Ultimately, both CID and the sheriffs office determined there was no criminal culpability.. It was held in the main courthouse on Fort Bragg, a red-brick, Greek-revival building typical of the Carolinas. He started kissing me, and I was pushing him away. Leshikar's daughter said that, Uncle Billy was acting strange and that's why I let my daddy in, to the house. Lavigne and Sgt. We drank so much, she says. Im still spooked. She read USASOCs statement in The Fort Bragg Murders that some unspecified adverse administrative action had been pending against Lavigne at the time of his death. Master Sgt. Master Sgt. Were not staying more than 20 minutes, they agreed. Arriving at the site in the early morning hours of Sept. 10, 2016, Scanlon and Tina were immediately creeped out by the griminess of the location. Scanlon claims that Vallejo raped her that night, and says that the trauma still haunts her to this day. Women made up the rest of the party: two young Army officers, the widow of a slain Green Beret, and a Las Vegas woman who belonged to a traveling company of women bartenders that dance and sing, according to her blog posts. Though open to the public, no reporters were in the courtroom. The detective told me, This guys active-duty, she recalls. For reasons that remain a mystery, Lavigne had pulled out the .40-caliber sidearm he carried and double-tapped his best buddy right in front of two horrified little girls, his daughter and Leshikars. Once out of uniform, Scanlon began to meet advocates, lawyers, and people knowledgeable about sexual assault in the military. Anything other than you saying yes or asking for it is not consent, her friend replied. As Jane puts it, They did what they wanted when they wanted, and wouldnt take no for an answer.. . US report shows China taking steps toward space dominance, Biden to allow Afghans to stay longer in US, sources say, Michigan expands absentee voting for military members, Some companies charge hefty fees to help vets with disability claims, Meet 12M+, the new community app for military spouses, Your next tech and incoming AI | Defense News Weekly Full Episode 4.28.2023, Home Improvement Loans What are my options? A Delta Force operator known to be good friends with both Lavigne and Leshikar was allegedly the first person Lavigne called as things deteriorated with Leshikar the day he died. Lavigne was charged with two felonies in 2019. Either way, Scanlon was immersed in an unfamiliar process and taking her cues from military lawyers and the judge, all of whom outranked her. An Uber driver started toward the warehouse at 2:50 a.m., according to screen shots of the app that Scanlon gave police. She told me, I feel like I just got raped.. In his heart, he was all for defending people who could not defend themselves, his mother said about her late son. Lavigne and a retired soldier named Anthony Dumas were found dead last year on Ft. Bragg, and now the FBI is involved in the investigation which is being treated as a homicide. It had been, in retrospect, a dark period in her life, she says, a damaging, booze-soaked run of years in her twenties. Helicopters crashed in mountains, fair weather, Army says, Army Special Ops Command welcomes first female command sergeant major, Army identifies 3 soldiers killed in Alaska helicopter crash, Army grounds helicopter fleet for force-wide safety stand down. The latter was for firing shots at a guy outside a crack house on Enloe Street in Fayetteville, a very serious offense, but Lavigne was not prosecuted for any of these crimes. Erin Scanlon wants to go on the record again so that her alleged attacker is identified as Delta Force. For her part, Scanlon tried hard not to show any emotion in public, and accepted the jurys July 2018 decision with stoicism. LaVigne and Dumas were each scheduled to appear in court on unrelated cases in December and January, according to court records. I ask whether Cris Valley is in attendance. William J. Lavigne II and Timothy Dumas, a veteran previously stationed at the post, were found dead at a training site on the base Wednesday afternoon. He took that and he always was the one who would protect people who were being bullied in school because he was a big man.. I feel guilty, Scanlon texted. Court documents state that Dumas broke into an apartment in Walkertown with the intent to terrorize and injure an occupant of the building, on April 11, 2020. He was scheduled to appear in court March 12, 2019, but the charges and court date disappeared from court records. 2023 Rolling Stone, LLC. Dumass dark-colored 2015 Dodge Ram pickup was discovered abandoned somewhere else, the news release stated. The trial record shows that the prosecution called only four more witnesses, half as many as the defense. In February 2019, Lavigne had another brush with the law. A third juror asked the nurse who did the rape kit, In your experience, is it abnormal for the victim to smile in an exam photo?, Scanlon was called in for the reading of the verdict. