At the time, he was so depressed, anxious, guilt-stricken, and strung out on drugs that its a wonder he was able to put on his full-dress uniform that morning. Her experience with the military-justice system illustrates the myriad difficulties faced by women in the overwhelmingly male armed forces who report being raped, and raises questions about the adequacy of the uniformed chain of command to protect the interests of victims of sex crimes allegedly committed by service members. He and Lavigne would talk and argue with one another like they were brothers, Leshikar's sister Nicole Rick recalled in an interview with Connecting Vets. The Cumberland County Sheriffs Office investigated and declared the death justifiable homicide.. He was a great dude. "The shooter's own words bury his ass because there is no screw driver. Because otherwise I would not be using a port-a-potty., She went outside and crossed the blacktop to where the toilet was set up against the exterior wall of a metal building. Delta Force's Dirty Secret - Rolling Stone William LaVigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44. Thats a significant omission, because Scanlons case is also a signal example of another systemic issue in the military: the entitled attitudes and hard-partying lifestyles of some elite soldiers more than two decades into the war on terrorism; the apparent breakdown in good order and discipline in the Special Forces in recent years, with rising instances of alleged criminality among Green Berets and Navy SEALs; and the special treatment often accorded to special operators by civilian and military law enforcement in and around Fort Bragg. Yet, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office which ran the investigation of Leshikar's death since it happened off post, ruled it to be a "justifiable homicide." On the back patio, they are standing around a red tent with the Coast x Coast logo, drinking beer, chatting at the bar, and smoking cigarettes. . I had no idea why they were making me decide this. Lavigne later said in a statement to police he was removing the car's battery. Maybe I wasnt clear enough, she texted a girlfriend at 8:59 a.m. on Sept. 12. William J Lavigne II, 37, was identified as one of two men found dead at a Fort Bragg training area Credit: Army 4 Sgt First Class Mark Leshikar's family have now said Lavigne, 37, allegedly shot Leshikar dead during a heated argument 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. Scanlon recalls Morman urging her to consent to a change in venue, arguing that a court-martial offered a better chance to convict, among other reasons, because a guilty verdict does not have to be unanimous under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Special Forces soldier found dead at Fort Bragg killed a Green Beret On March 17, Leshikar called his sister, Nicole Rick, to wish her a happy Saint Patrick's Day. 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. According to him, agents initiated a collateral investigation with Fayetteville police. 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. On Sept. 8, 2021, the Coast x Coast club holds a public event in Fayetteville, at their usual haunt, Macs Speed Shop. William Lavigne II, 37, pictured above, was found in Fort Bragg on December 2. Alycia Stokes written testimony read. Whoever they are, they were capable of taking out one of the worlds most skilled and experienced gunfighters, without leaving any apparent clue for the FBI or CID to follow. USASOC declined to comment based on concerns about privacy, but pointed out that a police investigation and a line of duty report have different burdens of proof. Another struck hit him in his right side. Master Sergeant. The jury would have been able to see from her dress blues that, in stark contrast with Vallejo, she was a rookie officer in a conventional unit. Spokeswoman Christina Howell said she could not elaborate on the specifics of what happened because stories of individuals at the scene appeared to differ about why they were there and how they know each other, but that it did not appear to be a random incident. She passed a covered motorcycle trailer with a looming portrait of a slain Delta Force soldier printed on the side. While justice for the apparent killings of Lavigne and Dumas has yet to be delivered, another family is also seeking justice, and speaking out about another killing in 2018 in which Lavigne was involved. Its possible that it was expunged, a clerk tells me. . She yelled something unintelligible before disappearing. She attained the rank of captain, but the missed deployment, the transfers between units, and the stigma that attaches to female soldiers who report being raped all the gossipy, nontangible ways, she says, that marks you out as a problem child diminished her prospects of advancement. Scanlons testimony was that she had told her special-victims counsel about seeing the Green Berets widow, albeit months after the fact, and that she had instructed the SVC to inform the prosecution of her belated recollection. LaVignes gray 2016 Chevrolet Colorado pickup was found at the crime scene in the woods off Manchester Road. LaVigne was supposed to be in Cumberland County District Court on Jan. 15 for a Feb. 17, 