My (biased) experience, too. Like Gallagher, Anayat was an ordinary Tier 2 special operator, of whom there are as many as 10,000. Which is why he became a Green Beret and why 'De Oppresso Liber' meant everything to him because that was who he was to his core.. Delta Force's Dirty Secret - Rolling Stone Money Minute, What's next for experimental AI projects in the C4ISR sphere. Leshikar's daughter said that William or Uncle Billy was scaring her, and unlocked the door for her father to enter, Leshikar's family said. 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. The doctrine, long a target of legislative reform, bars soldiers and sailors and Marines from recovering damages resulting from wrongful acts by the military. When questioned about the apparent inconsistencies in the Army's investigation and the Cumberland County Sheriff's investigation, USASOC spokesmen Col. Tage Rainsford said: It is my understanding that the CID investigation of MSG Lavigne came to the same conclusion as the Cumberland County Sherriffs Office in that it was justifiable and no charges were filed. 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. 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 Ft. Bragg Delta Force Murders: New Details Come to Light There have not been any arrest(s) and we are not releasing any additional details at this time, Shelly Lynch, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Charlotte, said in an email this week. Sgt Lavigne was a Green Beret and Delta Force member. He is courteous, with an iron handshake, and gives his name as Joe. Training program helps transitioning service members build their VA careers, 2 US Army helicopters crash in Alaska, killing 3 soldiers, Japanese Breakfast's Michelle Zauner tells Glennon Doyle she is 'afraid of her mental health', Half million PACT Act claims have been filed at VA as budget battle looms, Honoring survivors of military sexual trauma. In August 2016 just two weeks before he met Scanlon he threw out the first pitch at a Padres game in San Diego. The adjacent alley was full of junked cars. 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. No reporters attended the subsequent court-martial, and no transcript was made of the proceedings. This is why people don't have any faith in the justice system, Ciolino continued. For her part, Scanlon tried hard not to show any emotion in public, and accepted the jurys July 2018 decision with stoicism. In his mug shot, Vallejo appeared freshly shaved, his beard gone. The body of Master Sgt. Four months before the night in question, Cumberland Countys Alcoholic Beverage Control received a tip from a police officer in Hope Mills, another satellite town of Fort Bragg, about a party occurring in downtown [Fayetteville] in which donations would be accepted, an ABC agent wrote in an affidavit attached to a warrant to search the warehouse and seize alcohol. 1st Special Forces Command ruled that Leshikar's death was in the line of duty, and of no fault of his own. 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. Four .45-caliber shell casings were found at the scene. No more than 10 minutes after arriving, Scanlon sent a text message to a 25-year-old staff sergeant, another soldier at Fort Bragg, whom she occasionally hooked up with. Someone tampered with the crime scene or he's lying," said Paul Ciolino, president of the International Association of Forensic Criminologists, after reviewing documents from the case. Most Delta Force soldiers keep a very low profile. 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. Dumass cause of death is listed as gunshot wounds to the chest and head.. 2023 Audacy, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, Vallejo, dressed in camouflage cargo shorts and a T-shirt, was tall, lean, strong, and fiercely handsome, with a black beard and shaggy brown hair much longer than most soldiers get to wear. The staff sergeant had invited her over to his house earlier in the evening, but she and Tina hadnt wanted to leave the party. By the time of Vallejos trial, it was clear that the Army had missed a chance to intervene in the boundary-pushing, motorcycle-borne debauchery of the Coast x Coast club as early as September 2016, when Scanlon went to CID and alleged that Vallejo had raped her behind their un-permitted clubhouse in downtown Fayetteville, which just happens to be adjacent to the county jail, a building full of cops. . As soon as they said not guilty, my people just kind of quickly escorted me out.. Jane is out of the military now. The Coast x Coast Foundation raised $450,943 in tax-free contributions from 2016 to 2020, according to IRS records. Mr. One penetrated his neck and lodged in his back. It was him and Maj. Stacey Cohen.. No, Joe says. The jury should have been brought to the location at night, she says. I represented him in Cumberland County.. Vallejo was briefly detained in jail on a $100,000 bond. They would have these epic parties, tailgate pool parties, where they would put a liner in the back of a truck and fill it up with water. On one occasion, they hired midget wrestlers to come out, she says. Master Sgt. It is a lot for a jury to make a decision like that, she says. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Going around chatting with people like a politician.. William J. Lavigne Wiki - William J. Lavigne Biography. Vallejo is considered a ladies man and groupies hang out at the ware house [sic] looking for an opportunity to sleep with Mr. Vallejo. This, the detective noted, was according to an employee of the Fayetteville Police Department who had to recuse herself from the case because she herself had once spent the night at Vallejos apartment. That is not accurate, a spokesman for Army CID, Jeffrey Castro, writes in a statement. . The jury panel of nine included two women and was a mix of colonels, majors, and senior sergeants, all of whom served in the Special Forces. 