CO Ethics/Favoritism/Appearance of Impropriety

[52nempwv]

What is the name of your state? VA
Here's the story. About a year ago I was found guilty of Fraternization at Captains Mast. I was given a punitive letter of reprimand and administratively separated from the Navy with a General (under honorable conditions) Discharge and a RE-4 reenlistment code. I don't have a problem with that, I did the crime (O-2 seeing an E-5) and I accept my punishment, as draconian as it seems. Prior to that (under a different CO) I was consistantly ranked in my fitreps as the #1 JO onboard (I provide that for reference only, I wasn't a dirtbag so to speak). Here's the rub though. I have recently found out that all throughout my legal proceedings the CO was in contact with my ex-wife, who is a friend of his wife. I have reason to believe that the whole investigation was initiated at my ex's request (all of a sudden the command started reading my emails to the E-5 who was not in the same unit. There was never any kind of incident that would have prompted the investigation otherwise). This communication even went so far as him (the CO) asking my ex whether or not he should press certain charges! Now my ex is using information that she has obtained from members of my former chain of command against me in civilian court (goes to character, she claims). I have been informed out that two more, much more visible and blatant cases of officer/enlisted fraternization have occurred onboard the ship and the CO has given verbal warnings to the officers involved....thats it! I get booted and that get a speech? Whats going on here!?

My questions are:
1. Does this situation constitute a violation of the Privacy Act?
2. Does this situation show favoritism/an appearance of impropriety?
3. Is it an ethics violation?
4. What can I do about it? Should I call IG?

This seems wrong on so many levels...any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fozzy2]

While there may be some smoke, there is not necessarily a fire here. Or at least not one that is likely to grab the Navy's attention. To begin with, *anyone* may report violations of the UCMJ, and if your ex was a civilian she didn't even "jump the chain" to do so. If she thought you were violating the UCMJ then she had every right to inform your CO. No problem there.

As to the "communications" between your CO and your ex, that is much harder to analyze because quite bluntly it depends on precisely what was communicated and what their level of personal involvement was. If your CO blabbed about confidential details in your UIF to your ex, for example, that was clearly wrong. But I doubt that he would come right out and admit if he did, would he? Likewise, would your ex get him in trouble? In short, even *if* there were improper communications, you don't have much proof of it.
Now, on the other hand, if he simply discussed information that might pertain to the charges or asked general opinions, then there probably wasn't anything unlawful about their simply talking/communicating.

A key here is that you got NJP, which has far fewer protections (and far lighter penalties) than a court martial. If he was the CO who gave you the NJP, then he *was* the command. Kind of hard for him to have "undue command influence" over himself. You ex is not his superior, so she could not exert undue command influence. If your ex had pressed your CO to intervene in an Article 32 investigation, for example, that would be a different story. But it was not so.

You could claim there is an appearance of impropriety due to your COs personal relationship with your ex (close friend of the family, etc.). But it is routine for COs to have to take NJP actions in similar situations (small bases, personal relationships, etc.) so you would probably need a lot of evidence to show a *very* close relationship.

Of course, you could have refused NJP and made your case at the time. But you didn't, which will probably lead any IG inspector into thinking that you are now simply mad about your misconduct being used against you in a civil action. You probably ARE mad about it, but unless you have cancelled checks that your ex wrote to the CO, there probably isn't much you can do about it.