Stars and Stripes: Emails show general warned against reversing Wilkerson verdict
Stars and Stripes reports:
Brig. Gen. Scott Zobrist didn’t mince words.
The commander of the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base, Italy, was concerned that his boss might reverse the dismissal from the service of Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, fighter pilot and wing inspector general, who had worked for Zobrist until a jury convicted him of sexually assaulting a sleeping houseguest.
In an email to Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, Zobrist wrote that he understood that Franklin, as convening authority and ultimate arbiter, might be persuaded to reverse Wilkerson’s dismissal — as an act of clemency to keep retirement benefits intact for the family.
But still he was against it.
“That would be absolutely devastating in so many ways that I cannot even begin to consider it,” Zobrist wrote in the Feb. 19 email. “Having Wilkerson back on active duty at Aviano, even for one day, would… have a huge negative impact on morale, send a very negative message about how seriously we take sexual assault in the AF, and potentially call into question the effectiveness of our UCMJ system in general.”
