I was pissed that another obstacle had gone up, she says. At times, she observed their operations on a video feed. The adjacent alley was full of junked cars. Officials have identified Master Sgt. I held really, really tightly to my [family members] hands and stared straight ahead, she says. or Erin Scanlon, a junior Army officer in the artillery branch, Fort Bragg was a prime posting. It is the last house in a quiet cul-de-sac on the backside of a neighborhood about 20 minutes away from Fort Bragg. The trial record shows that the prosecution called only four more witnesses, half as many as the defense. Maybe I wasnt clear enough, she texted a girlfriend at 8:59 a.m. on Sept. 12. He was taught how to survive behind enemy lines, resist interrogation, and escape from POW camps. William Billy Lavigne II, whose violent life and cryptic death in the woods outside of Fort Bragg I wrote about for Rolling Stone last year. Its very controlled, she says. In Dumas' case, he had a Dec. 17 court date in. On Sept. 30, he arrested Vallejo on a felony warrant for second-degree rape, second-degree sex offense, and sexual battery. Among some operators, the result can be an unhealthy sense of entitlement, in the words of a Special Operations Command internal ethics review made public in 2020. Fort Bragg Delta Force Master Sgt. Because she is a minor, Connecting Vets is not identifying Leshikar's daughter and has not spoken directly to her. A Defense Department memorandum noted that Lavigne wasn't credible but Leshikar's death was in the line of duty, while the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office described it as "justifiable homicide." Leshikar's family has alleged evidence was tampered with and that Lavigne called another Delta Force Operator to come to the scene. On one occasion, she says, she had to hide in the bathroom after he walked into a tavern in Southern Pines. I dont think they go around on shooting sprees. Did it disappear or melt? Do Delta Force operators have a license to kill? I was too scared to go to stores, the gym, and other crowded places. In September 2021, almost 20 years to the day that he joined the Army, he held a retirement party in Colorado, where he now lives, not far from where he began his military career, at Fort Carson. Reached through his lawyer, Vallejo declined to comment for this story. When this happens, when you don't have the prosecution of the right guy, it's a string of human misery. She says that she was excluded from hearing the testimony of the other witnesses, that her military-appointed attorney was swapped out five separate times, and that one of them was called to provide testimony against her. Click hereto sign up for our weekly newsletter. Helicopters crashed in mountains, fair weather, Army says, Army Special Ops Command welcomes first female command sergeant major, Army identifies 3 soldiers killed in Alaska helicopter crash, Army grounds helicopter fleet for force-wide safety stand down. Scanlon says reporting the alleged attack, and the subsequent ordeal, hurt her military career. He would also self medicate with Valium. Only afterwards did I realize I didnt stand a chance.. I was Billys attorney, Poppe says. He was quietly court-martialed and acquitted. The military had kept it quiet, though. Lavigne and Sgt. When questioned about the apparent inconsistencies in the Army's investigation and the Cumberland County Sheriff's investigation, USASOC spokesmen Col. Tage Rainsford said: It is my understanding that the CID investigation of MSG Lavigne came to the same conclusion as the Cumberland County Sherriffs Office in that it was justifiable and no charges were filed. The latter was for firing shots at a guy outside a crack house on Enloe Street in Fayetteville, a very serious offense, but Lavigne was not prosecuted for any of these crimes. His dad and I divorced when he was not even a year old so he kind of stepped into those shoes as the protector. from 67] house in Fayetteville, he had shot and killed his closest friend, a Green Beret named Mark Leshikar, with whom he had been drinking and doing drugs for days on end during a family vacation to Disney World. Scanlon was looking forward to getting the ordeal over with. This industrially zoned property, which Vallejo rented from a chemical company, is cut off from any obvious street access, being surrounded on all three sides by train tracks, storage buildings, and scrap yards. Looking back on the court-martial, it was a solid case and my testimony was powerful, Scanlon says, but I was this lowly lieutenant up against Delta Force and USASOC and JSOC, and all that entails. The Army missed another chance to rein in rogue elements in Delta Forces enlisted ranks in 2018, after Lavigne killed Leshikar in a drug-fueled altercation that was proof positive of something rotten in the state of Special Forces. But he couldnt really explain why the Army waited 16 months to intervene on the eve of the trial, rather than let civilian justice take its course. Arriving at the site in the early morning hours of Sept. 10, 2016, Scanlon and Tina were immediately creeped out by the griminess of the location. There is no screw driver here, that is enough to go DEFCON 4 on this. They outfitted the warehouse with couches, a full bar, foosball and ping-pong tables, a stripper pole, and something called a Sybian. Additionally, Lavigne never stated or implied that he moved the screw driver or any weapon after shooting SFC Leshikar.. William Lavigne was the sixth witness for the defense, the trial