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. They have zero remorse. She doesnt mean that any of the killings she witnessed were illegal or outside the rules of engagement. None can be found referenced in available paperwork either. But he was in JAG for 20 years and has represented such high-profile military clients as Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, and is unable to recall another time when a JSOC operator was arrested for a violent felony against a fellow soldier on U.S. soil, as was the case for both Lavigne and Vallejo. William J. Lavigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44, as the two men found dead at a Fort Bragg training area on Wednesday. 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. As a result, she says, she had to retell her ordeal to five different SVCs, some of whom were unprepared or missed meetings. LaVignes gray 2016 Chevrolet Colorado pickup was found at the crime scene in the woods off Manchester Road. In fact, studies show that the conviction rate on penetrative-rape and forcible-sodomy charges is generally lower in military courts than civilian ones. 10 Facts About Secretive US Army Unit Delta Force | History Hit And when it comes to courts-martial for whatever crime where the accused is a Navy SEAL or Green Beret, they can be more full of anomalies and surprises than a cheap legal thriller. William Lavigne II, 37, pictured above, was found in Fort Bragg on December 2. It was their annual Ride for the Fallen, a coast-to-coast convoy of ex-military bikers to raise money for wounded special operators, and the families of those slain in battle. 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. William J. Lavigne Wiki - William J. Lavigne Biography I dont think they go around on shooting sprees. 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. William LaVigne II, 37 Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44. shooting Bragg In Other News Some companies charge hefty fees to help vets with disability claims Its unclear if he ever returned to Delta Force or what he did for his last three years in the military. First Class Mark Leshikar were best friends. 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. Looking back on the court-martial, it was a solid case and my testimony was powerful, Scanlon says, but I was this lowly lieutenant up against Delta Force and USASOC and JSOC, and all that entails. I knew I would never find out what really happened that night, that her son had been killed. William Lavigne and Timothy Dumas were found dead at a training site on Fort Bragg, North Carolina. As a criminal profiler, Ciolino has investigated and exonerated death row inmates. According to Vallejos enlistment-record brief, obtained by Rolling Stone, he was born in California and joined the Army shortly before 9/11, when he was 19. She only met him and Vallejo that one night in her life. He literally picked me up off the ground, and my shoes fell off., He set her on the flaking hood of a defunct Saab convertible that was sunk in tall weeds. Poppe says there was no connection between the two cases. She looked up and saw Scanlon emerge from the warehouse and start toward the only outlet to the street, a narrow strip of dirt parallel to the train tracks. Together they make up the core of JSOC, the black ops component of the military. He had done three combat rotations with Delta Force two in Afghanistan and one in Iraq but she never guessed that he was a trained killer, in her words. We want to hear it. Mostly doing the talking, that I remember, was Capt. 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. Over the course of 18 months between 2020 and 2021, more than 80 military members stationed at the base died from "sudden" and. Foul play suspected in deaths of sergeant and veteran at Fort Bragg A spokesman for USASOC tells me that no transcript of the audio recordings of the trial proceedings was ever typed up because Vallejo was acquitted, so there was no possibility of an appeal. She lives a very different life and has no contact with the elite soldiers who had been her colleagues, friends, and lovers for the better part of a decade. Calls to Cumberland Country Sheriff's Office detectives to ask specific questions about the investigation went unanswered and the Sheriff's Office did not respond to requests for further comment. The only entrance is hard to find and closed off by a chain-link gate. No unit patch. First Class Mark Leshikar . The tipster also indicated that drugs would be present, the affidavit attested. They only stayed that long because Tina was famished and there was a Crock-Pot of food on a folding table. 