Camp Casey soldier gets 6 months for stealing cash

[unhappycamper]

Camp Casey soldier gets 6 months for stealing cash
By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, February 8, 2008

CAMP CASEY, South Korea — There are actually some cases where drunkenness is used as a valid defense. But not this one.

Pvt. Matthew Lawrence Gardner claimed intoxication led him to steal 200,000 won ($225) out of a South Korean man’s back pocket in March. Another alcohol-fueled night led him to take $531 out of a soldier’s wallet while the soldier slept, he said.

On Wednesday, military judge Col. David Conn sentenced Gardner to six months in jail, an $890 per month reduction in pay and demotion to E-1 in the Camp Casey courtroom for the two thefts, breaking curfew and leaving post after his company commander ordered him to stay.

Gardner, of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry, headquarters company, pleaded guilty to all charges. Conn, however, reminded him before accepting the plea that “alcoholic amnesia” is a valid defense, though Conn made no comment on its effectiveness.

The two larceny charges require “intent to permanently deprive” someone from using money or other stolen property under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (sic)


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52287

[orleans]

1. the old: "christ, was i drunk last night" syndrome n/t