Texas town a microcosm for service enlistment problems

Texas town a microcosm for service enlistment problems

By Russell Carollo, McClatchy Newspapers,
Published Wednesday, July 16, 2008

MIDLAND, TEXAS — Pvt. 1st Class Steven D. Green, accused of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdering her family, entered the Army with a criminal record for minor offenses that included possession of drug paraphernalia.

But a yearlong examination by the Sacramento Bee found that Green’s court record was not the worst among former and current Midland residents applying for the military since the Iraq war began, and he’s not the only one to later be charged with committing offenses in the military.

Unlike other courts approached by the Bee, the Midland Municipal Court retained records of all military requests for searches — requests that are routine when someone applies to join the military. Those records provide a rare look at a microcosm of the more than 250,000 applicants for military service every year.



JOSE LUIS VILLEGAS / SACRAMENTO BEE Staff Sgt. J.L. Garcia (right) reviews paperwork with recruits Edwardo Cardenas, 18 (foreground) and Troy N. Eplin, 21, at the Marine Recruiting Office in Midland, Texas. Five months prior, Midland police responded to a report that two men dressed in black T-shirts and camouflage pants pulled on vehicle door handles and then ran across a street. Officers found Cardenas trying to hide a dagger behind a tree as they approached, and both men had electrical tape on their fingertips, apparently to disguise their fingerprints. Cardenas was charged with two counts of misdemeanor vehicle burglary and one count of unlawfully carrying a weapon. He pleaded guilty to reduced charges of disorderly conduct and paid $449 in fines and court costs.
Of the 534 former and current Midland residents who applied to serve between January 2003 and July 2007, the Bee found, 150 had histories ranging from theft, traffic or alcohol offenses and failure to appear in court to more serious offenses such as sexual assault. Of those 150, at least 50 entered the military. Others were offered positions but did not enlist.

Among those who enlisted was a man with a history of inpatient treatment for mental illness and others with records of drug possession, assault, theft and illegally carrying weapons. At least 10 had outstanding charges, fines or sentences when they applied for military service.

When Green applied for the Army in 2005, a court record noted that he owed outstanding fines and “must contact court immediately.” The following year in Iraq, Green drank before going to a house he’d previously visited, where he emerged from a room to tell fellow soldiers, “I just killed them. All are dead,” according to an affidavit from an FBI agent.

Green was discharged from the Army “due to a personality disorder,” the affidavit says. He subsequently was charged by a federal court in Kentucky with murdering and sexually assaulting Abeer Kassem Hamza Al-Janabi and killing her parents and sibling.

Two months ago, Green’s attorneys notified prosecutors that they may use insanity as a defense.

Texas produces more military recruits than any other state, and Midland is as patriotic as a city can be, proud to be the childhood home of President Bush. Midland, with a population slightly over 80,000, hosts an annual dinner to honor wounded war veterans from across the country, and people in military uniforms frequently find their restaurant tabs picked up by strangers.

“I go to pay my bill, and it’s paid,” said Sgt. 1st Class Shawn L. Miller, station commander for the local Army recruiting office.

Still, Midland presents unique recruiting challenges. Well-paying, entry-level oil field jobs are plentiful, so much so that the local sheriff has trouble finding deputies for positions paying about $30,000.

And despite its patriotism and military foundation, the city is not immune to the obstacles faced by recruiting offices everywhere as the Iraq war continues. In the three-day period the Bee visited Midland, another 10 Americans were reported killed in Iraq.

At the beginning of the war, Miller said, he needed a revolving door to handle the seemingly endless line of applicants to the Army recruiting station. These days, his job is much harder.

“It’s been pretty challenging,” he said.

ACCEPTED ANYWAY

More than 100 of the 150 Midland applicants identified by the Bee with court and criminal records had drug or alcohol charges — or both — and at least 35 were accepted anyway.

The Marine Corps Recruiting Information Support System-Recruiting Station database shows that 64 Midland recruits applying between 2003 and 2007 required one or more waivers and that the largest number of waivers, 43, were for marijuana use.

In 2001, Jonathan Lane Savage, 18, was arrested on a charge of being a minor with alcohol. Eight months later, a Midland officer pulled Savage over and found 13 bags of marijuana and two packages of rolling papers inside a yellow cigar box in his car. He was found guilty of misdemeanor marijuana possession.

