UPDATE: The jury has found the private not guilty of rape:

A military jury early Friday morning found Pvt. Darren W. Williams not guilty of raping and sodomizing a woman last August in his barracks room at Camp Humphreys.

But the jury found Williams guilty of disobeying a direct and lawful order. He had pleaded guilty to wrongfully leaving the post after his off-post pass privileges were revoked when he became a suspect.

The soldier has a psychologist to thank for saving him from jail:

Army Maj. Matthew Cody, a forensic psychiatrist assigned to Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, said he conducted two psychiatric evaluation sessions with the woman. Cody testified she also told him that on the day of her visit she put on fishnet-thong panties and wore no bra because she thought that would increase her appeal to Williams.

Cody said the woman told him she performed a sex act on Williams and that they had intercourse for what she thought could have been about an hour. Afterward, the woman did not want to go home, Cody said she told him, mainly because she feared her father would be angry she'd visited Williams against parental instruction.

The woman said that after they had sex, Williams called her "stupid," which hurt her feelings and made her want "payback," Cody testified the woman told him.

The psychiatrist said he asked her if she wanted payback for any other reasons. "I was waiting for her to say, `Rape!'" Cody testified, but the woman said no, there were no other reasons.

Cody also disputed testimony Wednesday from Air Force Maj. Jennifer Chow, a psychiatrist testifying for the prosecution, that the woman had mental problems that made her unable to handle decisions about whether to consent to sex, and that she had developed post-traumatic-stress disorder after the incident.

Both Chow and Cody testified the woman has a low IQ of about 75.

Pretty convincing testimony and this is what I assume turned the jury towards the defendant's favor in this case. However, he is still in some deep trouble with the violations of direct orders given to him by his command, which will probably end it up in a Field Grade Article 15 against the soldier. Depending on his past performance history the command may be able to chapter him out of the army if he has had past discipline problems. However, this guy ought to just consider himself very lucky that a Field Grade is all he is probably going to end up with.


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This is why you don't have sex in the barracks:

Lawyers at Camp Humphreys made opening arguments Tuesday in the jury trial of a soldier charged with raping and sodomizing a woman in his barracks room last August.

Pvt. Darren W. Williams, a cook with the Army's 249th Military Police Detachment, pleaded not guilty to rape, forcible sodomy and disobeying orders of a superior commissioned officer, prosecutors said. But he pleaded guilty to wrongfully leaving the post after his off-post pass privileges were revoked when he was a suspect in the case.

Prosecutor Capt. Yong J. Lee portrayed Williams as a "predator" who took advantage of a mentally handicapped woman in her early 20s.

The defense countered that the woman had consensual sex with the soldier, then "cried rape" to deflect her parents' wrath.

Apparently this girl may be autistic which the defense of course disputes. Here is why these rape allegations are not always cut and dry:

Defense lawyer Capt. Jack Ko told the jury the case was one of a woman "who made a decision to have sex with someone her parents disapproved of" but "cried rape" when she realized MPs would tell her parents of her visit to Williams' barracks.

Ko told the jury the woman became acquainted with Williams when she reached him while attempting to phone her boyfriend.

Ko said that during further phone contact, the woman told Williams of her sexual preferences and pressed him to let her visit him at Camp Humphreys.

Showing the jury the woman's garments, Ko said that on Aug. 27, she "prettied herself up," donned thong panties, a pink-and-white flowered tank top and pink skirt and traveled by bus to see Williams.

Once in his room, Ko told jurors, she kissed him, said she wanted to perform a sex act and had consensual intercourse.

Any of you all soldier out there with girlfriends, this is a perfect example of why you don't bring them in the barracks and for women, why shouldn't go to the barracks. Even if the defense claims are true, it is hard to disprove the prosecutions arguements when the assault happened in a barracks room. If the soldier had her agree to go to a hotel room instead and then she cried rape afterwards than the defense would have a stronger case to defend the soldier. We will see what happens, but from what I read it doesn't look good for the soldier.


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