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. This experience led Beckwith to advocate for a similar unit in the US Army. And that was the reason why my case was handled the way it was. (Phyllis B. Dooney for Rolling Stone). Ciolino said he feels the daughter's statement is an accurate reflection of what appears in the medical examiner's report. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. And no one seems to know quite why. Leshikar's family allege evidence was tampered with and that Lavigne called another Delta Force Operator to come to the scene Credit: Facebook. The third was a superficial grazing wound across the left side of his neck, the bullet arching at a 45-degree downward angle, the bullet passing from back to front. Its not even clear what agency, military or civilian, is investigating. Two ABC officers went to the location to check it out. To buttress his depiction of her as a woman on the prowl, he put up photos of her taken that night in which she was wearing a sleeveless dress with a short skirt, and texts between her and Tina joking about going out braless or commando., Isnt it true you were flirting with him? she recalls him asking. No awards. Death certificates for Dumas and LaVigne state each died from gunshot wounds and were shot by an unknown assailant.. Its not going to be good for you., For the jury, it must have been a somewhat close call, because they submitted at least 18 questions to the witnesses. Created in the late 1970s in the image of the British Special Air Service (SAS), Delta Force has been at . She passed a covered motorcycle trailer with a looming portrait of a slain Delta Force soldier printed on the side. One penetrated his neck and lodged in his back. As the jury filed in, everyone stood. Did it disappear or melt? Her first SVC was at the meeting with the DA, but did not advise her that she might be better off pressing her case in civilian court. Investigators have asked anyone with information on the case to contact the FBI or Army Criminal Investigation Command. Instead, on June 26, Matrafailo was the first person called to the stand by the defense. So who did, and why? Lavigne and Vallejo were on an altogether different level, one rarely touched by scandal. How coincidental is it? she says. Scanlon began to cry, he wrote in his report, as she pointed out the building., Matrafailo obtained a warrant, took DNA samples from the hood of the Saab, reviewed security footage, visited Macs, and interviewed Tina, among other witnesses. I think Ian, he said Will shot at him. Lavigne was assigned. Seeking to impeach Scanlons credibility and establish that she had tried to conceal the existence of an eyewitness, Poppe sought and obtained the SVCs testimony on this point. William LaVigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44. Delta Force, and deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. I firmly believe that I had to be his victim because I was strong enough to report him., She never got the chance to lay any of this on Vallejo, or the court. Even if Lavigne had been charged with or convicted of murder, says Col. Kazin of Army JAG, Vallejo would have had a constitutional right to call him as a witness, if he were in possession of relevant information. William Lavigne II, 37, pictured above, was found in Fort Bragg on December 2. According to him, agents initiated a collateral investigation with Fayetteville police. The trial record shows that Vallejos defense called eight additional witnesses. No arrests have been made nearly five months after a Special Forces soldier and veteran were found dead Dec. 2, at Fort Bragg, an official said last week. Subsequently, the Army swapped out her SVC four separate times. In February, the FBI announced that it is assisting in the case. He didnt let me get past him. Do you realize what you did? she replied at 4:25 a.m. . A brief report by CBS 17 in Raleigh-Durham on Sept. 30 named Vallejo as an N.C. As a senior non-commissioned officer of Delta Force, the most elite and secretive special operations unit in the U.S. military, Command Sergeant Major Tom Satterly fought some of this country's most fearsome enemies. None can be found referenced in available paperwork either. William J. Lavigne II, 37, was one of two men found dead Dec. 2 in a training area on Fort Bragg, N.C., the Army said in a statement. PART OF AUDACY NEWS. The case is being investigated as a homicide, a spokesperson for Army Criminal Investigations Division told Connecting Vets. That August, two investigators, Maj. Brent Goodwin and Arthur Chancellor from CID, paid a visit to the Leshikar family. That night he shattered my whole world, the statement read. On Sept. 30, he arrested Vallejo on a felony warrant for second-degree rape, second-degree sex offense, and sexual battery. I remember hearing some shots. Scanlon and Tina arrived at Macs shortly before 10 p.m. A number of motorcycles were parked out front. Werent there plenty of people you could have called out to? 1st Class Mark Leshikar. After speaking with a chaplain, she met with her