Hes in JSOC.. Lavigne was a member of the Coast x Coast club and a good friend of Vallejos. The staff sergeant had invited her over to his house earlier in the evening, but she and Tina hadnt wanted to leave the party. When Scanlon learns that the audio was destroyed, she unexpectedly breaks down in tears. There are no coincidences in life like this. A Defense Department memorandum based on the Cumberland County Sheriff's report revealed additional inconsistencies. When her contract was up in 2019, she resigned from the Army. Thats what it felt like. Those guys, they would drink, and they would need to have sex, she says. The DA treated the killing as a justifiable homicide and Lavigne was not charged with a crime. For her part, Scanlon tried hard not to show any emotion in public, and accepted the jurys July 2018 decision with stoicism. As soon as it concluded with an acquittal, the Army deleted the audio recordings. First Class Mark. William J. Lavigne II, 37, was one of two men found dead Dec. 2 in a training area on Fort Bragg, N.C., the Army said in a statement. I had no deployment stripes, Scanlon says. Because she was already guilty of one instance of fraternization, with the staff sergeant to whose house she had been headed to that night, she had a motive to lie and pretend that the encounter with Vallejo was nonconsensual, in Poppes theory of the case. During a stretch of Janes military career, her social and professional circle overlapped with the five men, who made up the core of the motorcycle club, all active-duty soldiers on Delta Force. The samples proved a match to Vallejos DNA. How coincidental is it? she says. Years of proximity to military violence, as well as a culture of functional alcoholism and casual sex, left Jane feeling unworthy, damaged, and lost. Jane has dated multiple men on Delta Force at various times in her life. As of 2010, the document shows, he was a TEAM MEMBER/OPERATOR in the organization demarcated 1ST SFOD-D (DELTA FORCE)., Like SEAL Team 6, its sister unit and only military peer, Delta Force is whats known as a Special Mission Unit. Why didnt you tell anyone about the witness that came around the corner? she remembers him asking. They only stayed that long because Tina was famished and there was a Crock-Pot of food on a folding table. A news release from the FBI said investigators are looking to create a timeline of the locations and activities of Timothy Dumas Sr., 44, and Master Sgt. Only then did Scanlon learn the real identity of the man she knew as Cris Valley. Just three months before he was called to the stand, in March 2018, at Lavignes house in Fayetteville, he had shot and killed his closest friend, a Green Beret named Mark Leshikar, with whom he had been drinking and doing drugs for days on end during a family vacation to Disney World. Someone tampered with the crime scene or he's lying," said Paul Ciolino, president of the International Association of Forensic Criminologists, after reviewing documents from the case. Army records show Dumas served in the Army as a property accounting technician from November 1996 to March 2016, separating as a chief warrant officer 3. William LaVigne II, 37 Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44. shooting Bragg In Other News Some companies charge hefty fees to help vets with disability claims Helicopters crashed in mountains, fair weather, Army says, Army Special Ops Command welcomes first female command sergeant major, Army identifies 3 soldiers killed in Alaska helicopter crash, Army grounds helicopter fleet for force-wide safety stand down. She described Scanlons general demeanor as tearful.. From the perspective of the Armys image-conscious leadership, the failure on the part of the press to catch wind of Vallejos court-martial was a lucky break. In September 2021, almost 20 years to the day that he joined the Army, he held a retirement party in Colorado, where he now lives, not far from where he began his military career, at Fort Carson. William Lavigne II, 37, pictured above, was found in Fort Bragg on December 2. in the Army to go. I know this was specifically Delta Force, but its like this across the whole of USASOC, using an acronym for the U.S. Armys Special Operations Command. But I have accepted this new path. And no one seems to know quite why. If her aim was to avoid disciplinary action or professional embarrassment, she could have simply said nothing and no one would have been the wiser. In his statement to police later that day he said that Leshikar was acting paranoid and believed that they were being followed, and that their conversation was being listened to by a third party. It is the last house in a quiet cul-de-sac on the backside of a neighborhood about 20 minutes away from Fort Bragg. As soon as they said not guilty, my people just kind of quickly escorted me out.. And then hes taken out. (U.S. Army) Like Lavigne, Dumas had ties to the Special. That was how they operated.. The military had kept it quiet, though. He was a resident of Pinehurst at the time of his death. He had a dudes brains on his boot, she says, and he just flicked it off, as if completely unfazed. When questioned about the apparent inconsistencies in the Army's investigation and the Cumberland County Sheriff's investigation, USASOC spokesmen Col. Tage Rainsford said: It is my understanding that the CID investigation of MSG Lavigne came to the same conclusion as the Cumberland County Sherriffs Office in that it was justifiable and no charges were filed. Its the first time during many hours of interviews that she has lost her composure, and I can understand why. So Marky just took everything, the pride in America that I have, she continued. He transferred to Fort