Military Pay while incarcerated

[Shadowbunny]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Missouri

A Soldier is incarcerated while awaiting trial on a Homicide charge. Has not pled guilty, but told the arresting officer "I should have shot myself instead." Is she entitled to her pay until such time as she is found guilty (or pleads out)?

 

[fozzy2]

What was said is irrelevant for determining pay. Normally a servicemember will continue to get pay until there is a resolution (i.e. found guilty or released back to the military), and the accounting will be corrected in the end depending on the resolution. If the person is convicted, then that time will usually be considered "lost time" and their pay (or leave or end-of-servicie date) may be adjusted accordingly. If they are not found guilty, then they are normally considered to have been "unavoidably" kept from work and will keep that money.

There can be complications: for example, if the servicemember was UA when arrested, etc. and exceptions can crop up. The CO must sometimes make a determination as to whether the incarceration is "unavoidable", but they are often guided by policy-- the general rule of "guilty until proven innocent" is usually followed.

You can look at "Milpersman 1600-100" for a more detailed explanation of "lost time":
http://www.npc.navy.mil/NR/rdonlyres/EAE7A023-02B0-4090-863D-9902AACEF16A/0/1600100.pdf

 

[Peligroso27]

A military member incarcerated by civilian authorities will generally be considered AWOL. That would mean a loss of pay after three days. OP needs to be more specific as to where the person in question is incarcerated.

 

[Shadowbunny]

Thank you both for the replies. She's incarcerated in a Missouri county jail while awaiting trial. She was UA at the time of the incident (stationed in El Paso, drove to MO to confront her ex-husband). The children's grandparents relied on the Soldier's pay to cover not only the Soldier's mortgage, but the expense of raising the kids. We (at BTN level) were unaware that the pay was going to stop, and haven't gotten any clear answers from above as to why it did.