Three years later, after being charged with failing to complete community service and failing to appear in Midland court, Savage surfaced in Enid, Okla., where security guards found him sleeping near the entrance to a long-term care hospital just after 3 a.m.

“I detected a strong odor of an intoxicating beverage,” an Enid police officer wrote. “I also observed Jonathan to have bloodshot, watery eyes, slurred speech and very unsteady balance.”

Less than three months later, in August 2005, Enid officers were dispatched to a Wal-Mart to investigate a report of two men near collapse from intoxication. Savage was cited a second time on a charge of public intoxication.

Three months later, the Army processed his application and it was accepted.

Following a 15-month tour in Iraq, Savage is stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. He told the Bee he joined the Army to help pay off his student loans. He said he received a $15,000 signing bonus for joining and required waivers for his criminal history.

He attributed his record to partying as a young man.

“All I did was smoke a little pot,” he said.

WANTED TO BE A MARINE

At the Marine Corps office, a recruiter introduced Eduardo Cardenas, who was flopped on a couch in front of a television. Cardenas had been hanging around the office since his junior year in high school.

“I wanted to be a Marine since I was 7,” said Cardenas, 18, who had become a father a month earlier. “You can be part of a brotherhood.”

Cardenas worked for a local recycling company after graduating from Midland High School in 2007. A visit to the county courthouse downtown revealed Cardenas’ other activities since high school.

Five months earlier, Midland police responded to a report about two men dressed in black T-shirts and camouflage pants pulling on vehicle door handles and then running across a street. Officers said they found Cardenas trying to hide a dagger behind a tree as they approached, and both men had electrical tape on their fingertips, apparently to disguise their fingerprints.

The other man, wearing a knife in a sheath on his hip, was carrying marijuana and an iPod reported stolen from a Ford Explorer, and the driver of another car told officers someone had just taken stereo equipment out of her Mazda.

Cardenas was charged with two counts of misdemeanor vehicle burglary and one count of unlawfully carrying a weapon. He was convicted of reduced charges of disorderly conduct and paid $449 in fines and court costs.

The Bee called the recruiting office in March to find out what had happened to Cardenas’ military dreams.

“He’s in boot camp in San Diego,” a recruiter said.

The Marine Corps worked to waive Ethan Duncan Arguello’s criminal history even before it had it all.

“I have been working on getting this waiver together,” says a 2003 letter received by the Midland Municipal Court from a Marine sergeant, requesting court records on Arguello. “The information we are requesting will be used to submit for a waiver for Ethan to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.”

He had eight traffic citations dating back to when he was 16, but his record of more serious offenses began on Sept. 20, 2001, when a Midland officer saw a white Chevrolet pickup abruptly swerve to another lane, then back without signaling. Arguello, then 18, was charged with consumption of alcohol by a minor. Seven months later, another Midland officer stopped a Mazda Miata speeding through a residential neighborhood.

“I contacted the driver, and I was overwhelmed by the odor of marijuana coming from him,” the officer wrote in a report.

Arguello was convicted of possession of drug paraphernalia, and a Texas judge denied his request for a new trial, citing rolling papers found near the driver’s seat. Another judge denied his request to expunge the drug conviction from his record.

Fourteen months after the drug arrest and hundreds of miles away, Austin police officers observed two vehicles moving suspiciously through an apartment complex parking lot, appearing to be part of a “narcotics transaction.” Officer Sandra Benningfield decided to move in after noticing the driver of one of the vehicles, later identified as Arguello, was bending down.

“As I was walking up to the vehicle, I observed a clear plastic baggie containing green leafy substance on the driver’s floor board,” she wrote.

The officers arrested Arguello on charges of marijuana possession.

Four months later, the Marines processed his application. He is stationed at Twentynine Palms, Calif., having served two tours in Iraq.

Arguello was among at least 16 Midland applicants with criminal records in other courts, but there likely were many more. The Bee checked the histories of fewer than 40 of the 534 Midland applicants’ names in other jurisdictions.

Darwin D. Cavil’s record in Midland Municipal Court indicated he had eight traffic citations.

But that was only a small part of his full court record.