Bragg three years later to attend the JFK Special Warfare School, the completion of which entitles a soldier to wear a coveted green beret. On Sept. 30, he arrested Vallejo on a felony warrant for second-degree rape, second-degree sex offense, and sexual battery. After taking her statement and reviewing her text messages, Detective Matrafailo drove her the three blocks to the warehouse in an effort to identify the precise location. The special operations community was rocked this week when the bodies of MSG Lavigne, a decorated Special Operator and Delta Force member, and Timothy Dumas an Army veteran were found in a . Its like watching a scary movie. Poppe does not find it remarkable, he says, that he simultaneously represented two members of the most elite military unit in the United States, one suspected of murder, the other accused of rape. At the time, he was so depressed, anxious, guilt-stricken, and strung out on drugs that its a wonder he was able to put on his full-dress uniform that morning. Scanlon claims that Vallejo raped her that night, and says that the trauma still haunts her to this day. No awards. "Hard drugs and murder in JSOC: "'We have a lot of Delta Force members in our community,' says Ballard, the police detective.'Some of them are really . The shot placement tells you everything you need to know. Dumas was an Army veteran who previously served as the property book officer at 7th Special Forces Group before serving in the same role at Fort Bragg for nine years, according to his LinkedIn profile. USASOC declined to comment based on concerns about privacy, but pointed out that a police investigation and a line of duty report have different burdens of proof. Both Vallejo and Lavigne were exonerated. Christine Booyer, without a court order. I only recently learned about Lavignes July 2020 arrest from a police report that the sheriffs office initially withheld. She filed a FOIA request for the transcript in 2019, and the Army gave her the trial record instead. Mostly doing the talking, that I remember, was Capt. In this video, we explore the mysterious case of Green Beret Mark Leshikar and Delta Force Member William Lavigne and the sus. I was too scared to go to stores, the gym, and other crowded places. It was right around 3 a.m. My phone was being blown up by my friend [the staff sergeant] and the Uber driver, who was there trying to find me., Tina had gone out front to smoke a cigarette. 1LT Scanlon never told me that she remembered seeing a female the Green Berets red-haired widow who may have witnessed a portion of the alleged assault., It looked like Scanlon was lying, or at a minimum, misremembering what had happened. I had no idea why they were making me decide this. From March 15 to 19, Leshikar and Lavigne were on vacation with their families at Disney World in Florida. Scanlon began to cry, he wrote in his report, as she pointed out the building., Matrafailo obtained a warrant, took DNA samples from the hood of the Saab, reviewed security footage, visited Macs, and interviewed Tina, among other witnesses. There are at least two other SMUs, one dedicated to surveillance and the other to aviation, reportedly. The only entrance is hard to find and closed off by a chain-link gate. His spiral into drugs and paranoia culminated in him shooting at a man on the streets of Fayetteville in July 2020. Even if Lavigne had been charged with or convicted of murder, says Col. Kazin of Army JAG, Vallejo would have had a constitutional right to call him as a witness, if he were in possession of relevant information. None are able to say why the shooting took place, but they all remember Lavigne. 1st Class Mark Leshikar. William Lavigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44, were both found dead in a training area at Fort Bragg on December 2 It has now been revealed that both men were facing. It was their annual Ride for the Fallen, a coast-to-coast convoy of ex-military bikers to raise money for wounded special operators, and the families of those slain in battle. The examination revealed multiple small lacerations on her vulva, as well as a contusion and four scratch marks on her left flank and lower back, from the hood of the car. In February 2019, Lavigne had another brush with the law. While justice for the apparent killings of Lavigne and Dumas has yet to be delivered, another family is also seeking justice, and speaking out about another killing in 2018 in which Lavigne was involved. He never denied having sex with Scanlon, but maintained that it was consensual. He was originally set to be tried in civilian court, but Army prosecutors assigned to Special Forces swooped in at the last minute and caused the Cumberland County district attorney to drop the charges so that Vallejo could be tried by the military. I firmly believe that I had to be his victim because I was strong enough to report him., She never got the chance to lay any of this on Vallejo, or the court. Scanlon realized that this was not going to stop, Matrafailo wrote, and gave up fighting back in the hopes that it would end quickly.. It didnt necessarily mean they didnt believe me. Unfortunately, her experience with the military-justice system greatly set back her career, and would overshadow her whole time in the Army. The doctrine, long a target of legislative reform, bars soldiers and sailors and Marines from recovering damages resulting from wrongful acts by the military. The Special Forces of the U.S. Army are based out of Fort Bragg, as is the powerful and secretive Joint Special Operations Command, making this spot, inland of the Eastern Seaboard, the central. In his mug shot, Vallejo appeared freshly shaved, his beard gone. A spokeswoman for