Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
March 14, 2009
By Kate Wiltrout, The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK--Navy Lt. Shane Dillman, a chaplain assigned to the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, will be court-martialed on rape and fraternization charges.
Mike Maus, a spokesman for the Norfolk-based Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic, said Friday that Rear Adm. Richard J. O'Hanlon approved the investigating officer's report in the case and recommended a general court-martial for Dillman.
An evangelical Christian chaplain, Dillman won honors for his work with wounded military members and their families during a previous assignment at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. He twice escorted President George W. Bush on tours of the hospital.
In January 2008, Dillman was charged with a range of offenses, including soliciting female sailors for sexual encounters, having sex with a woman who was not his wife, and engaging in "unduly familiar" relationships with junior enlisted women.
During a two-day preliminary hearing in July, one sailor testified about having sex with Dillman in his office while deployed to Kuwait. Another described Dillman calling her to his office on the ship, then greeting her in his boxer shorts.
For technical reasons, Navy prosecutors dismissed and refiled the charges. This January, at a new preliminary hearing, a fellow Navy chaplain testified that he had visited Dillman and his wife and children at their Williamsburg home on the day of the alleged rape.
On cross-examination, prosecutors questioned why, if both men were at the house that morning, cell phone records showed multiple calls between the two chaplains.
Dillman's attorney, Charles Gittins, has argued that the sex was consensual and the matter should be handled administratively. He's also questioned why the women have not been punished for their actions.
March 14, 2009
By Kate Wiltrout, The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK--Navy Lt. Shane Dillman, a chaplain assigned to the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, will be court-martialed on rape and fraternization charges.
Mike Maus, a spokesman for the Norfolk-based Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic, said Friday that Rear Adm. Richard J. O'Hanlon approved the investigating officer's report in the case and recommended a general court-martial for Dillman.
An evangelical Christian chaplain, Dillman won honors for his work with wounded military members and their families during a previous assignment at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. He twice escorted President George W. Bush on tours of the hospital.
In January 2008, Dillman was charged with a range of offenses, including soliciting female sailors for sexual encounters, having sex with a woman who was not his wife, and engaging in "unduly familiar" relationships with junior enlisted women.
During a two-day preliminary hearing in July, one sailor testified about having sex with Dillman in his office while deployed to Kuwait. Another described Dillman calling her to his office on the ship, then greeting her in his boxer shorts.
For technical reasons, Navy prosecutors dismissed and refiled the charges. This January, at a new preliminary hearing, a fellow Navy chaplain testified that he had visited Dillman and his wife and children at their Williamsburg home on the day of the alleged rape.
On cross-examination, prosecutors questioned why, if both men were at the house that morning, cell phone records showed multiple calls between the two chaplains.
Dillman's attorney, Charles Gittins, has argued that the sex was consensual and the matter should be handled administratively. He's also questioned why the women have not been punished for their actions.