units SARC, or sexual-assault response coordinator, who took her to meet with agents from the bases Criminal Investigation Division. There is no screw driver here, that is enough to go DEFCON 4 on this. A nonprofit associated with the club, the Coast x Coast Foundation, raises money through annual cross-country motorcycle rides to honor fallen special operators. He was fatally shot in March 2018 by Army Delta Force member William J. Lavigne, his best friend, who was known as "Billy" to Leshikar's family. The death certificates say the two men were found about 3:30 p.m. Dec. 2, in the woods on Fort Bragg. I was resolved to be stoic no matter what, because I knew I had stood up for myself as much as possible. Reached through his lawyer, Vallejo declined to comment for this story. I knew I would never find out what really happened that night, that her son had been killed. Scanlon previously told her story to Ella Torres of ABC News, who published a thorough report on her case in 2020, and The Fayetteville Observer covered aspects of it in 2019. We all knew him, says Roy Lynn Parker, 35. He was a really good mentor that I looked up to, she tells me recently. Then the shooter then winds up dead on the military base, basically gets assassinated. I looked at my daddy's face and I knew he was gone, the girl told her family members. Special Forces Command decided he died in the line of duty, while the local sheriff's office ruled his death a justifiable homicide, all while Lavigne, continued his work with Delta Force. Around the same time, he went on a cross-country ride with the Coast x Coast motorcycle club, starting out of Los Angeles and bound for Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Former Commander of Delta Force from 1985 to 1989. Thats being a girl at a bar., According to text messages she sent a girlfriend the next day, Scanlon was drunk and flirted with him. But she didnt consent to what later ensued, she immediately added. Someone might easily have connected the rape case to the unexplained shooting of a Green Beret by a fellow Special Forces soldier three months earlier. He was charged with a felony for allegedly harboring an escapee. Lavigne retained him while still under Army investigation into the . The staff sergeant had invited her over to his house earlier in the evening, but she and Tina hadnt wanted to leave the party. Its the first time during many hours of interviews that she has lost her composure, and I can understand why. They belonged to members of the Coast x Coast motorcycle club, made up of active-duty soldiers on Delta Force, a classified manhunting unit that is the Army component of JSOC. Vallejo, wearing his full-dress uniform, was seated at the defense table, next to his defense attorney, Kris Poppe, a former JAG prosecutor who previously served as an infantry officer. And hes sitting there decked out. Its like watching a scary movie. Rick described her brother's friend as a good and honorable man, although she is concerned with some of his actions that day. The blond 25-year-old from suburban Phoenix had secured a lieutenants slot in the storied 82nd Airborne Division thanks to the good offices of one of her ROTC instructors at the University of Arizona. In the event of a terrorist strike, international hostage situation, or loose nuclear weapon, its Delta or Team 6 that the president will call on to respond. "Mark and Billy had a brotherly relationship and (the second Delta operator) was the papa bear that put them in line, Leshikar's sister described. Scanlon was looking forward to getting the ordeal over with. It was a warm night in the Carolinas, with a quarter-moon in the sky. He was a broken operator, a worn-out military part, destroyed by PTSD and substance abuse. Officials have identified Master Sgt. Those deleted files were the only record of the testimony the jurors chose to believe over hers. The rest of the court-martial is a black box to her, because she spent it sequestered in the prosecutions witness room, which she says she was not permitted to leave. Leshikar was a member of 19th Special Forces Group and had previously deployed to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Reach Jack Murphy:[email protected]@JackMurphyRGR.Want to get more connected to the stories and resources Connecting Vets has to offer? I dont think there was an agenda there, says Col. Adam Kazin, chief of the Army JAG Corps criminal-law division. She only met him and Vallejo that one night in her life. But that didn't happen before his death this month. Scanlon says reporting the alleged attack, and the subsequent ordeal, hurt her military career. He was the foundation of my family, Leshikar's mother, Tammy Mabey said of her son. Even with the rape kit and the testimony of witnesses like Tina, much would have hinged on Scanlons credibility. USASOC declined to comment based on concerns about privacy, but pointed out that a police investigation and a line of duty report have different burdens of proof. William J. Lavigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas