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A court-martial scheduled next week in Illinois for the Air Force Materiel Command’s former top enlisted man is being postponed, an Air Force spokeswoman said Monday.
No new date for the court-martial of Chief Master Sgt. William C. Gurney was immediately announced. His side requested the delay, according to Karen Petitt, a spokeswoman for Scott Air Force Base, Ill., which has been designated to host the trial.
Gurney, who joined the Air Force in 1983, was removed as the AFMC’s command chief at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in November 2009. In that job, he advised the AFMC’s commander, Gen. Donald Hoffman, as representative of the AFMC’s enlisted men and women.
After a hearing in May 2010 at Wright-Patterson, the Air Force decided to proceed with a court-martial for Gurney. He could face up to 20 years in military prison and a dishonorable discharge if convicted of military charges that he had sex with Air Force women, mistreated subordinates, used his influence to try to have Air Force women assigned to his area, and misused his government computer, cell phone and e-mail account.
The Air Force’s charges against Gurney include adultery, dereliction of duty, maltreatment, indecent conduct, wrongful sexual contact, failure to obey an order or regulation, and misuse of official position. As is the tradition of the civilian justice system, Gurney is presumed innocent unless and until he is convicted.
Petitt did not elaborate on why the court-martial is to be delayed. Gurney and his lawyer, Maj. Kristin McCall of the legal staff at Wright-Patterson, did not respond to the Dayton Daily News’ telephone requests for comment.
The court-martial could be rescheduled for late January, depending on the decision of the military judge who will oversee the proceeding, according to Petitt. The trial is to take place before a panel of at least five military personnel.
“The trial will not happen next week,” Petitt wrote in an e-mail message Monday. “We are still waiting on the judge to make his formal decision, but the legal teams are working off of a verbal understanding that it will be delayed.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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