the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office said the 911 call for the Walkertown incident came it at 12:54 a.m. April 11, 2020, as an anonymous assault in progress. Finally, at the end of the first day of trial, she was allowed to step down. A subsequent SOFREP investigation. Together they make up the core of JSOC, the black ops component of the military. The following year, the legal travails of ex-SEAL Eddie Gallagher would make national headlines for months on end. Lavigne retained him while still under Army investigation into the . The memorandum from 1st Special Forces Command written by an investigating officer appointed by the command, concluded that Lavigne was not credible. It appears that a lot goes on here.. Do Delta Force operators have a license to kill? It took her months to get a military protective order against him. Jane never saw Vallejo doing drugs, and unlike Lavigne, he didnt run around getting arrested, but she remembers him being at the center of a social scene that she describes as toxic. This was at the tail end of the Obama years, on the cusp of Trumps election. They picked him up down at the stop sign., A big, crazy white man is how a 52-year-old woman named Renee Locklear describes Lavigne. What the prosecution has to say, you already know, she remembers the SVC telling her. Because of societal prejudices toward womens sexuality, and the potential for abuse, rape shield laws, including Military Rule of Evidence 412, generally block defense attorneys from bringing up an accusers sexual history at trial. In September 2021, I visit the crack house where the incident occurred, a run-down home on Enloe Street accessible by a dirt road that a spokeswoman for the sheriff describes as a known drug house. Seven or eight people are sitting on the stoop or standing around the driveway. Her experience with the military-justice system illustrates the myriad difficulties faced by women in the overwhelmingly male armed forces who report being raped, and raises questions about the adequacy of the uniformed chain of command to protect the interests of victims of sex crimes allegedly committed by service members. PART OF AUDACY NEWS. His death certificate states his last place of residence was in Hope Mills. It is a lot for a jury to make a decision like that, she says. He returned the phone to his wife Laura days later saying he found it between the driver's seat and center console of Leshikar's car. The Army couldnt give Scanlon a transcript because no transcript ever existed. She was shaking, acting odd, pacing. Vallejo is a notable exception. They avoid social media, and their traces on the internet tend to be very few: an old photo with mom, a defunct phone number, a real-estate deed. I will keep fighting to put my life back together. Calls to Cumberland Country Sheriff's Office detectives to ask specific questions about the investigation went unanswered and the Sheriff's Office did not respond to requests for further comment. SUBSCRIBE Today!Also available everywhere you listen to podcasts!The recent deaths of Army Delta Force member William J. Lavigne and Army Veteran Timothy Dum. They were officers in the Judge Advocate Generals Corps, assigned to the Special Forces. Scanlon and Tina arrived at Macs shortly before 10 p.m. A number of motorcycles were parked out front. Officials have identified Master Sgt. Shortly after she and Tina arrived at Macs the night of the fundraiser, Scanlon recognized the Coast x Coast clubs logo from a Facebook photo of her old ROTC mentor, the ex-Delta soldier, which made her implicitly trust Vallejo and his crew, she recalls. or Erin Scanlon, a junior Army officer in the artillery branch, Fort Bragg was a prime posting. Scanlon says the detail initially slipped her memory. A senior defense official told ABC News in late March 2018 that the shooter was an active-duty member of a Special Missions Unit, known as Delta Force. She yelled something unintelligible before disappearing. What we noted was a warehouse that appeared to pull double duty as a gym and party location, the ABC officer wrote in an email to a colleague. That was a crazy ethical mistake.. Master Sgt. Youre lucky Im the Army, she told him jokingly, setting her phone and purse on the folding table. As a criminal profiler, Ciolino has investigated and exonerated death row inmates. Because otherwise I would not be using a port-a-potty., She went outside and crossed the blacktop to where the toilet was set up against the exterior wall of a metal building. Sometimes it only happens because someone with a dog in the fight gets involved. That is not accurate, a spokesman for Army CID, Jeffrey Castro, writes in a statement. So Leshikar's death remains in conflict. But he couldnt really explain why the Army waited 16 months to intervene on the eve of the trial, rather than let civilian justice take its course. It had been, in retrospect, a dark period in her life, she says, a damaging, booze-soaked run of years in her twenties. Which is why he became a Green Beret and why 'De Oppresso Liber' meant everything to him because that was who he was to his core.. Rick said Lavigne was also in Delta Force. The location was well-known, though, to other municipal authorities, who suspected it of being an illegal bar and a fire hazard, according to internal emails between city and county officials that I obtained. As soon as it was over, Scanlon says, I jumped up and grabbed my shoes and ran inside to get my stuff. Twice she broke down in tears and the court had to call a recess, she says. The case is being investigated as a homicide, a spokesperson for Army Criminal Investigations Division told Connecting Vets. Stateside they lived intense lives, too. Death