deepens with the revelation that Lavigne was also involved in the death of Sgt. But he couldnt really explain why the Army waited 16 months to intervene on the eve of the trial, rather than let civilian justice take its course. You want to think theyre not comparing?, According to Scanlon, Poppes initial line of questioning was not subtle. In this regard, Poppe says that she was a commissioned officer a lieutenant who got caught having sex in a compromising position with an enlisted man, Vallejo, technically her military inferior. From March 15 to 19, Leshikar and Lavigne were on vacation with their families at Disney World in Florida. Lavigne then went into the home, and locked himself inside with both of their daughters, who were around five years old at the time. Pentagon Finally Stops Hiding Military Overdose Epidemic, Senators Press Pentagon for Answers on Rash of Overdose Deaths, These Kids Are Dying Inside the Overdose Crisis Sweeping Fort Bragg. The Army missed another chance to rein in rogue elements in Delta Forces enlisted ranks in 2018, after Lavigne killed Leshikar in a drug-fueled altercation that was proof positive of something rotten in the state of Special Forces. Her superiors didnt know about the former, and she herself had reported the latter. Vallejo says the sex was consensual and was acquitted of all charges arising from the incident in a June 2018 court-martial on Fort Bragg. As to any potential discharge, were not able to comment due to Privacy Act protections., When Connecting Vets reached out to CID on Fort Bragg regarding the deaths of Leshikar, Lavigne and Dumas, spokesperson Christopher Grey said: All I am releasing is it is a homicide investigation. Those guys, they would drink, and they would need to have sex, she says. On the afternoon of March 21, they arrived at Lavigne's home in the 1300 block of Anhinga Court in Fayetteville. Since he was tried by the military, a branch of the federal government, the double-jeopardy clause of the U.S. Constitution would not bar the state from prosecuting him all over again. In 2020, The New York Times, Associated Press, and CNN would cover the sexual-assault allegation against a Navy SEAL on a base in Iraq. The examination revealed multiple small lacerations on her vulva, as well as a contusion and four scratch marks on her left flank and lower back, from the hood of the car. The Cumberland County Sheriffs Office investigated and declared the death justifiable homicide.. It appears that a lot goes on here.. The warehouse is three blocks from police headquarters, but a spokesman for the Fayetteville PD denies knowing anything about the place, and had no relevant incident reports pertaining to the address. "The shooter's own words bury his ass because there is no screw driver. That was a crazy ethical mistake.. He was host of the event at Macs that night. Thats a significant omission, because Scanlons case is also a signal example of another systemic issue in the military: the entitled attitudes and hard-partying lifestyles of some elite soldiers more than two decades into the war on terrorism; the apparent breakdown in good order and discipline in the Special Forces in recent years, with rising instances of alleged criminality among Green Berets and Navy SEALs; and the special treatment often accorded to special operators by civilian and military law enforcement in and around Fort Bragg. He learned to read and understand Arabic, but could not speak it. Over the course of 18 months between 2020 and 2021, more than 80 military members stationed at the base died from "sudden" and "unexplained" causes. In his statement to police later that day he said that Leshikar was acting paranoid and believed that they were being followed, and that their conversation was being listened to by a third party. Lavigne was due in Cumberland County District Court next week in connection with a hit-and-run charge from last February, the newspaper reported. I dont see how anyone could have believed that consensual sex occurred there., When she finished using the toilet and opened the door, she was startled to find Vallejo standing right there. I said, No, find someone else. That little girl will never ever forget what she witnessed, he said. SUBSCRIBE Today!Also available everywhere you listen to podcasts!The recent deaths of Army Delta Force member William J. Lavigne and Army Veteran Timothy Dum. I wanted this all behind me.. I know this was specifically Delta Force, but its like this across the whole of USASOC, using an acronym for the U.S. Armys Special Operations Command. The Coast x Coast Foundation raised $450,943 in tax-free contributions from 2016 to 2020, according to IRS records. He was originally set to be tried in civilian court, but Army prosecutors assigned to Special Forces swooped in at the last minute and caused the Cumberland County district attorney to drop the charges so that Vallejo could be tried by the military. They even took his license plates off., Billy, we love you and will miss you, the