rec-ord shows. A Defense Department memorandum based on the Cumberland County Sheriff's report revealed additional inconsistencies. His death certificate states his last place of residence was in Hope Mills. Army investigators with CID had initially washed their hands of the case, but the two JAG prosecutors, Morman and Cohen, claimed to have only belatedly learned that the victim and defendant were both soldiers, which gave the military parallel jurisdiction to try Vallejo. From March 15 to 19, Leshikar and Lavigne were on vacation with their families at Disney World in Florida. There are no coincidences in life like this. F The trial began on a Monday morning. He had been in Delta Force. Scanlon lived off-post in an apartment in Fayetteville, a moody military town in the North Carolina pines just outside of Fort Bragg, the biggest Army base in the U.S. On the evening of Sept. 9, 2016, a friend of hers from the gym, a military wife whom Ill call Tina to protect her privacy, invited her to a charitable event at a barbecue restaurant and bar called Macs Speed Shop. DELTA FORCE' S DIRTY SECRET 2022-01-04 - [ Cont. I had no idea why they were making me decide this. My (biased) experience, too. . He was also suffering from a traumatic brain injury due to an improvised explosive device detonating near him, which was why he was assigned to a desk job at Fort Bragg. This is why people don't have any faith in the justice system, Ciolino continued. As Rolling Stone reported in a previous piece, "The Fort Bragg Murders," in March 2018 right around the time that military prosecutors took control of Vallejo's trial Lavigne shot and killed a Green Beret in the living room of his house in Fayetteville without suffering the slightest legal consequences.". Vallejo says the sex was consensual and was acquitted of all charges arising from the incident in a June 2018 court-martial on Fort Bragg. The Coast x Coast Foundation raised $450,943 in tax-free contributions from 2016 to 2020, according to IRS records. In his heart, he was all for defending people who could not defend themselves, his mother said about her late son. Investigators ask that anyone with information about the deaths of LaVigne and Dumas call the FBI Charlotte office at 704-672-6100 or Army CID at 910-396-8777. the deaths of Master Sgt. It was held in the main courthouse on Fort Bragg, a red-brick, Greek-revival building typical of the Carolinas. In short, a person like Lavigne would be a VERY difficult person to kill. I dont know how we survived., Jane was well-acquainted with the site known as Warehouse 13. The next morning, Scanlon went directly to the Womack Army Medical Center and underwent a sexual-assault forensic examination. It was very frustrating, Scanlon says, that all these people had waited till the last minute, then were trying to put the decision on me, when Im not a lawyer. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, Vallejo, dressed in camouflage cargo shorts and a T-shirt, was tall, lean, strong, and fiercely handsome, with a black beard and shaggy brown hair much longer than most soldiers get to wear. Jane was once deployed to a country in Southwest Asia and was stationed on the same base as a contingent from Delta Force. It is something that has changed now, for exactly this reason. But it was a disheartening conclusion, she says, to a difficult and drawn-out ordeal that she insists was not my fault.. An Army memorandum states that Lavigne first alleged that Leshikar had killed himself, but then changed his account of what happened. William told me that my brother had a screw driver but nothing was found at the scene, Leshikar's sister told Connecting Vets. I feel guilty, Scanlon texted. In February, the FBI announced that it is assisting in the case. In a motion dated June 12, the defense stated that one of the civil-affairs officers was expected to testify that she had observed close, friendly, and flirtatious interaction between Vallejo and Scanlon all night. He didnt let me get past him. In his statement to police later that day he said that Leshikar was acting paranoid and believed that they were being followed, and that their conversation was being listened to by a third party. He proceeded to rack up practically every qualification an infantryman can attain, undergoing advanced training in land navigation, reconnaissance, surveillance, sniping, and high-altitude parachuting. soldier who had been accused of rape, and published his photo. But that didn't happen before his death this month. Bullet fragments were present underneath the carpet as well as in the kitchen and living room areas of the house. She said that this friend got in his vehicle and was driving to Lavigne's house to help sort things out when he allegedly got a second, frantic phone call from Lavigne saying he had killed Leshikar. in the Army to go. Part of Audacy. A spokeswoman for the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office said the 911 call for the Walkertown incident came it at 12:54 a.m. April 11, 2020, as an anonymous assault in progress. It was a fundraiser to honor five slain Green Berets, hosted by some SF guys, Tina texted. In August 2016 just two weeks before he met Scanlon he threw out the first pitch at a Padres game in San Diego. But the warehouse had no plumbing; there was only a portable toilet out back. . This is not how I wanted my time. USASOC declined to comment based on concerns about privacy, but pointed out that a police investigation and a line of duty report have different burdens