MARINE (JAG) LT. COL. INDICTED
ON SEX CHARGES INVOLVING
SEVEN YEAR-OLD GIRL

Shakespeare once wrote: “First, kill all the lawyers.” We don’t agree. There are some that deserve to live. Like the attorneys that advertise with MilitaryCorruption.com.

Seriously, there are few officers held in less repute in the military than a senior-grade JAG colonel. We say “senior-grade” because many of the company-grade (captain and below) JAGs we know are disgusted by the so-called “military justice system,” and can’t wait to leave and re-enter the civilian world where the Bill of Rights and the United States Constitution still stand for something.

These lower-grade officers are sickened by what they’re forced to do to keep the military’s conviction rate of more than 95% on par with that of Communist China.

But of those who make it a career, some – not all, have learned how to compromise their beliefs and put their conscience on hold. Some even enjoy sending service-members to prison, regardless of whether or not they happen to be innocent or guilty. Promotions don’t come when you fight “too hard’ for your client. A captain, aspiring to be a major, realizes “early-on,” you can’t “rattle the cage” and expect to be rewarded.

So, when a senior JAG, a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, is indicted on two felony counts of aggravated sexual battery of a seven year-old girl, the troops who suffer under the usual “double-standard of justice” in the military, pinch themselves that one of the “brass” has actually been nailed.

In all fairness, Lt. Col. Jeremiah Irvin Rupert, a 22-year veteran of the Corps, is INNOCENT until proven guilty. But the supreme irony of a man who – over the years – may have sent many an enlisted member and junior officer to prison for the same offence, and could end up there himself, is not lost on these Marines.

They are quietly amazed at the turn of events and tell MilitaryCorruption.com that Rupert “must have made some enemies up the chain-of-command. Usually a light colonel never gets charged with something like this."

If that is indeed the case, Lt. Col. Rupert is a very unlucky man. Now that it has gone public, the Marine Corps will have to pull out all stops to destroy the colonel. What he is accused of is about as bad a charge as a Marine can be hit with. Damage control for the vaunted Marine Corps “public image” demands a “conviction.” Nothing else will suffice.

You see, this case arose out of an investigation by civilian police in Albermarle County, Virginia. It’s a lot harder for the “brass hats” to cover-up” or “protect” one of their one when the local newspaper finds out about it and spreads it all over. No way to “contain” that!

Investigators say that Rupert is alleged to have “touched” the girl “in the vaginal area” over and under her clothing, and having the girl “touch his genitals” in June 2001.

The cops won’t say who reported the alleged assaults, where they occurred and if Rupert and the girl were acquainted.

The 40 year-old colonel was released on $5,000 bail. The Staff Judge Advocate of 2d Force Service Group, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, graduated several weeks ago from the Army Judge Advocate General’s School at the University of Virginia.

We can only hope for his sake that he paid attention in class.