2020, hit-and-run charge, court documents say. Dumas, Sr., 44, and Lavigne, 37, were found dead on Fort Bragg near Manchester Road in Cumberland County, North Carolina, on December 2, 2020. He was not a quiet professional, she says, using a term that special-operations generals came up with in the 1980s to describe themselves, and since repeated endlessly in the news media. Two men found dead at Fort Bragg identified as USASOC - Army Times None are able to say why the shooting took place, but they all remember Lavigne. For reasons that remain a mystery, Lavigne had pulled out the .40-caliber sidearm he carried and double-tapped his best buddy right in front of two horrified little girls, his daughter and Leshikars. Sometimes it only happens because someone with a dog in the fight gets involved. Soldier and veteran found dead at Fort Bragg had longtime ties to the Army investigators with CID had initially washed their hands of the case, but the two JAG prosecutors, Morman and Cohen, claimed to have only belatedly learned that the victim and defendant were both soldiers, which gave the military parallel jurisdiction to try Vallejo. 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. That is not accurate, a spokesman for Army CID, Jeffrey Castro, writes in a statement. And I was in law enforcement for all of the years that he was growing up so I was very hard on my kids, tried to make them strong and independent. A brief report by CBS 17 in Raleigh-Durham on Sept. 30 named Vallejo as an N.C. The certificates dont indicate how long the bodies were in the woods. When her contract was up in 2019, she resigned from the Army. No arrests have been made nearly five months after a Special Forces soldier and veteran were found dead Dec. 2, at Fort Bragg, an official said last week. A source familiar with Army Special Operations told Connecting Vets that Delta Force operators use proprietary encryption software on their phones for day-to-day work related calls and text messages. The samples proved a match to Vallejos DNA. The Coast x Coast Foundation raised $450,943 in tax-free contributions from 2016 to 2020, according to IRS records. How coincidental is it? she says. Finally, the trial was set to begin in late-February 2018. When this happens, when you don't have the prosecution of the right guy, it's a string of human misery. Instead, on June 26, Matrafailo was the first person called to the stand by the defense. I only recently learned about Lavignes July 2020 arrest from a police report that the sheriffs office initially withheld. 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. 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. Dumas was an Army veteran who previously served as the property . Her superiors didnt know about the former, and she herself had reported the latter. 2023 Audacy, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. In February 2019, Lavigne had another brush with the law. She said that when she opened the door, and her daddy was mad and walking towards uncle Billy and uncle Billy came around and shot him, and then my daddy did this, her family described. She was shaking, acting odd, pacing. The charges were dropped when authorities determined he was not involved in the criminal activity, Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West told The Fayetteville Observer at the time. FBI joins Army investigation into 2 bodies found on Fort Bragg According to a 2014 ATF report leaked to The Intercept, outlaw motorcycle gangs are proliferating in the military in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but aside from their vests and patches, the present-day Coast x Coast club looks more like customers in a Bass Pro Shop than Hells Angels. His death certificate states his last place of residence was in Hope Mills. Around the same time, he went on a cross-country ride with the Coast x Coast motorcycle club, starting out of Los Angeles and bound for Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Scanlon maintains that her case was mishandled. But pressing this line of inquiry served a clear ulterior purpose, Scanlon says: Trying to slut-shame me, and say that I did that all the time.. Going around chatting with people like a politician.. Those deleted files were the only record of the testimony the jurors chose to believe over hers. After taking her statement and reviewing her text messages, Detective Matrafailo drove her the three blocks to the warehouse in an effort to identify the precise location. Green Beret death raises questions, 1st Special Forces Command Line of Duty Memorandum. She was just five years old at the time of her father's death. He learned to read and understand Arabic, but could not speak it. Those guys, they would drink, and they would need to have sex, she says. Fort Bragg officials announced that the Master Sgt. Scanlon realized that this was not going to stop, Matrafailo wrote, and gave up fighting back in the hopes that it would end quickly.. William J. Lavigne II, 37, was found dead with another man at a training ground in Fort Bragg on Wednesday, December 2, 2020. It is a lot for a jury to make a decision like that, she says. With Leshikar and Lavigne dead, there remains only one witness to the killing: Leshikar's daughter. William J. Lavigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas deepens with the revelation that Lavigne was also involved in the death of Sgt. He maintains that Scanlon and Vallejo were witnessed in the act by people at the warehouse that night. And in North Carolina, there is no statute of limitations for rape. Because she is a minor, Connecting Vets is not identifying Leshikar's daughter and has not spoken directly to her. Leshikar and Lavigne were also known to use cocaine, Leshikar's family said. There might be a good reason for Vallejo to avoid the spot where, almost five years ago to the day, he met Scanlon. Im not a police officer. 