Coast x Coast club posted to its Instagram page two days later. Lavigne was a member of the Coast x Coast club and a good friend of Vallejos. So Leshikar's death remains in conflict. While Leshikar's daughter has been able to grow and thrive despite a traumatic event, the rest of the family feels they have been cheated by the Army and the Sheriff's Office out of ever seeing justice served, especially after Lavigne's apparent homicide. As of 2010, the document shows, he was a TEAM MEMBER/OPERATOR in the organization demarcated 1ST SFOD-D (DELTA FORCE)., Like SEAL Team 6, its sister unit and only military peer, Delta Force is whats known as a Special Mission Unit. A review of his uniform and decorations shows he was likely assigned to. The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History She wasnt being truthful about her encounter with Cris Vallejo., They should not have allowed my lawyer to testify against me, Scanlon says. . In the military and in popular culture, their kind is revered. This was 37-year-old William Lavigne III, a Master Sergeant and former 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (aka Delta Force) soldier. He gave me his card and invited us to go to the next bar with everyone., They exchanged phone numbers, and a group of about nine, led by Vallejo, relocated from Macs to a bar called Paddys, an over-the-top Irish pub out on Raeford Road that has a metal detector at the front entrance, bartenders in Scottish kilts, brass bathroom door handles cast with anatomical exactitude in the form of male genitalia, and urinals shaped like a womans mouth. Let me know when your [sic] home safe. To this he appended a heart emoji and a kissy-face. One woman who was much better acquainted with both men, and the whole Coast x Coast crew, is an ex-soldier whom Ill call Jane for the sake of anonymity. That was how they operated.. Hes in JSOC.. During this time, the two allegedly had an argument which then turned into a physical confrontation, according to a 1st Special Forces Command memorandum obtained by Connecting Vets. I dont think they go around on shooting sprees. Nances legal reasoning may have been sound, but it still resulted in a rape counselor providing testimony against her own client at trial, a result that another judge might have bent over backward to avoid. On Dec. 2, 2020, Master Sgt. Mostly doing the talking, that I remember, was Capt. The Army couldnt give Scanlon a transcript because no transcript ever existed. Mr. He would also self medicate with Valium. The DA treated the killing as a justifiable homicide and Lavigne was not charged with a crime. In short, a person like Lavigne would be a VERY difficult person to kill. Joseph Morman, Scanlon says. Spouses, children, grandchildren, and on and on.. A major weakness for the defense was Scanlons apparent absence of a motive to fabricate a rape claim, complete with a trip to the hospital and all. There were several people present, and the ABC officers learned that the men were military with security clearances. Out of deference to their service of our nation, the ABC officers let them off with a verbal warning. Law enforcement later told Leshikar's family that they had found a screw driver, not at the scene of his death, but outside near his car where he had been removing the battery. She accused a Special Forces operative of rape. What happened next remains disputed by the family members of both men, but the medical examiner's report reveals some details. Poppe says he cant recall the substance of Lavignes testimony, but discloses that after the court-martial concluded, he took him on as a client, too. The hard-partying antics of the Coast x Coast club could certainly be seen as a manifestation of that sort of attitude, a sense of exemption from ordinary strictures and petty rules. Additionally, Lavigne never stated or implied that he moved the screw driver or any weapon after shooting SFC Leshikar.. Why didnt you tell anyone about the witness that came around the corner? she remembers him asking. She wasnt credible, Poppe says. But pressing this line of inquiry served a clear ulterior purpose, Scanlon says: Trying to slut-shame me, and say that I did that all the time.. He was intoxicated, but happy, she said. Since learning of Lavigne's death, Leshikar's daughter has opened up about it, saying she was previously afraid Lavigne would kill her mother if she spoke of it, Rick told Connecting Vets. RIP, bro., One year later, the authorities have identified no suspects, arrested no perpetrators, and disclosed nothing about the evidence theyve gathered to date. Both men were on active duty in Delta Force at the time. A guy whos in Delta Force would not be flashing his name around and having a nonprofit and partying at a bar. Connecting Vets contacted Cumberland County Sheriff's Office to obtain a copy of the full incident report, but was told that it will only be released with a court order from a judge.
Mvn Clean Package Has Encountered A Problem Mule, 1970s Fatal Car Accidents Uk, Articles W