Senior Army Officer Gets Slap-On-The-Wrist For Repeatedly Recording Minors In The Bathroom

An Army lieutenant colonel who trained future officers will receive a reprimand but serve no jail time for spying on a changing room with a hidden camera at a store that caters to teenagers and young adults.
Army Lt. Col. Jacob J. Sweatland served as chair of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA when he was arrested for hiding a camera in a dressing room in a PacSun clothing store that was discovered by a teenage girl.
Military legal experts say the case is the latest example of the military justice system letting senior officers off with a slap on the wrist for serious sex-related offenses. Though the store was off-base, the local prosecutor stepped aside from the case in order to let the Army prosecute Sweatland. A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office called the offenses “outrageous and indefensible invasion of privacy.”
A military judge sentenced Sweatland to be reprimanded at a Jan. 22 special court-martial at Fort Knox, Kentucky as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, said Ian Ives, a spokesman for U.S. Army Cadet Command.
Sweatland pleaded guilty to one specification of indecent visual recording and one specification of conduct unbecoming an officer under Articles 120c and 133 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Ives told Task & Purpose.
“A Military Judge often has a range of punishments available in a guilty plea,” Ives said. “The accused has the right to submit matters in extenuation and mitigation to the Military Judge during a pre-sentencing hearing. After considering all the evidence presented by the government and defense,