Update in the Wrongful Prosecution of Army Major Martin false accusations case
NCFM Files Complaint with State Bar Associations and United States Department of Justice (USDOJ), Civil Rights Division concerning Army JAG Prosecutors Jacob Bashore, James Garrett, and Shawn Atkins
September 14, 2016
by NCFM
“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.”
Charles-Louis de Secondat, French Philosopher, 1689-1755
On August 12, 2016, NCFM took a historic step to file formal complaints involving the three primary prosecutors in the wrongful prosecution of Major Christian ‘Kit’ Martin. In addition to the respective state bar associations, the complaints were also forwarded to and received by (confirmed) the USDOJ, Criminal Section, Civil Rights Division. We are considering filing six more complaints.
Egregious conduct of Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) prosecutors Major Jacob Bashore (recently promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and now an Army Judge at Fort Hood Texas); Major James Garrett, and Captain Shawn Atkins, prompted the filing of the complaints with their state bar associations, Tennessee, Texas, and Kansas, respectively.
Potential federal criminal law violations include but may not be limited to, as appropriate and applicable;
- Title 18, U.S. Code, § 242 – Deprivation of Rights under Color of Law
- Title 18, U.S. Code, Chapter 73 – Obstruction of Justice
- Title 18 U.S. Code § 1512 – Tampering with a Witness/Evidence
- Title 18, U.S. Code, § 371 – Conspiracy to Commit Offense
- Title 18, U.S. Code § 1621 – Perjury
- Title 18, U.S. Code, § 1001 – False Statements
- Title 18, U.S. Code, § 1385 – Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878
- Title 5, U.S. Code § 552a – Violation of the Privacy Act of 1974
- Title 18, U.S. Code § 1346 – Honest Services Fraud
- Title 10, U.S. Code, § 933 – Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and Gentleman
Each complaint package contains more than five dozen pages including sworn affidavits, from numerous witnesses which gut the credibility and conduct of Bashore, Garrett, and Atkins. Each one also contains a support letter from Save Our Heroes and the Center for Prosecutor Integrity.
Here is a small sample of statements that witnesses provided in their affidavits. Information that might identify them was them redacted.
This witness made it clear that they intend to exercise their 1st Amendment rights as they are very concerned about retaliatory acts.
JAG leadership has thus far refused to investigate misconduct with which we are concerned. NCFM emailed and mailed a letter to the commanding officer of the Army JAG Corps, Lieutenant General Flora Darpino two weeks AFTER the initial filing complaints. The letter asked her to report such misconduct to applicable state bar associations as required by governing rules of professional conduct.
We did not receive a reply from LTG Darpino. Instead, we received a letter from Colonel William Kern, Chief of the Army JAG Professional Responsibility Branch sidestepping our complaint, claiming they would not consider it until after the post-trial phase (whatever that is) because of Major Martin’s two misdemeanor convictions, which is absurd and a clear violation of the federal obstruction of justice, a felony offense. We anticipated nothing more and are advocating for the U.S. Justice Department’s intervention. Though, we are not holding our collective breaths for help there either.
Let’s not forget, as we have been reporting for over a year and a half, from what we can tell, blatant prosecutorial misconduct resulted in Major Martin’s manufactured misdemeanor charges in a complex case based on skulduggery, bigamy, adultery, and a trail of malicious lies by Major Martin’s gold-digging ex-wife.
This is just another example of kicking the can down the road until the problem to goes away, which we also anticipated. Therefore, we added the following language from the original complaint addendum to the USDOJ letter.
Also recall three people were murdered, one of which was a key defense witness (see NCFM update in the False Accusation and Wrongful Conviction Case of Army Major “Kit” Martin). It appears, Army JAG hierarchy is little concerned with these related murders and harm to innocent victims associated with this case. More important is the persecution, conviction and destruction of a highly trained, competent, dedicated, if not heroic soldier based on unquestionably false allegations of sexual misconduct and other contrived transgressions. All inconceivable.