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. (U.S. Army) Like Lavigne, Dumas had ties to the Special. Two men found dead at Fort Bragg: Update : This ain't Hell, but you can 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. Connecting Vets was provided screen shots of those charges and the court date. It was very frustrating, Scanlon says, that all these people had waited till the last minute, then were trying to put the decision on me, when Im not a lawyer. The special operations community was rocked this week when the bodies of MSG Lavigne, a decorated Special Operator and Delta Force member, and Timothy Dumas an Army veteran were found in a . 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. 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. 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. During a stretch of Janes military career, her social and professional circle overlapped with the five men, who made up the core of the motorcycle club, all active-duty soldiers on Delta Force. William J. Lavigne Wiki - William J. Lavigne Biography Court documents state that Dumas broke into an apartment in Walkertown with the intent to terrorize and injure an occupant of the building, on April 11, 2020. He was taught how to survive behind enemy lines, resist interrogation, and escape from POW camps. !For Educational Purposes Only! When Scanlon learns that the audio was destroyed, she unexpectedly breaks down in tears. Scanlon and Tina arrived at Macs shortly before 10 p.m. A number of motorcycles were parked out front. Master Sgt. A Defense Department memorandum noted that Lavigne wasn't credible but Leshikar's death was in the line of duty, while the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office described it as "justifiable homicide." Leshikar's family has alleged evidence was tampered with and that Lavigne called another Delta Force Operator to come to the scene. He was a really good mentor that I looked up to, she tells me recently. Youre lucky Im the Army, she told him jokingly, setting her phone and purse on the folding table. It is something that has changed now, for exactly this reason. Once people started getting drunk, they would bust it out, and drunk girls would try it and get all hornied up. The Ft. Bragg Delta Force Murders: New Details Come to Light He had a dudes brains on his boot, she says, and he just flicked it off, as if completely unfazed. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time ICYMI episode: The slaying of Special Forces soldier Mark Leshikar William Lavigne III, 37, on Dec. 1-2. The next morning, she told the guy she was dating at the time that his buddy had raped her, but he didnt believe her, she says. Scanlon and Vallejo both continued to live in Fayetteville and work on Fort Bragg. 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. Leshikar's family allege evidence was tampered with and that Lavigne called another Delta Force Operator to come to the scene Credit: Facebook. In the military and in popular culture, their kind is revered. 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. A news release from the FBI said investigators are looking to create a timeline of the locations and activities of Timothy Dumas Sr., 44, and Master Sgt. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time Soldier slams military for clearing operator of raping her in secret The DA treated the killing as a justifiable homicide and Lavigne was not charged with a crime. 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. Taught the SF Q course for a bit, met an amazing woman through non army friends, decided one purple heart was enough, retired E7 (offered E8 to stay in). On deployment, they literally go around blasting peoples brains out, she says. Delta Force Member and Veteran Found Dead at Ft. Bragg William told me that my brother had a screw driver but nothing was found at the scene, Leshikar's sister told Connecting Vets. Lavigne retained him while still under Army investigation into the . 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. Scanlon says reporting the alleged attack, and the subsequent ordeal, hurt her military career. This is not how I wanted my time. The second man, whose name was not disclosed, was an army veteran previously stationed at the North Carolina military base. or Erin Scanlon, a junior Army officer in the artillery branch, Fort Bragg was a prime posting. He was scheduled to appear in court March 12, 2019, but the charges and court date disappeared from court records. She says that she was excluded from hearing the testimony of the other witnesses, that her military-appointed attorney was swapped out five separate times, and that one of them was called to provide testimony against her. Over those five years, it paid out grants totaling $187,143. Two US servicemen, one who was a member of the elite Delta - Reddit Special Forces soldier, Army veteran found dead on Fort Bragg were shot Tom Satterly Even with the rape kit and the testimony of witnesses like Tina, much would have hinged on Scanlons credibility. I was resolved to be stoic no matter what, because I knew I had stood up for myself as much as possible. 