of proof. Sgt Lavigne was a Green Beret and Delta Force member. All rights reserved. And hes sitting there decked out. There is zero respect for women in that community, she says. Hes at home, doing work shit. Thats all hell say about Coast x Coasts founder and CEO. Dumass dark-colored 2015 Dodge Ram pickup was discovered abandoned somewhere else, the news release stated. Only 11 of the deaths were determined to have been from natural causes. !For Educational Purposes Only! Poppe was unable to remember the substance of Matrafailos testimony, only that it involved some aspects of the investigation that had not been discussed., A few months after the trial, Matrafailo would be accused of making inappropriate contact with Scanlon on social media: sending her suggestive emojis, making weird comments about ads for lingerie, and the like. Later that day, a city fire inspector went to the property and found multiple storage buildings in disrepair, surrounded by junked vehicles, barbecue grills, piles of wooden pallets, tiki torches, and other combustible materials. They lived like there was no tomorrow., The relentless physical drive that she describes is part of what made these men the very best at what they did. Then the shooter then winds up dead on the military base, basically gets assassinated. I said, No, find someone else. Alycia Stokes written testimony read. She looked up and saw Scanlon emerge from the warehouse and start toward the only outlet to the street, a narrow strip of dirt parallel to the train tracks. Cris came up with the idea for getting this warehouse, she says. Why they didn't do anything is because someone shit canned this whole thing very high up. She was the first witness called to the stand, on day one. Its the first time during many hours of interviews that she has lost her composure, and I can understand why. I asked him if I could take a picture in front of their logo to send to my instructor, she says. Calls to Cumberland Country Sheriff's Office detectives to ask specific questions about the investigation went unanswered and the Sheriff's Office did not respond to requests for further comment. . He also called his mother that night and told her that he and his wife had decided to get alcohol out of their family, and that now he knew what he had to do to start getting clean and putting his life together. Investigators have asked anyone with information on the case to contact the FBI or Army Criminal Investigation Command. This is a very secluded parcel, the fire marshal wrote in an email to the zoning department. He had entered a plea of not guilty. I know this was specifically Delta Force, but its like this across the whole of USASOC, using an acronym for the U.S. Armys Special Operations Command. Another inconsistency was noted when Lavigne told officials, Leshikar was acting in a menacing manner but he could not see SFC's Leshikar's hands, which appears to contradict his statement that he saw that Leshikar brandishing a screw driver. One woman who was much better acquainted with both men, and the whole Coast x Coast crew, is an ex-soldier whom Ill call Jane for the sake of anonymity. Death certificates for Dumas and LaVigne state each died from gunshot wounds and were shot by an unknown assailant.. He was investigated in 2018 after fatally shooting his friend, Sgt. Consider the bombshell testimony that relieved ex-SEAL Eddie Gallagher of murder charges in 2019 or Trumps intervention in the Fort Bragg court-martial of Mathew Golsteyn, a Special Forces officer who admitted on live TV to killing an unarmed man. There have not been any arrest(s) and we are not releasing any additional details at this time, Shelly Lynch, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Charlotte, said in an email this week. If you felt that 1LT Scanlon was sexually assaulted, why was she not taken to the hospital as soon as possible? another asked the staff sergeant. Then, just before the opening arguments were scheduled to take place, military lawyers from Fort Bragg intervened. Meanwhile, Lavigne's career continued unabated at USASOC. William J. Lavigne II and Timothy Dumas, a veteran previously stationed at the post, were found dead at a training site on the base Wednesday afternoon. Attempts to reach these people by phone were unsuccessful, but pretrial filings show that at least two of them were summoned to buttress Vallejos defense of consent. Are walking blood banks coming to a field hospital near you? Women made up the rest of the party: two young Army officers, the widow of a slain Green Beret, and a Las Vegas woman who belonged to a traveling company of women bartenders that dance and sing, according to her blog posts. LaVigne and Dumas were each scheduled to appear in court on unrelated cases in December and January, according to court records. Vallejo, wearing his full-dress uniform, was seated at the defense table, next to his defense attorney, Kris Poppe, a former JAG prosecutor who previously served as an infantry officer. Lavinge's statement to law enforcement at the scene was that Leshikar had attacked him with a screw driver. Joseph Morman, Scanlon says. He denies that Lavigne was ever into dealing any sort of narcotics. 