Such utter insanity reflects the current state of the current military justice system — taking all allegations of sexual misconduct to court-martial, absent validity, even when it’s known the allegations are false, and regardless of collateral damage with no concern for fairness or truth.
Moreover, it seems military leadership is little concerned if innocent people are imprisoned, get murdered, commit suicide or have their entire family and future destroyed in the process. In our view, a high price to pay to appease misandric politically correct sexual assault industry advocates. It seems the Army JAG Corps’ moral compass points away from loyalty, honor, truth, and justice, the new social norm.
We believe there are over 500 men, falsely accused and wrongfully convicted of sexual misconduct, or ‘collateral’ offenses, languishing in military prisons. Many more were wrongfully charged and rightfully acquitted; even so, the financial and emotional harm to themselves and their families is beyond tragic, it’s torturous, unrelenting, and devastating.
To be clear, in ALL cases involving false allegations of sexual misconduct, that result in a conviction or even an acquittal, there WILL BE investigative or prosecutorial misconduct, period. Such maladministration and injustice cannot occur without manipulating, manufacturing, planting, or otherwise corrupting evidence, to include coercing and otherwise threatening witnesses.
It seems JAG and Pentagon commanders, like LTG Darpino and others associated with the Major Martin debacle and similar cases chose not reign in rouge subordinates, not even when presented with overwhelming evidence of egregious criminal behavior. Clearly, they have the authority, the Army’s 2015 Commander’s Legal Handbook, published by the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School states in part;
“Commanders have inherent authority to investigate any matter under their responsibility… for the purpose of furthering the good order and discipline of their command.”
Consequently, flooding with complaints, state bar associations, United States Department of Justice (USDOJ), and other oversight agencies may help cause corrective measures, including sanctions, disbarment, and convictions, as applicable.
Moreover, the wrongfully convicted, their family members, friends, religious leaders, and professional acquaintances, should consider sending copies of the complaints to their elected state and federal officials, especially their respective members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and House Committee on Armed Services, and the U.S. Department of Defense Standards of Conduct Office.
Until the Department of Defense (DOD) develops some type of conviction integrity unit, there is no way to bring righteousness into the process. We, as citizen advocates, must file one complaint after another until we strike a receptive nerve or two in the system.
We hope to hear of more examples from wrongfully convicted service members and their families of this novel approach to bring attention to this level of prosecutorial misconduct and abuse. Please let us hear from you.
[…] complaint involving Bashore. One was filed by defense counsel in the case of Major Kit Martin and another complaint was filed in the cases of Major Kit Martin and Sergeant First Class Kelly Stewart by the National […]
Looks like “john” and “in the know” are the same person with the same comments (cut and paste). How many other aliases do you have Jacob Bashore (in TX), or is this James Garrett (in VA)? You unethical REMF. You knew Martin was innocent, you saw his polygraph and other information, but you instigated charges with a bigamist con-artist felon, throwing $$ at her for false allegations. How many real men and veterans are rotting away in prison because of your corruption REMF? You sold your soul to get a promotion and be a judge. Google yourself and see how many people hate your guts pussy. Rot in hell MOFO.
i am not the same person as “in the know”, nor was I involved with this case in any way. I worked with Kit at one time and got some information from a paralegal that was at the trial. I never claimed to be an expert.
I did notice that you personally attacked me several times but you failed to address the SIPR issue at all. If I am mistaken, about that, please correct me. I fully admit I have no knowledge of any of the other allegations.
REPLY
Can’t speak to the abuse or sexual charges, but Maj Martin was also convicted of having classified documents and equipment in his possession at his home. He had a SIPR computer, from his previous duty station, and a thumb drive with hundreds of secret documents stored on it, at his home. Any private knows that this is a serious no-no. So, this officer is not exactly innocent.
Interesting how you say you have information in this case, but lack the courage to do so using your own name and disclosing any personal involvement or bias.