certificates for Dumas and LaVigne state each died from gunshot wounds and were shot by an unknown assailant.. Then the shooter then winds up dead on the military base, basically gets assassinated. Once out of uniform, Scanlon began to meet advocates, lawyers, and people knowledgeable about sexual assault in the military. Whether the friend also secured Lavigne's phone is unknown. While awaiting trial, Vallejo had stood down as an active-duty operator, attached to USASOC as an ignominious SURPLUS SLDR, according to his enlistment-record brief. Cumberland County sheriffs deputies named him as a suspect on incident reports for crimes including possession of cocaine and crack paraphernalia, weapons infractions, hit-and-run, harboring an escapee, maintaining a dwelling place to manufacture a controlled substance, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The apparent lapse in memory had given Poppe an opening to hammer away at her credibility. Another inconsistency was noted when Lavigne told officials, Leshikar was acting in a menacing manner but he could not see SFC's Leshikar's hands, which appears to contradict his statement that he saw that Leshikar brandishing a screw driver. I wanted this all behind me.. Dumass cause of death is listed as gunshot wounds to the chest and head.. I dont think there was an agenda there, says Col. Adam Kazin, chief of the Army JAG Corps criminal-law division. She only met him and Vallejo that one night in her life. He was host of the event at Macs that night. Vallejo says the sex was consensual and was acquitted of all charges arising from the incident in a June 2018 court-martial on Fort Bragg. Even if she werent actually barred from the trial by order of the court, she believed that she had to stay in the witness room until called, and according to Scanlon, the SVC did nothing to correct the misapprehension. They would have been able to see from the many badges, patches, stripes, and braids on Vallejos embroidered blue coat that he was a military superstar, a veteran operator of the sort that all of USASOC exists to support. As reported in the Army Times, MSG William J. Lavigne was found dead in the training area of Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. Vallejo is considered a ladies man and groupies hang out at the ware house [sic] looking for an opportunity to sleep with Mr. Vallejo. This, the detective noted, was according to an employee of the Fayetteville Police Department who had to recuse herself from the case because she herself had once spent the night at Vallejos apartment. This was in violation of regulations that forbid fraternization, or close personal relationships between officers and enlisted soldiers, but as the staff sergeant wasnt in her unit or her chain of command, she thought of it as little more than a peccadillo. Around the same time, he went on a cross-country ride with the Coast x Coast motorcycle club, starting out of Los Angeles and bound for Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The trial record shows that Vallejos defense called eight additional witnesses. Scanlon maintains that her case was mishandled. But it was a disheartening conclusion, she says, to a difficult and drawn-out ordeal that she insists was not my fault.. Even with the rape kit and the testimony of witnesses like Tina, much would have hinged on Scanlons credibility. The police were called, and Vallejo left without incident. Over the course of 18 months between 2020 and 2021, more than 80 military members stationed at the base died from "sudden" and. He always had something in his hand, Locklear says. In the same filing, the defense notified the court of its intent to call the Green Berets widow, who would testify that she walked past the portable toilet and saw Cris with the blond girl having sex on a car, and that the female was obviously enjoying it., This was the red-haired woman whom Scanlon had briefly glimpsed during the alleged assault, a detail she had failed to relate to police. The trial began on a Monday morning. William J. Lavigne II and Timothy Dumas, a veteran previously stationed at the post, were found dead at a training site on the base Wednesday afternoon. Lavinge's statement to law enforcement at the scene was that Leshikar had attacked him with a screw driver. The Army missed another chance to rein in rogue elements in Delta Forces enlisted ranks in 2018, after Lavigne killed Leshikar in a drug-fueled altercation that was proof positive of something rotten in the state of Special Forces. Created in the late 1970s in the image of the British Special Air Service (SAS), Delta Force has been at . !For Educational Purposes Only! For reasons that remain a mystery, Lavigne had pulled out the .40-caliber sidearm he carried and double-tapped his best buddy right in front of two horrified little girls, his daughter and Leshikars. . She was just five years old at the time of her father's death. Special Forces Command decided he died in the line of duty, while the local sheriff's office ruled his death a justifiable homicide, all while Lavigne, continued his work with Delta Force. If he didnt have a knife, he would be toting around, like Rambo, some bow-and-arrow-type shit.. On the back patio, they are standing around a red tent with the Coast x Coast logo, drinking beer, chatting at the bar, and smoking cigarettes. An Army memorandum states that Lavigne first alleged that Leshikar had killed himself, but then changed his account of what happened. The 37 year old deployed 14 times and was a member of the Delta Squad, an elite special operations force which of course necessitates a wide variety of skills and training to join.
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