1st Special Forces Command ruled that Leshikar's death was in the line of duty, and of no fault of his own. My granddaughter was so relieved that he was dead that she was crying, Mabey said. Delta Force was chiefly formed by Charles Beckwith, an officer in the Green Berets and a veteran of the American war in Vietnam.He had served with the British SAS (Special Air Service) during the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation (1963-66), when Indonesia opposed the formation of The Federation of Malaysia.. Over the course of 18 months between 2020 and 2021, more than 80 military members stationed at the base died from "sudden" and. That night he shattered my whole world, the statement read. Jane never saw Vallejo doing drugs, and unlike Lavigne, he didnt run around getting arrested, but she remembers him being at the center of a social scene that she describes as toxic. This was at the tail end of the Obama years, on the cusp of Trumps election. Vallejo is considered a ladies man and groupies hang out at the ware house [sic] looking for an opportunity to sleep with Mr. Vallejo. This, the detective noted, was according to an employee of the Fayetteville Police Department who had to recuse herself from the case because she herself had once spent the night at Vallejos apartment. He returned the phone to his wife Laura days later saying he found it between the driver's seat and center console of Leshikar's car. On March 17, Leshikar called his sister, Nicole Rick, to wish her a happy Saint Patrick's Day. I had no deployment stripes, Scanlon says. The sheriffs office and the DA had treated it as a justifiable homicide, and Army investigators would later come to the same conclusion, for reasons that both civilian and military authorities decline to disclose to the Leshikar family or to the public. He just ambushed me, she says, repeating what she told Fayetteville police, according to the written report of the detective assigned to the case, Paul Matrafailo. Unlike Tier 2, or white, special-operations forces, made up of ordinary Green Berets, Army Rangers, and Navy SEALs, JSOC units operate under Title 50 of the U.S. Code, which was controversially reinterpreted after 9/11 to permit the military to carry out covert actions, defined by the statute as foreign operations where it is intended that the role of the United States will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly.. It was him and Maj. Stacey Cohen.. That August, two investigators, Maj. Brent Goodwin and Arthur Chancellor from CID, paid a visit to the Leshikar family. This was 37-year-old William Lavigne III, a Master Sergeant and former 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (aka Delta Force) soldier. The next morning, she told the guy she was dating at the time that his buddy had raped her, but he didnt believe her, she says. On Sept. 8, 2021, the Coast x Coast club holds a public event in Fayetteville, at their usual haunt, Macs Speed Shop. He started kissing me, and I was pushing him away. Scanlon went to the Fayetteville police the next day. The tipster also indicated that drugs would be present, the affidavit attested. He literally picked me up off the ground, and my shoes fell off., He set her on the flaking hood of a defunct Saab convertible that was sunk in tall weeds. She wasnt being truthful about her encounter with Cris Vallejo., They should not have allowed my lawyer to testify against me, Scanlon says. It had been, in retrospect, a dark period in her life, she says, a damaging, booze-soaked run of years in her twenties. Other than the one local-news blip on Vallejos arrest, the allegations against them remained confined to Fort Bragg. It is a lot for a jury to make a decision like that, she says. I knew him, Joe says of Lavigne. I had to get shots and blood drawn to get tested for STDs so many horrible times. Constant appointments with lawyers, detectives, investigators, and advocates had disrupted her military career, and caused her to miss out on her units 2017 deployment to Iraq. Scanlon agonized over what to do next. Some were deployed, others reassigned, or otherwise bureaucratically reshuffled. Scanlon was not excluded from the proceeding, a spokesman wrote in a statement. The Cumberland County Sheriffs Office investigated and declared the death justifiable homicide.. William J. Lavigne II and Timothy Dumas, a veteran previously stationed at the post, were found dead at a training site on the base Wednesday afternoon. Scanlon agreed to go on the record again, in greater detail, if you would be willing to reiterate that my perpetrator was Delta Force. Years of proximity to military violence, as well as a culture of functional alcoholism and casual sex, left Jane feeling unworthy, damaged, and lost. Jane has dated multiple men on Delta Force at various times in her life. Next came back-to-back tours in Iraq. The certificates dont indicate how long the bodies were in the woods. Dumas was scheduled to appear in Forsyth County District Court on Dec. 17 for charges of breaking and entering, communicating threats and impersonating a law enforcement officer, according to court records. Erin Scanlon wants to go on the record again so that her alleged attacker is identified as Delta Force. Rick described her brother's friend as a good and honorable man, although she is concerned with some of his actions that day. Scanlon and Vallejo both continued to live in Fayetteville and work on Fort Bragg. William Lavigne II, 37, pictured above, was found in Fort Bragg on December 2. Scanlon was on the stand for eight hours, she says. The case is being investigated as a homicide, a spokesperson for Army Criminal Investigations Division told Connecting Vets. I was resolved to be stoic no matter what, because I knew I had stood up for myself as much as possible.
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