Since my son’s, Major Erik J. Burris-US Army, case went to trial I knew that his chance for justice was diminished. The best way for him to get justice now is probably through the United States Department of Justice. As long as the corrupt JAG Corp controls the case, no one will review it with honesty. The military machine will continue to resist this review so it will not be called out for what they really are. The media must get involved. Major Erik J. Burris must be granted a retrial so the truth will be revealed. The US Army JAG gave my son 20 years on fabricated charges and for telling the truth, under oath, about the military’s blatant disregard for justice concerning sexual crime allegations.
What if NCFM is being bamboozled here by Kit Martin and his supporters?
That is, what if Kit Martin actually did it?
Based on everything we know, the character of he ex-wife, and the conflict of interests in his case at virtually all levels, we would be very surprised. We will not be surprised if he isn’t charged with the murders. And, we believe he’s being set up as a fall guy for the reasons noted in this article. Moreover, we suspect something even more sinister is going on and we are working with others to dig deeper than we already have to find out the motivations of others involved. At this point involved local, state and military law enforcement need for Major Martin to be guilty. In our view they will doing everything possible to make that happen. Isn’t it interesting that it appears there are no other strong suspects on any or their radars. Given the character of those involved in this debacle how is that possible?
Can’t speak to the abuse or sexual charges, but Maj Martin was also convicted of having classified documents and equipment in his possession at his home. He had a SIPR computer, from his previous duty station, and a thumb drive with hundreds of secret documents stored on it, at his home. Any private knows that this is a serious no-no. So, this officer is not exactly innocent.
As I already told “In the Know”, ridiculous fake name by the way and it looks like you and “John” are the same person commenting under fake names. It is interesting how you say you have information in this case, but lack the courage to do so using your own name and disclosing any personal involvement or bias.
i am not the same person as “in the know”, nor was I involved with this case in any way. I worked with Kit at one time and got some information from a paralegal that was at the trial. I never claimed to be an expert.
I did notice that you personally attacked me several times but you failed to address the SIPR issue at all. If I am mistaken, about that, please correct me. I fully admit I have no knowledge of any of the other allegations.
Just because he was convicted does not mean he committed the offense. Were it not for Major Martin’s horrifically spiteful and conniving bigamist wife there would have been no charges. Aside from which…
1. An extensive three-hour polygraph exam confirmed Major Martin did not then know where from the computer originally came, he turned over all of his work disks, asked that his house be searched, and was fully and completely cleared by Counter Intelligence (CI). It is our understanding the CI clearance included the thumb drive.
2. Joan Harmon-Guerra when stationed overseas with Major Martin was in his office daily for lunch. She was for awhile in charge of the Family Readiness Group (FRG), had access to the computer and used his office when Major Martin was deployed. We believe she took it. We don’t know when she stole the thumb drive, though surely after she told Major Martin she would destroy him because he wanted a divorce. It’s our understanding the thumb-drive was used for storage of non-critical and unclassified information.
3. Deceased Calvin Phillips allegedly found the computer with Harmon-Guerra but their stories were inconsistent. Initially, they said they found the computer in the Major Martin’s garage, but later told investigators they found it in his office. Why both Harmon-Guerra and Phillips were in Kit’s office together without his knowledge or permission is unknown, though we surmise it was for nefarious reasons. Either way, Phillips said they found the computer in September, Harmon-Guerra said October. They turned it over to the FBI in December within days of Harmon-Guerra’s bigamy being exposed.
4. After reassigning Major Martin and starting an Article 15, General Stammer insisted on courts-martial, against the advice of subordinate staff and precluding the above information (evidence), especially the polygraph results, which prosecutors’ knew about and used to their advantage by suppressing the evidence.
5. Minutes before the courts-martial prosecutors dropped the all the trumped up felony sexual assault charges resulting from Harmon-Guerra’s false accusations, which limited her testimony, and prevented her from being cross-examined about many things, including the computer and thumb drive.
6. Calvin Phillips turned against Harmon-Guerra and was murdered shortly thereafter. Since he was dead, he could not come forward as a defense witness to further discredit Harmon-Guerra and shed light on the computer and thumb drive.
7. The entire persecution of Major Martin, from what we can discern, was a sham from beginning to end, including the despicable cover the Army’s posterior conviction regarding the computer.