WEBVTT

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Good afternoon . My name is Colonel

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Kevin Arata with the 18th Airborne

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Corps and fort Bragg Public affairs

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office on Tuesday april 10th 2000 and

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12 , the Commanding general of 18th

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Airborne Corps . In fort Bragg .

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Lieutenant general frank , Helmick

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approved . Major General James Huggins

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request to have four brag serve as the

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venue for all courts martial trials

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related to the investigations into the

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death of private Danny Chen Huggins is

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the 82nd Airborne Division Commander

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and the current commander of combined

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joint task force 82 in Afghanistan .

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CJTF 82 is the higher headquarters of

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private Chen's unit during its

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deployment , Private Chen was assigned

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to the first striker brigade combat

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team of the 25th Infantry Division

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based out of Fort wainwright . Alaska

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Chen died on October three of this past

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year and certainly our condolences go

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out to the family and friends of

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private chin , the loss of any soldier

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and especially that of a deployed

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soldier is a tragic one . Indeed , Fort

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Bragg was selected as the best location

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for the military judicial proceedings

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of this kind because few other army

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installations have the capacity and the

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experience to absorb this volume of

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cases For Bragg has excellent resources

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to include courtrooms , judges , hotels ,

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support infrastructure in a large

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population of 56,000 soldiers from

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which to select panel member support as

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well as the ability to provide both the

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prosecuting and defense trial counsel .

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It's not unusual at all for a case like

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this to be transferred from a combat

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theater to the United States and the

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fairness of the legal process remains

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static and remains fair regardless of

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the transfer of the case to Fort Bragg

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at this time will be followed by Major

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reno Richardson , a lawyer with the

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18th Airborne Corps uh Staff Judge

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advocates office who can share some

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information about the processes and

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procedures that will take place here on

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fort Bragg regarding the Chen case .

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Thank you sir . Good afternoon .

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My name is major renal Richardson and

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I'm the chief of administrative law

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with the 18th Airborne Corps and Fort

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Bragg . Office of the staff judge

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advocate . I am not a member of the

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prosecution team . I'm here to discuss

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the procedural aspects of the Chin case

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first , as of today , none of the cases

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have been referred to a court martial

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and none of the queues have been

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arraigned . We are currently in the

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process of gathering the evidence and

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working to bring all the accused to

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Fort Bragg after the evidence has been

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reviewed , the statues advocate will

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make a determination as to which

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charges that have been recommended for

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referral should in fact be referred to

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a court martial . We anticipate this

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happening sometime around the end of

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the left , the general court martial

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convening authority . Lieutenant

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General frank , Helmick , the

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Commanding General of 18th Airborne

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Corps in Fort Bragg will then make the

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final decision of the referral of

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charges after he receives the statute

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advocates recommendation . If charges

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are referred , the accused will be

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arraigned and the case will be

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scheduled for trial . Thank you . Okay ,

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it's Colonel Farrow said if you could

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just give the name and organization .

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So Major Richardson knows who you are

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because I already know all of you here

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uh and then just do one question and

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follow up and deliveries that

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opportunity to ask questions and then

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we'll go around again . True , just to

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clarify . So the convening authority

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will be as of right now the convening

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authority is general helmet , Can you

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speak to how far along in the process

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is has begins or the brigade commander

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made their recommendations based on the

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investigating officer . As of right now

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the chain of command have made

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recommendations as to the charges and

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the charges have been preferred for

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trial referred . They have not been

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referred for trial at this point . The

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statute advocate of course we review

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all the evidence at this time and then

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make a recommendation to the general

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court martial convening authority as to

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which charges should be referred to a

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court martial and that was true for

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faithful observer . Okay , thanks .

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Yeah ,

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anybody else

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joe kelly that

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That's right . The marks

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is one something . Okay .

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Hand on arrival work . Sure .

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Yeah . Say right . I

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don't know really . The the units

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depends on the type of unit that the

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soldiers with typically people are just

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to play with rifles with them force but

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it depends on your specialty . It could

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be a pistol , could be a rifle , right ?

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Yeah , I don't know .

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True . Yeah this case has been

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all over the the media is getting a lot

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of interest especially in new york um

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What sort of interest from other media

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outlets and the general public do you

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expect ? And did that play into any

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decision to here ? The biggest reason

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for moving in here ? There was a couple

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and really we talked about this before

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we came in two different aspects . One

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you need to look at where the alleged

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crime took place which was in a combat

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theater . And so you've got folks that

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are going to soon redeploy and we've

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got to move people back out of theater .

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And so that was part of the look the

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other part was looking at where the

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parents are located because they're

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entitled to access uh to the trials and

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the proceedings . And so that was part

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of the philosophy behind bringing it

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from a combat location back here . And

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then the second part of it was where do

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we go once we get to the state side .

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And so that's where I go back . As I

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mentioned my opening statement we look

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at the resources at fort Bragg has and

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we've got a huge infrastructure and

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quite honestly the personnel when

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you've got eight cases that could go to

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trial we've got to pull quite a large

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group of soldiers and officers , N . C .

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O . S . Soldiers to go into that trial

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proceeding And and so we've got the

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capacity to handle that you soldiers

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right there vision of their officers .

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Yes , in the ring . These are now

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interest . Yeah .

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They are not in a supervisory role at

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this point they are working day to day

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operations and after they arrive here

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at Fort Bragg , they'll continue to

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work um , as a part of a unit here at

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Fort Bragg . Any idea

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of what they would be assigned

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right now . We're still working that

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out .

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Do you know right scheduled to a report ?

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No , I I do not . No .