Hiding the investigative findings of gross sexual hazing activities perpetrated by the AF Men’s Lacrosse team, so as to not embarrass the Academy, the Command leadership took “advantage of the momentum” and pursued with vigor the unproven claims of a disgruntled freshman swimmer who was struggling academically and looking for a way out of the Academy.

The leadership began a prosecutorial investigation, by attempting to illegally influencing the investigation. The Academy ignored the facts because they were overtly and boldly committed to proving an unfounded and biased narrative through the abusive interrogation of Freshman swimmers (alleged “victims”). The AF OSI tactics (see videos below) simultaneously denied the freshmen their Article 31 rights (Miranda) by telling the boys they were the “victims,” while treating them as suspects of the investigation by berating, and accusing them repeatedly of lying, despite the freshmen’s consistant attempts to tell the truth and stand by the truth.

Harassment continued. When Gen. Silveria could not get the testimonial evidence he needed to prove his prejudicial press release, he sent Asst. Trial Counsel Capt. Bet-Sayad to collect Witness Immunity testimony from the same cadets. Several of the “victims” had council at this point to defend them from the Academy, but yet AGAIN, they were contacted without council notification, DENIED counsel when requested and treated as suspects rather than witnesses. When “victims” gave Capt. Bet-Sayad testimony that she did not agree with, she harassed, discarded written work, and demanded specific phrases be inserted into their witness immunity statements. When that did not work, the “victims” were, again, threatened and targeted with additional punishments including disenrollment.

Prior to a motion hearing by the Knutson legal team and weeks prior to the first Court-Martial, the Senior Cadet’s Defense Team had the Academy against the wall. USAFA had no credible evidence, and Hannigan’s defense was ready and eager to cross-examine witnesses. Knutson’s defense team had filed a motion to dismiss because of Unlawful Command Influence and Prosecutorial Misconduct. The motion included depositions of the Secretary of the Air Force down to the parents of the accused. Hannigan Defense was granted an expert sociologist who was hours away from traveling to the Academy to have unfettered access to observe a 3-day Basic Training like event called Recognition (an initiation event held by the school).

This motion hearing and a trip from the sociologist would have exposed the extreme corruption and hypocrisy of the Academy leadership. Consequently, the Academy decided to drop all charges against these senior cadets. Yet six months after the charges were dropped, the cadets were disenrolled from the institution. The cadets are being held accountable for crimes that the Academy could not prove. They were denied their ability to a fair trial and were held captive to the administrative decision of the Academy. There was no due process.