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. There is zero respect for women in that community, she says. He was investigated in 2018 after fatally shooting his friend, Sgt. Now, she told him that she would be over shortly, and used her phone to order an Uber to take her there. The trial record shows that Vallejos defense called eight additional witnesses. Leshikar was a member of 19th Special Forces Group and had previously deployed to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Two men found dead at Fort Bragg: Update : This ain't Hell, but you can Sad as it is, that happens a lot. She has photos to prove that she knew them. But Scanlon didnt get caught with the staff sergeant, nor with Vallejo. It was standard practice at the time, Col. Kazin says. Even if she werent actually barred from the trial by order of the court, she believed that she had to stay in the witness room until called, and according to Scanlon, the SVC did nothing to correct the misapprehension. According to a source who spoke to SOFREP on the condition of anonymity, Army investigators discovered that the truck belonged to 37-year-old William J. Lavigne II, an Army Master Sergeant. Leshikar's family allege evidence was tampered with and that Lavigne called another Delta Force Operator to come to the scene Credit: Facebook. They said Lavigne's harboring a fugitive felony charge could be used to kick him out of Special Forces and discharge him from the military. 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. When Jane read that Lavigne had killed a man with impunity, only to be murdered in turn, I was trembling, she says, sitting out in the cold, chain-smoking. I had no deployment stripes, Scanlon says. The case is being investigated as a homicide, a spokesperson for Army Criminal Investigations Division told Connecting Vets. Youre lucky Im the Army, she told him jokingly, setting her phone and purse on the folding table. As soon as it was over, Scanlon says, I jumped up and grabbed my shoes and ran inside to get my stuff. When her contract was up in 2019, she resigned from the Army. Dumass dark-colored 2015 Dodge Ram pickup was discovered abandoned somewhere else, the news release stated. So who did, and why? She was the first witness called to the stand, on day one. They might have noticed that the shooter was a witness for the alleged rapist, and that they both belonged to the same motorcycle club, made up of soldiers from the Armys most elite unit. Jane was once deployed to a country in Southwest Asia and was stationed on the same base as a contingent from Delta Force. On deployment, they literally go around blasting peoples brains out, she says. 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. I would refer you to CID for anything having to do with any of their investigations. Both men were on active duty in Delta Force at the time. 1st Class Mark Leshikar. But it was a disheartening conclusion, she says, to a difficult and drawn-out ordeal that she insists was not my fault.. Poppe was unable to remember the substance of Matrafailos testimony, only that it involved some aspects of the investigation that had not been discussed., A few months after the trial, Matrafailo would be accused of making inappropriate contact with Scanlon on social media: sending her suggestive emojis, making weird comments about ads for lingerie, and the like. Did it disappear or melt? ICYMI episode: The slaying of Special Forces soldier Mark Leshikar They picked him up down at the stop sign., A big, crazy white man is how a 52-year-old woman named Renee Locklear describes Lavigne. In addition, according to USASOC, the court reporter deleted the audio. He returned the phone to his wife Laura days later saying he found it between the driver's seat and center console of Leshikar's car. The case is being investigated as a homicide, a spokesperson for Army Criminal Investigations Division told Connecting Vets. What the defense has to say, you dont want to hear. How the Army Finds Out Who Has What It Takes to Join Delta Force 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. The Special Forces of the U.S. Army are based out of Fort Bragg, as is the powerful and secretive Joint Special Operations Command, making this spot, inland of the Eastern Seaboard, the central node in the United States global special-operations complex. Soldier slams military for clearing operator of raping her in secret Scanlon never knew Lavigne, not by name. Both Vallejo and Lavigne were exonerated. William LaVigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas Sr., 44, is. She wasnt being truthful about her encounter with Cris Vallejo., They should not have allowed my lawyer to testify against me, Scanlon says. Scanlon derisively refers to the latter four as groupies. A Fayetteville police detective used the same language in his report on her case. As the jury filed in, everyone stood. William Lavigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44, were both found dead in a training area at Fort Bragg on December 2 It has now been revealed that both men were facing. Reached through his lawyer, Vallejo declined to comment for this story. He would also self medicate with Valium. The location was well-known, though, to other municipal authorities, who suspected it of being an illegal bar and a fire hazard, according to internal emails between city and county officials that I obtained. Which is all I wanted to do: deploy with my soldiers. Out of fear that Vallejo [would try to] come looking for me, she wrote, she moved from Fayetteville to another small town nearby. Because of his traumatic brain injury, Leshikar was prescribed Tramadol which he became addicted to, his family said. She understood that beyond a reasonable doubt was a high burden of proof, and evinced no particular desire to see Vallejo in prison. It appears that a lot goes on here.. Death. The Special Forces of the U.S. Army are based out of Fort Bragg, as is the powerful and secretive Joint Special Operations Command, making this spot, inland of the Eastern Seaboard, the central. Vallejo is a notable exception. More than she questions Vallejos acquittal or the jurys decision, Scanlon simply wants to know what happened at the