Cavil, 32 when he entered the Texas National Guard in 2003, said during an interview that he was kicked out of the Navy in 1991 for being a discipline problem — once for falling asleep on duty — after serving less than two years. Cavil blamed part of his Navy troubles on racial discrimination by a commanding officer.

In 1992, a woman in neighboring Ector County accused him of punching her in the face. He was found guilty. The following year, he was found guilty again, this time of carrying a pistol. A year later, he was charged with evading officers after he fled from a vehicle that contained alcohol and at least one juvenile girl. Then he was found guilty of unlawfully carrying a 9 mm Luger pistol after a couple complained that a group of men had tried to break into their house.

“One put his foot in the door, and I pushed him as hard as I could,” Sally Borens told the Bee, adding that she watched through the window as one of them smashed the windshield on her husband’s vehicle. “I was hollering and screaming for my husband.”

Cavil told the Bee that he tried to force his way past Borens on behalf of an acquaintance who wanted to “settle a score” with her husband. Cavil said the woman he punched had punched him first, and he blamed the evading charge on a police officer who used a racial slur.

In 2002, the mother of Cavil’s children accused him of beating her and of threatening to kill her on “several occasions.”

“I feel that he will come after me if he finds me, and he will kill me,” she wrote in an affidavit filed in Ector County.

Cavil said he tried to join the Marine Corps and Army prior to the Iraq war but was rejected. After the war started, he said, recruiters seemed to have no problem with his criminal record.

“He [the recruiter] said as long as you don’t have any felonies,” Cavil said, adding that he required a waiver for his discharge from the Navy but didn’t recall if he required one for his criminal record. The recruiter, Cavil said, told him: “I’ve seen a lot worse.”

MORE LIKELY TO LEAVE

Military studies indicate that recruits with questionable qualifications — including those with criminal records — are more likely to leave before their enlistment is up, and at least three Midland recruits with criminal records who were part of the Bee examination were discharged early.

Between 1998 and 2003, when Alexander Michael Bird entered the Army, he was charged with seven offenses in Midland, including drunken driving as a minor and other traffic offenses. After he failed to attend court-ordered alcohol sessions and perform community service, he lost his driver’s license.

Seven months after Bird entered boot camp, he was discharged. Bird told the Bee he had required a waiver to enter the military because of his record, but was kicked out for medical reasons: He had concealed his diabetes, which was discovered when he was caught hiding insulin in his socks.

Robert Christopher-Eugene Brown was sent home after only a month in Marine Corps boot camp in Southern California.

Yet a year before the Marine Corps had submitted the first of six requests for a records check on Brown, Midland police officers, concerned he was suicidal, confronted him for the second time in one day.

“He continually made excuses for his suicidal statements,” an officer wrote in a court affidavit. The officer decided to commit him “to prevent Brown from doing harm to himself.”

While searching Brown, the officer said, he found marijuana in his pocket, and Brown later was convicted of drug possession. The previous year, Brown, who also had a history of traffic citations, pleaded no contest to possessing drug paraphernalia. Two years before that he was charged with drunken driving.

“I liked to smoke pot,” Brown said during an interview. “That’s the trouble I got into.”

Brown said the alleged suicidal incident was caused by a painful breakup with his girlfriend. A separate mental health problem, he said, got him kicked out of the Marines.

“I was treated for bipolar disorder when I was a teenager,” Brown said, explaining that he was an inpatient during at least part of that treatment. “I was about 13. I think I was treated for about a month.”

A recruiter encouraged him not to include his mental history on his application, he said, and no one would have found out had he not gotten pneumonia and collapsed at boot camp. Medical personnel who rushed to check his medical history, found the record of his previous mental problems.

“They came across it by accident,” said Brown, who now drives a truck in Midland.

Had he not gotten pneumonia, Brown said, “I’d be in Iraq right now.”

The same year 21-year-old Devon Earl Karle applied for the Marine Corps, the Texas Department of Public Safety published a new photo of him on its sex offender registry, linking him to the aggravated sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl when Karle was about 12 or 13.

Of the 150 applicants identified by the Bee with court and other criminal histories, 100, like Karle, did not enter the military for various reasons.

Christopher S. Langley said the Marine Corps refused to grant him a waiver for his drug arrests, but the Army accepted him, sending him via bus hundreds of miles to a processing station. Later he was disqualified because of high blood pressure, he said, and when he reapplied in better health, Army recruiters told him they had lost his paperwork and refused to grant him a waiver for his criminal record.

