FORT BRAGG, N.C., Feb. 7 (UPI) — Supporters of a U.S. Army general charged with fraud and forcible sodomy have set up a website to press their argument he is being unfairly prosecuted.
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair, who is also charged with coercion and inappropriate relationships, formerly served as a deputy commanding general for support of the 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, N.C., where he is being court-martialed. He was sent back to the United States from Afghanistan last spring after he was accused of violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Sinclair faces a prison term if convicted of counts including using his rank and authority to “coerce and compel” an Army captain to engage in a sexual relationship and threatening her if she disclosed the relationship. He has admitted engaging in sexual conduct with the officer but he maintains the relationship was consensual.
His supporters have set up a website, sinclairinnocence.com, in which they accuse Army prosecutors of having “carefully managed a public relations campaign to try and convict General Sinclair in the public sphere, before he even has his day in court,” the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
“The Army has tried to make the case worse than it is,” the website says. “They want you to believe that he’s a porn-addicted, alcoholic rapist.”
Sinclair’s wife, Rebecca Sinclair, is also defending him, even though evidence in the case includes explicitly sexual email exchanges between her husband and the alleged victim, the Times reported.
“It’s not fun for me to see this material on the Web, but we’re asking people to take a look at the evidence and reach their own conclusions,” Rebecca Sinclair said in an email.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
