Former Air Force Commander Punished with 21 Days' Confinement, Forfeiture of Pay After Guilty Plea
A former commander at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio was sentenced to 21 days in confinement and forfeiture of pay after he pleaded guilty to having an inappropriate relationship with a staff sergeant despite being ordered by superiors to stop.
Col. Christopher Meeker, the former commander of Wright-Patterson's 88th Air Base Wing, was sentenced Tuesday evening after entering a guilty plea to violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including Article 90, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, and Article 134, fraternization.
As part of his plea agreement, the government dismissed a specification of extramarital sexual conduct that he was previously charged with. Col. Matthew Stoffel, the judge in the case, sentenced Meeker to 21 days' confinement at the Ohio base, as well as reprimand and forfeiture of $7,000 of pay per month for two months, a news release from Air Force Materiel Command said.
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A UCMJ legal expert told Military.com that the case is significant, noting that it's quite uncommon for those types of cases to end in imprisonment and adding they often are settled with administrative and nonjudicial punishment.
"There was something extra egregious here," Eric Carpenter, a former military lawyer who is now a law professor at Florida International University, told Military.com in an interview Wednesday. "The jail time really probably reflected the egregiousness of the violation of the orders."
Meeker had been removed from his command of the 88th Air Base Wing on Dec. 29, 2023, by Lt. Gen. Donna Shipton, the commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.
But the behavior that led to the court-martial took place after Meeker's time in that leadership position, the base said in the news release.
"Air Force prosecutors said Meeker fraternized by engaging in a personal and sexual relationship with a staff sergeant," the news release from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said. "He also disobeyed Shipton's direct order to discontinue all electronic and personal contact with the enlisted airman by continuing the relationship."
Meeker was eventually charged Oct. 25 with violations of three articles of the UCMJ. Shipton had transferred the case to 18th Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Charles Bolton, who served as the convening authority, due to potentially being called as a witness in the case.
Notably, Meeker opted to waive an Article 32 pre-trial hearing and, upon entering a guilty plea Tuesday, "permanently waived his right to present evidence and had to explain why he was guilty."
Meeker did not answer a phone call or text messages sent to a number listed for him in public records Wednesday.
Wright-Patterson detailed that Meeker said he "willfully disobeyed" an in-person and electronic no-contact offer and that he acted "selfishly, for my own personal happiness."
Meeker marks the latest Air Force officer in recent years to plead guilty during court-martial proceedings.
Maj. Gen. Phillip Stewart, the former commander of the 19th Air Force, faced a court-martial last year after being accused of sexual assault and other allegations by a subordinate. He pleaded guilty to some of the lesser charges and was found not guilty of sexual assault.
Former Maj. Gen. William Cooley, previously the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, was convicted in 2022 of forcibly kissing his sister-in-law and then retired as a colonel.
Related: 2-Star Air Force General Pleads Guilty to Unprofessional Relationship, Adultery as Sexual Assault Trial Begins
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