Convicted Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair Could Still Walk Away with a Big Pension
The Wire reports:
Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair was reprimanded and sentenced last week to pay a $20,000 fine for carrying on an adulterous affair with a female captain, having improper relationships with two other women, and abusing a government credit card. The female captain maintains he sexually assaulted her, but those charges were dropped as part of a plea bargain. It was assumed that Sinclair would have to retire at a lower rank because of his indiscretions, but USA Today reports on Tuesday that may not be the case. At stake is $832,000 in retirement benefits.
Sinclair’s lawyer, Richard Scheff, is pushing the Army to let Sinclair retire as a general, not a lieutenant colonel. Scheff acknowledges the ask is a big one, as it’s hard to argue Sinclair “served honorably” while he was a general. Sinclair’s affair with the captain began while he was a lieutenant colonel. Typically, the “grade determination” review board will allow offending officers to retire at the last rank they served “satisfactorily,” which would not be a general in Sinclair’s case. But this kind of panel is somewhat arcane and rarely used, so even military law experts can’t predict what decision they’ll reach. Sinclair could luck out.
