Smoke doesn't always mean fire Part V
Lt Col Martin was released from the jury on the 22nd of April 2016. That evening he discussed why he was released with Chief Gleesing, another jury member.
Because of the delay due to Lt Col Martin's dismissal the judge elected to continue the trial the following day [Saturday the 23rd of April]
I'm not quite sure how, but somehow the judge learned that jury members had heard why Lt Col Martin was released. Unfortunately I don't have supporting evidence for this so at best it's hearsay and speculation but all of the evidence points to it as you will see below. The bolded section is the court recording from the day before.
**These are actual court documents from Lt Col Dominick Martin's Article 48 hearing. They were acquired by a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by me. Furthermore, FOIA was unwilling to meet their timeline required by law without a congressional inquiry, through Congresswoman Dorris Matsui at my request.**
What I do know is that Lt Col Martin was summoned to the courtroom that same day for an Article 48 [Contempt] hearing at 0930 [I received the following documents from a FOIA request in July 2016]:
Col Martin was summoned back to court on the 23rd to answer to the military judge (MJ) for violating his lawful order not to discuss the trial or his release with any other jury members.
The initial court appearance was procedural in nature and allowed Col Martin to understand the charge levied against him. It would be almost a month before Col Martin would return to the court room to answer that charge.
However, in the meantime there was much more going on.
I reached out to a few professional friends and mentors in key leadership positions throughout the group and 49th Fighter Wing to gauge the response of my recording.
I learned on the following Monday (April 25th, 2016) that everyone from SMSgt and above in the group knew of the recording, Col Martin's ouster, and his contempt charge.
I also learned that the 49th Fighter Wing commander was considering launching an investigation into the recording. You might be thinking 'good, someone should hold a squadron commander accountable for the maltreatment of the people entrusted to him.'
You would be wrong. Even though the recording exposed Col Martin's true opinion of suspicion, assumption of guilt and punishment [at complete odds with the notion of justice and due process]; the 49th Fighter Wing commander was not investigating Col Martin. He requested an investigation into the legality of the recording. I had already done my homework and knew recording the conversation was legal so I wasn't concerned for my career. Only I was a bit surprised how readily a commander will rally around another who was so flagrantly unfit to command [Saying he was unfit isn't rhetoric, I'll expand on that next episode].
That same day I had to brief the afternoon production meeting like I had in the past. Lt Col Martin was chairing the meeting.
It was a bit surreal. Col Martin had to pretend that he didn't know I recorded him. However, I knew that he knew I had recorded him. But I had to pretend that I didn't know, that he knew. He was barely able to keep his seething rage from spilling over into his tone and inflection. I, mostly emotionally detached from the encounter [the side effect of not being guilty I suppose], observed how ineffective Col Martin was at hiding his disdain for me.
He didn't refer to me by name, didn't speak to me at all. He made no attempts to ask follow-up questions from my briefing. At the conclusion of the meeting he skipped over my corner of the table completely when asking for final thoughts.
I've never had an easier time briefing in my life. I could've claimed Ewoks had sabotaged our base on
What made the exchange even more uncomfortable was the knowledge that everyone else in the room also knew what had happened and they had to all play along as well.
After a week or so of the silent treatment Lt Col Martin eased his anger some and eventually referred to us as 'the AMUs' at the conclusion of the meeting and even at times looked in my general direction when I was briefing him.
After two weeks he even called me by my official rank and last name; although you could hear it was forced.
I called the Holloman Area Defense Counsel and asked her opinion on whether I should schedule a sit-down meeting with Lt Col Martin to explain my motivations, reasons and moral perspective for my actions. As clearly he was cooling off and might be willing to hear me out.
She told me that would be an exceptionally bad idea because of the active investigation into a Privacy Act violation. Interesting thing about Command Directed Investigations [CDIs]: they don't actually tell you you're being investigated for awhile.
As for my work, my actual job? It was more miserable than normal. It was plainly obvious that Fraley was using all of his administrative tools at his disposal to ensure I was thoroughly miserable as a Lead Production Superintendent. He, much like Lt Col Martin, viewed me as a traitor among the ranks that deserved the worst possible treatment. I was a toxic cancer, tainting Airmen and NCOs alike. As such, he made a point to tighten the screws and micromanage me even more.
One of the few times I've felt guilt over this ordeal. My actions created an unbearable work environment for my superiors in the 314th. They were experiencing the same scrutiny and rage as I was, without ever doing anything to deserve it themselves.
I knew what would happen to me when I provided that recording to the court. The collateral of the 314th AMU OIC, NCOIC and ANCOIC was something I hadn't foreseen.
I learned that Lt Col Martin's hearing was on the 20th of May. I wanted to be there to gauge the scope of my exposure as the CDI against me gained steam. However, I didn't dare sit in the audience during the hearing, which could be seen as gloating or humiliating by Lt Col Martin. Life was miserable enough as it was, I certainly didn't need to stoke that fire.
Eventually, May 20th came and Lt Col Martin had to answer for his crime.