Douglas E. Bowling’s record included a charge of family violence.

“We got into a spat. It wasn’t a big deal at all. The cops were called because he hit me,” said his wife, Jennifer Bowling. “He applied right after he got out of jail.”

“He [also] had two DWIs on his record, and the military said he wasn’t eligible. He just gave up.”

Several were offered jobs but declined to enlist.

Jimmy J. Pearson’s record included family violence, possession of alcohol and drunken driving, but he said it was his bad ear that the Army was most concerned with, telling him he’d require a 45-minute procedure to correct it.

“I had a lot of arrests,” Pearson said, adding that he also was charged with assault at 16. “They were telling me that they had people getting in with a lot worse records. They didn’t seem concerned with my background at all.”

He gave up, Pearson said, after the Army claimed it lost his file when his recruiter was transferred.

Of the more than 30 people the Army checked through the Midland Municipal Court who did not enlist, at least two were allowed to sign contracts but dropped out, and the others were disqualified for excessive weight, medical issues or criminal histories, an Army spokesman said. The Army found no records on seven, and the Bee found others who apparently turned down military job offers.

Being rejected by one service doesn’t mean another will do the same.

After being kicked out of the Marines for reasons he wouldn’t disclose, Michael James Pinkerton applied repeatedly to get back in.

When that didn’t work he tried the Navy.

Then, the Army.

Pinkerton, the son of a Midland County sheriff’s deputy, had joined the Marines at 17 and headed to boot camp near San Diego, but he didn’t stay long.

“They sent me home,” Pinkerton said. “It was something I did on my own before I showed [up in California], and they found out about it when I was there.

“The Marines told me they consider what I had done a bad mark on my integrity.”

Though Pinkerton wouldn’t elaborate, he acknowledged that he was arrested on an unrelated juvenile felony charge for unlawfully carrying a weapon, a Chinese sword, to school. He said the sword was in his car from a martial arts contest.

Pinkerton insisted that was the only time he’d been arrested for carrying a weapon, but the Marine Corps request about him to the Midland Municipal Court indicated another arrest in May 1997 on misdemeanor charges of possessing nunchuck fighting sticks and drug paraphernalia.

After leaving the Marines, Pinkerton said, he worked as an exterminator, a juvenile detention officer and a landscaper.

“I was still lost, hadn’t found my way yet,” he said. He made several attempts to return to the Marines, he said, “and I went to the Navy. The Navy was like: If the Marines won’t take you, we’re not going to take you.”

Feeling a strong sense of patriotism when the Iraq war started, and wanting to support his new wife and 6-month-old son, Pinkerton said he applied to the Army, which accepted him. The Army gave him a signing bonus of about $20,000, he said, and sent him to Iraq for 14 months as a machine gunner.

Pinkerton, now 29, said the Army has helped him pay off bills and save money, but the long deployments have put a strain on his family.

“I’ve paid the price for my mistakes,” Pinkerton said, explaining why he was reluctant to disclose his full criminal history. “There’s no reason for me to go digging them up.”

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Some of these men have committed some serious crimes, these are not just "pt smoking teenage problems" that should just be "waived away" some of them are serious moral lapses and show the proclivity for wanton destruction, and no remorse for illegal behavior. I do believe they want a "new chance" to get their lives together, but at what price as a nation should we be willing to pay, besides giving them a job they shouldn't even be given, then we are giving them 20,000 dollar bonuses for enlisting? Maybe some of their victims should have been paid restitution with that bonus money. Maybe the bonus money should have been withheld until they had completed the 3 or 4 year enlistmment contract and actually "earned" the benefit, ratherthan hopinglater that the government can recoup the funds if the men are thrown out of the military for "character issues" before the end of their service.

This is beginning to look a lot like during Vietnam where Judges gave young men the choice of enlisting or going to prison, is it really getting that bad or that ahrd to find qualified Americas aged 18-42 maybe we should reconsider and allow migrant Mexicans and other nationalities to enlist in the military for 3 years with a promise of citizenship as their bonus, we would actually get law abiding productive Americans who want to serve this nation instead of someone looking to hide from the law.

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