Active Duty Soldier Sentenced to Prison
Pfc. Richard Ashley is one of seven members of the 82nd Airborne Division charged with appearing on military-themed gay pornographic Web site ActiveDuty.com.
He was sentenced to 90 days in prison – with 15 days credit reducing it to 75 days. He was also demoted to private – and given a bad conduct discharge and a two-thirds reduction in pay.
Ashley voiced regret over his actions during Thursday’s hearing at Fort Bragg.
Two other soldiers have pleaded not guilty in the case, while four other members of the 82nd Airborne received nonjudicial punishment for appearing on the website.
Some Background Info:
On January 27, 2006, Fort Bragg announced that it had become aware that some of the men involved in the website were from the 82nd Airborne Division. While neither Fort Bragg nor any of the news reports mentioned the name of the website, it is clear from the description of the website and the subsquent restriction of access on the Active Duty website, that the investigation is about the involvement of servicemen with the aforementioned website.
On February 24, 2006, Fort Bragg issued a press release stating that seven men had been charged with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice for the crime of sodomy and engaging in sexual conduct on a pornographic website.
The men are Spec. Richard T. Ashley; Pfc. Wesley K. Mitten; and Pvt. Kagen B. Mullen, all from 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Along with charges of sodomy, and accepting payment to have sex on camera, Mullen was also charged with the crime of adultery. Aside from loss of pay, extra duty and other restrictions, the men will also likely be separated from the armed forces.
The investigation has been reported on both the local, national and international press, including several gay media outlets. The local WRAL newstation, has provided extensive coverage of the investigation, as have some of the national gay press media outlets. While Mr. Flamingo has not made any public statements, tax records note that he has a home in the Rayconda neighborhood of Fayetteville.
About Active Duty
The videos on Active Duty generally involves one or a group of military men that engage in solo or mutual, masturbation, along with homosexual oral and anal sex. During each film there is often a degree of conversation and male bravado from the men, although it is unclear how much of the dialogue is scripted. The dialogue with men engaging in solo masturbation often involves a discussion of their first “experimental” homosexual encounters.
Mr. Flamingo can often be heard speaking to the men, who often seem to think of him as a friend and it is assumed that he is the one operating the camera, although some of the men have been seen operating the camera as well. Mr. Flamingo has not been seen in any of the films, although his hand has appeared once or twice, suggesting that he is a white man, overweight, from the American South and in his forties or fifties.
Unlike a lot of such amateur sites, the men do not show the usual nervousness, and gay for pay attitude that the other sites do. The atmosphere is usually playful, and friendly.
It appears that the location of the films is in Mr. Flamingo’s place of residence, although this is never stated in the films. Locations for the films range from a residential bedroom, bathroom, and a living room.
Members can view a range of video clips and pictures of the videos for sale on the website. The video formats are VHS, and more recently DVD. Non-members were originally able to access many portions of the website, including overviews of each video with nude and pornographic images.
While none of the men faces are disguised, most of the men deny that they are homosexual or bisexual, thus the tone of the films is “gay for pay”.
(More at Queerty & TheIndyChannel)