court-martial. What we noted was a warehouse that appeared to pull double duty as a gym and party location, the ABC officer wrote in an email to a colleague. Scanlon and Tina arrived at Macs shortly before 10 p.m. A number of motorcycles were parked out front. No screw driver or any weapon was found near SFC Leshikar's body, the memorandum states. As soon as it concluded with an acquittal, the Army deleted the audio recordings. A Defense Department memorandum based on the Cumberland County Sheriff's report revealed additional inconsistencies. As reported in the Army Times, MSG William J. Lavigne was found dead in the training area of Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. Its like watching a scary movie. He was addicted to Tramadol and self-medicated with . In September 2015, he went on the Fox affiliate in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with a military dog named Gunner. Lavigne and Sgt. Green Beret death raises questions, 1st Special Forces Command Line of Duty Memorandum. He started kissing me, and I was pushing him away. Delta Force is the Army's special-mission unit for counterterrorism and hostage rescues. What the prosecution has to say, you already know, she remembers the SVC telling her. Another struck hit him in his right side. If he didnt have a knife, he would be toting around, like Rambo, some bow-and-arrow-type shit.. 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. 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. She yelled something unintelligible before disappearing. I only recently learned about Lavignes July 2020 arrest from a police report that the sheriffs office initially withheld. Everything revolved around drinking booze and hooking up. It's like winning the lottery twice in a couple years, that's what these odds are.. Do Delta Force operators have a license to kill? 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. Cumberland County sheriffs deputies named him as a suspect on incident reports for crimes including possession of cocaine and crack paraphernalia, weapons infractions, hit-and-run, harboring an escapee, maintaining a dwelling place to manufacture a controlled substance, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Green Beret gunned down by his best friend, a Delta Operator It wasnt really that dark out., I dont remember the precise questions that I asked her, Poppe says today, or what exhibits were introduced in evidence, but I remember the facts of the case, and the evidence supported that she consented to the sexual acts with Cris Valley.. Lavigne then went into the home, and locked himself inside with both of their daughters, who were around five years old at the time. 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. Instead, on June 26, Matrafailo was the first person called to the stand by the defense. As Rolling Stone reported in a previous piece, "The Fort Bragg Murders," in March 2018 right around the time that military prosecutors took control of Vallejo's trial Lavigne shot and killed a Green Beret in the living room of his house in Fayetteville without suffering the slightest legal consequences.". It was not a decision to try to sneak it out of Cumberland County. The only purpose of convening the meeting with the DA, Col. Kazin says, was to make sure that the JAG prosecutors understood whether Scanlon preferred to have a military or civilian trial. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. However, documents say that Leshikar's wife Laura spoke with him that day and he sounded lucid to her. But the instructions to the jury show that the judge, Col. Jeffrey Nance, allowed the panel to consider Scanlons relationship with the staff sergeant insofar as it was probative of her motive, if any, to fabricate her allegations against the accused. The judge cautioned the panel that they were forbidden to conclude that Scanlon, having willingly slept with one enlisted man, was likely to do it again; but to use an old legal clich, that was a bit like throwing a skunk into the jury box and instructing the jurors not to smell it. If her aim was to avoid disciplinary action or professional embarrassment, she could have simply said nothing and no one would have been the wiser. The next morning, Scanlon went directly to the Womack Army Medical Center and underwent a sexual-assault forensic examination. Those guys, they would drink, and they would need to have sex, she says. Then, on Dec. 2, 2020, Lavigne turned up dead, shot multiple times in the chest, his body wrapped up as if for disposal, and placed in the back of his truck, which was left abandoned on a dirt road near Lake MacArthur. 2023 Rolling Stone, LLC. If you felt that 1LT Scanlon was sexually assaulted, why was she not taken to the hospital as soon as possible? another asked the staff sergeant. It had been, in retrospect, a dark period in her life, she says, a damaging, booze-soaked run of years in her twenties. Lavigne retained him while still under Army investigation into the shooting death of Leshikar, he says. Do you realize what you did? she replied at 4:25 a.m. So Leshikar's death remains in conflict. A sort of Delta Force biker gang that story wouldnt have been good for the Army, not at a time when the Navy was getting hammered by allegations of rampant drug abuse, fratricidal violence, and sexual assault in the ranks of its SEAL teams. Special Forces soldier found dead at Fort Bragg killed a Green Beret Once out of uniform, Scanlon began to meet advocates, lawyers, and people knowledgeable about sexual assault in the military.
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