Air Force trainer is spared a 30-year penalty

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Kwinton Estacio, right, arrives for the start of his court marshal at Lackland Air Force Base, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012. Estacio is being tried on charges that he sexually assaulting a female basic training student, violating a no-contact order and asking several trainees to lie about his contact with them. less U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Kwinton Estacio, right, arrives for the start of his court marshal at Lackland Air Force Base, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012. Estacio is being tried on charges that he sexually assaulting a ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Air Force trainer is spared a 30-year penalty 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

A military judge Tuesday found Staff Sgt. Kwinton Estacio not guilty of sexually assaulting a trainee last year, allowing the basic training instructor to face a maximum one-year prison sentence — rather than the 30 years prosecutors initially sought.

Lt. Col. Matthew Van Dalen made the finding after defense attorneys argued that the prosecution hadn't proved the woman engaged in oral sex with Estacio out of fear that refusing to do so would hurt her in some specific way.

Facing the risk of losing the most serious charge in their case, prosecutors persuaded the judge to reduce the allegation to wrongful sexual contact. But his decision cut the maximum time Estacio could spend in prison from 43 years to 14 if convicted on all counts.

“It's a huge break,” veteran military defense attorney Frank Spinner said, noting that motions like one the defense filed Tuesday usually are denied. “When I say it's a break, it's just a matter of justice being done and it says the government really had a weak case.”

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations today for Estacio, the fourth basic training instructor at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland to go on trial this year on charges of illicit sexual contact with trainees.

Since investigators began looking into instructor sexual misconduct allegations, 17 trainers have been or are being investigated.

The Air Force on Tuesday identified 39 trainees, all of them women, as victims. There had been 43 as the week began, but the number fell after investigators determined some had received text messages or phone calls that weren't sexual in nature, said Dave Smith, a spokesman with the Air Education and Training Command.

Prosecutors had filed three charges and several specifications against Estacio, the most serious of which was one alleging he sexually assaulted a basic trainee identified as Airman 1 in a darkened supply room on the base last October. He pleaded not guilty Monday to that charge.

Estacio, though, pleaded guilty to violating an AETC rule prohibiting trainers from having intimate relationships with trainees.

He also admitted to meeting with two other trainers under investigation in violation of orders and also to obstructing an Air Force investigation.

He could get 13 years in prison on those charges.

Defense attorneys moved to throw out the sexual assault charge after the woman testified Tuesday.

They filed a 917 motion, which Spinner, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, said is similar to a motion for a not-guilty finding in civilian courts.

“It's typically a motion filed at the end of the prosecution's case, and it's basically saying that factually and legally this doesn't meet the minimum standard to even send it to a jury,” he explained.

When asked if prosecutors blundered in lodging sexual assault charges against Estacio, AETC attorney Lt. Col. Mark Hoover said “no, definitely not.”

“Each case, as you're well aware, has differences in the facts as they're presented,” he said. “The evidence wasn't sufficient to get over the hurdle of showing that there was a specific fear of the victim's military career at the time of the sexual act.”

Though a jury of officers will weigh Estacio's fate, Van Dalen had the right to enter a not-guilty verdict on the charge.

The argument centered on the woman's testimony this week and in a previous evidentiary hearing. Estacio's attorneys argued she never articulated a specific threat against her.

They pointed to a pair of cases overturned by a military appeals court that said more than a “generalized fear” of retribution is required in sexual assault cases.

Airman 1 told jurors she feared Estacio could harm her career if she failed to follow his orders on the night of their encounter.

Prosecutors said the woman, who serves in the New York Air National Guard, lived in constant fear of being “recycled” — forced to repeat part of basic training.

Estacio's military defense team said that a general fear didn't meet the legal standard required for a sexual assault charge.

The defense also stressed that Airman 1 never tried to stop the sexual encounter with Estacio, and one of the attorneys, Capt. Jerrold Black, asked the woman if she resisted Estacio's advances.

“I was too scared to,” she replied. “Sometimes when somebody's too scared to talk, does that mean they want to do something?”