Luigi59
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The former midshipman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claims she was railroaded out of the academy even though, she said, there was little evidence against her.
Her case launched a Naval Academy investigation into the use of “spice,” or synthetic marijuana, in which 16 midshipmen would be dismissed and another 11 would be allowed to resign while under investigation for drug use.
The former midshipman is still fighting to have her case reopened and to win reinstatement to the academy. She was a casualty, she said, of a system at the academy that gives midshipmen few options to defend themselves once they have been charged with wrongdoing.
“One of the key witnesses against her was having hallucinations,” said attorney Charles Gittins, a former Marine Judge Advocate General’s Corps officer and 1975 Naval Academy grad. “But nobody cared. They just wanted to get things over with and didn’t listen to the facts.”
In disciplinary cases, those accused under the conduct system are not given the same procedural protections they’d find in a courtroom. Yet they can be dismissed from the academy, given a dishonorable discharge from the military and, for upperclassman, charged upward of $100,000 for their education.
“The Naval Academy has a history of that. They can’t make a case, and the conduct system is a kangaroo court,” said Gittins, who has represented a number of midshipmen over the years. He did not represent the former mid but was familiar with her case.
“They let the facts be damned and do what they want to do. Her case is a perfect example of that,” he said.
Naval Academy officials declined to discuss their investigation of spice with The Capital. NCIS spokesman Ed Buice said in an email investigators simply provided information to the academy officials.
“The results of those investigations are (presented) to command, which determines the best course of action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice,” he said.
The accused midshipman’s case is a study in a legal system unique to the military.
Christopher Drewniak, a former Marine Judge Advocate General’s Corps officer, is the woman’s former attorney. He declined to discuss the case, but says the standards for evidence in the Naval Academy’s conduct system are virtually nonexistent, and there is little due process.