Rebekah J .Watson Airman First Class U.S. Air Force Convicted Sex Offender Indecent Acts

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Name: Rebekah J. Watson

U.S. V. Watson No. ACM S31746

Date Of Conviction: October 13, 2009

Plea: Guilty

Charges: Indecent Acts

Military Branch: U.S. USAF

Listed In National Sex Offenders Registry? No

Sentence adjudged 13 October 2009 by SPCM convened at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. Military Judge: Michael Savage (sitting alone).

Approved sentence: Bad-conduct discharge, confinement for 30 days, and reduction to E-1.

Consistent with the appellant’s pleas, a military judge found the appellant guilty of indecent acts and providing alcohol to a minor, in violation of Articles 120 and 134, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. §§ 920, 934. The military judge sentenced the appellant to a bad-conduct discharge, 30 days of confinement, and reduction to E-1. The convening authority approved the sentence as adjudged. As an act of clemency, the convening authority granted the appellant’s request for entry into the Air Force Return to Duty Program.

On appeal, the appellant argues that the sentence was inappropriately severe considering the punishment that her co-actor received “for engaging in the same indecent conduct.”

We find no prejudicial error and affirm. On 21 December 2008, while stationed and residing at Fort Gordon, Georgia, the

appellant provided a minor, LT, with three alcoholic beverages containing rum while the two were in the appellant’s base housing unit. LT was the 17-year-old daughter of the appellant’s neighbor, a noncommissioned officer (NCO) in the United States Army, who would allow LT to visit the appellant’s home because the appellant was a Senior Airman

Armed with this knowledge, the appellant called Sergeant (SGT) JW, an Army NCO who also lived on Fort Gordon, and asked whether he would be willing to engage in sexual activity with her and a friend. SGT JW agreed and the appellant drove LT to SGT JW’s house for that purpose. After arriving at SGT JW’s house, the appellant and LT drank more alcoholic beverages containing rum. Once they finished their drinks they walked into SGT JW’s bedroom. The appellant and LT performed oral sex on each other with full knowledge that SGT JW was in the same room, observing them.

Approximately 20 minutes later, the appellant asked SGT JW to join in. He agreed and LT and the appellant took turns engaging in vaginal and oral sex with SGT JW. in the United States Air Force and had small children. As a result, the neighbor trusted the appellant and thought that she could be a positive influence on her daughter. The

appellant developed a close friendship with LT during the previous summer and treated her like a sister. Occasionally, LT would drink Hurricanes and Bahama Mamas, and the appellant knew that it wouldn’t take long for LT to “get drunk, get belligerent, come on to people, and try to fight.”

The appellant pled guilty to the charged offenses and did not introduce any evidence of SGT JW’s punishment in response to his actions on 21 December 2008.