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. Poppe does not find it remarkable, he says, that he simultaneously represented two members of the most elite military unit in the United States, one suspected of murder, the other accused of rape. Green Beret and Army veteran found dead at Fort Bragg were facing She filed a FOIA request for the transcript in 2019, and the Army gave her the trial record instead. Investigators ask that anyone with information about the deaths of LaVigne and Dumas call the FBI Charlotte office at 704-672-6100 or Army CID at 910-396-8777. the deaths of Master Sgt. Timothy Dumas, Sr. and Master Sergeant William Lavigne Iii It was a warm night in the Carolinas, with a quarter-moon in the sky. This experience led Beckwith to advocate for a similar unit in the US Army. At times, she observed their operations on a video feed. According to the Leshikar family, the investigators said they had no real jurisdiction over Lavigne since Leshikar was killed off post. Jane never saw Vallejo doing drugs, and unlike Lavigne, he didnt run around getting arrested, but she remembers him being at the center of a social scene that she describes as toxic. This was at the tail end of the Obama years, on the cusp of Trumps election. Scanlon previously told her story to Ella Torres of ABC News, who published a thorough report on her case in 2020, and The Fayetteville Observer covered aspects of it in 2019. The staff sergeant had invited her over to his house earlier in the evening, but she and Tina hadnt wanted to leave the party. Like maybe Im making a bigger deal out of it than it was., It is not your fault, her friend responded, and it is a big deal., Monday morning I went into work, Scanlon says. He was a resident of Pinehurst at the time of his death. This Week on SOFREP: A Delta Operator Found Dead, Russian Mercenaries I will keep fighting to put my life back together. As a result, she says, she had to retell her ordeal to five different SVCs, some of whom were unprepared or missed meetings. This was in violation of regulations that forbid fraternization, or close personal relationships between officers and enlisted soldiers, but as the staff sergeant wasnt in her unit or her chain of command, she thought of it as little more than a peccadillo. The alleged perpetrator, Adel Anayat, eventually copped to a misdemeanor. I wanted this all behind me.. Since he was tried by the military, a branch of the federal government, the double-jeopardy clause of the U.S. Constitution would not bar the state from prosecuting him all over again. I was Billys attorney, Poppe says. 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. 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. I looked at my daddy's face and I knew he was gone, the girl told her family members. I dont think they go around on shooting sprees. I knew him, Joe says of Lavigne. In a motion dated June 12, the defense stated that one of the civil-affairs officers was expected to testify that she had observed close, friendly, and flirtatious interaction between Vallejo and Scanlon all night. Special Forces Command decided he died in the line of duty, while the local sheriff's office ruled his death a justifiable homicide, all while Lavigne, continued his work with Delta Force. Theres no doubt that he was charged in Cumberland County, yet strangely, there is no trace of his arraignment or indictment in a publicly accessible database of North Carolina court records. Because she was already guilty of one instance of fraternization, with the staff sergeant to whose house she had been headed to that night, she had a motive to lie and pretend that the encounter with Vallejo was nonconsensual, in Poppes theory of the case. In September 2015, he went on the Fox affiliate in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with a military dog named Gunner. Special Forces soldier found dead next to Army vet at Fort Bragg 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. A spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command said the investigation continues into the deaths of Master Sgt. Scanlons SVC her fifth discouraged her from attending, she says. Poppe says there was no connection between the two cases. But Castro cant say when that investigation began, why Scanlon felt that her initial complaint had been dismissed, or whether the recordings she mentioned still exist. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Anything other than you saying yes or asking for it is not consent, her friend replied. The following year, the legal travails of ex-SEAL Eddie Gallagher would make national headlines for months on end.
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