three-way kissing and groping with Kuster and Ivey. Kuster's accuser is a second lieutenant in the Air Force.
She maintained that she was asleep when Kuster had nonconsensual intercourse with her. The defense said she accused Kuster of rape because she was only three weeks from graduation in 2004 and feared her misconduct that night would prevent her from graduating. Reporting the rape would excuse her of any wrongdoing.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or [email protected].
http://www.denverpost.com/portlet/ar...rticle=2778774
These two deserve each other.
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