John D. Gunkle Staff Sergeant U.S. Air Force Convicted Sex Offender Indecent Acts With A Child

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Name: John D. Gunkle

Case: United States v. Gunkle No. 00-0092 Crim. App. No. 9701960

Date Of Appeal: November 8, 2000

Plea: Guilty

Charges: Indecent Acts With A Child

Military Branch: U.S. Air Force

Listed In National Sex Offenders Registry? NO

A military judge sitting as a general court-martial convicted appellant, contrary to his pleas, of two specifications each of indecent liberties and indecent acts, and one specification of cross-dressing in a woman’s clothing under circumstances that were service-discrediting and prejudicial to good order and discipline, in violation of Article 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 934.

The adjudged and approved sentence provides for a dishonorable discharge, confinement for 2 years, total forfeitures, and reduction to the lowest enlisted grade. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the findings and sentence in an unpublished opinion.

The prosecution theory was that appellant surreptitiously molested the two 5-year-old victims for sexual gratification. The Court of Criminal Appeals summarized the prosecution evidence as follows:

On three occasions over the course of several months, the appellant appeared in the presence of his five-year-old daughter, DG, and her five-year-old friend, LA, while dressed in female attire consisting of thigh-high stockings, a bra, panties, and a slip. He exposed his penis to both girls, and allowed his daughter to fondle it.

At trial, both girls described the above encounters. LA testified that DG played with the appellant’s penis by holding it and moving it. She stated that the appellant’s penis was "big," and that "pee" came out of it on one occasion, although she gave contradictory accounts of whether the appellant’s penis was pointing upwards or down to the floor. DG then explained that she played games with the appellant’s penis by taking turns with LA pulling down the appellant’s underwear, and that she held the appellant’s penis on three occasions, while LA touched it on one occasion. Both girls denied that the appellant ever pushed their hands away or otherwise told them to stop.

The prosecution introduced appellant’s written statement, which he gave to agents of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID). In this statement, appellant admitted that he had been cross-dressing for sexual gratification since he was about 13 years old. He stated that in September or October of 1996, DG and LA discovered him dressed in female clothing. The girls giggled, and appellant told them he was trying on a costume. He stated that in November 1996, DG and LA again discovered him in female clothing. On this occasion, DG pulled up his slip, grabbed his penis, and said, "I see your wee wee." He said that he brushed DG’s hand away, the girls giggled, and he walked to his bedroom to change clothes.

Appellant told the CID that on March 12, 1997, DG and LA again surprised him when he walked from his bedroom to the kitchen in female clothing. He said that DG pulled up his slip, and he felt someone tugging on his penis and pulling down his panties. He admitted having an erection during this third episode. Finally, appellant told the CID that DG grabbed his penis on two other occasions, once while he was urinating and once as he was coming out of the shower. He told the CID that during the three encounters with DG and LA, he was not looking for sexual gratification.

The theory of the defense was that appellant cross-dressed in female clothing for sexual stimulation, that his encounters with DG and LA were inadvertent, that DG’s touching was uninvited and innocent, and that appellant did not seek sexual gratification from his encounters with DG and LA. The Court of Criminal Appeals summarized appellant’s in-court testimony as follows:

The appellant testified in his defense consistent with his previously admitted confession, describing in more detail the three separate encounters which he characterized as unplanned and inadvertent. He denied that the girls touched him at all during the first episode, which occurred in DG’s bedroom; claimed that DG merely poked at his covered genitals during the second, which occurred in the hallway near the bathroom; and admitted only that DG had pulled up his slip and tugged at his underwear during the third, again in the hallway. He stated that he slapped or pushed DG’s hand away both times she tried to touch him. He agreed that his penis was "semi-erect" during one encounter, but averred that his arousal stemmed solely from the titillation of cross-dressing, not from the contact with the young girls.