Army Refers Charges Against Lakin To Court Martial
Military Judge Appointed
Arraignment Set for Hearing on August 6, 2010
Washington, D.C., August 2, 2010. The Army has now referred charges against LTC Terrence Lakin for a General Court Martial. This action triggered the appointment of a Military Judge to preside over the trial, which will likely be scheduled before October, and held in Washington, D.C. at Ft. McNair.
On August 6, 2010 at Ft. McNair in Washington, D.C., the court will convene for the purpose of Judge Lind taking Lakin’s plea to the charges which consist of “missing movement” and of refusing to obey orders. Today Lakin stated: “I am not guilty of these charges, and will plead ‘not guilty’ to them because of my conviction that our Commander-in-Chief may be ineligible under the United States Constitution to serve in that highest of all offices. The truth matters. The Constitution matters. If President Obama is a natural born citizen then the American people deserve to see proof, and if he is not, then I believe the orders in this case were illegal.” If convicted, Lakin faces up to four years at hard labor in a federal penitentiary.
LTC Lakin is a doctor and is in his 18th year of service in the Army. He is Board Certified in Family Medicine and Occupational and Environmental Medicine. He has been recognized for his outstanding service as a flight surgeon for year-long tours in Honduras, Bosnia and Afghanistan. He was also awarded the Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan and recognized in 2005 as one of the Army Medical Department’s outstanding flight surgeons. In March of this year, he announced in a video posted on YouTube that he would refuse to obey orders until receiving proof of the President’s eligibility. So far, more than 200,000 people have viewed that video.
Army Col. Denise R. Lind will preside over the trial. Before becoming a judge, she served tours of duty both prosecuting and defending soldiers in court martial proceedings. She is a 1982 magna cum laude graduate of Siena College, and earned her law degree from Albany Law School in 1985. As Military Judge, she will decide all matters of law, including requests from the defense for discovery, and a motion the prosecution has said it will make to determine the lawfulness of the orders LTC Lakin is charged with refusing to obey. A “jury” comprised of Army officers will decide based on the facts whether Lakin is guilty or not guilty of the various felony-equivalent charges pending against him.
In standing up for his convictions and in keeping with his training that illegal orders must be disobeyed, LTC Lakin has been widely praised for upholding the rule of law and the paramount supremacy in our society of the United States Constitution.
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