Wednesday, March 28, 2001

By David Allen, Okinawa bureau chief

CAMP FOSTER — Lance Cpl. Lance W. Brown says he had the best of intentions in stealing $10,400 from the Navy Federal Credit Union.

He said he wanted to buy freedom for his Filipina fiancée, who works as a "buy-me-drinkee" girl in a club on Okinawa City’s Gate Two Street.

Standing shakily before a military judge Monday in Keystone Judicial Circuit Court, Brown, 22, tearfully admitted he entered a conspiracy with two other Marines. They wrote checks on a closed account with a stateside bank between Nov. 2 and Jan. 11.

Brown was given a bad-conduct discharge and sentenced to 18 months in prison, with three months suspended if he repays $5,700 to Navy Federal Credit Union.

Brown told the court that his girlfriend, a woman from the Philippines employed as an entertainer in a popular bar near Kadena Air Base, had recently had an abortion.

"Being that my fiancée is a ‘buy-me-drinkee girl,’ her hospital bill was paid by her sponsor," Brown said. "The debt had to be paid in full by February 8. If not paid, she’d have to sign another two-year contract — to basically live like a slave.

"That was the only reason I took part in this conspiracy," he sobbed.

During sentencing, Brown also was busted to E-1 and forfeited all pay and allowances. He has been in custody at the Joint Forces Brig at Camp Hansen since Jan. 27.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, Brown pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit larceny, larceny, and unauthorized absence. He faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.

He said another Marine, Cpl. Aaron J. King, wrote checks to him on King’s closed bank account. Brown then cashed then at a Navy Federal Credit Union branch on Okinawa. They would then split the money. Later, a third Marine, Lance Cpl. Austin J. Meyerdirk, joined the scheme, Brown said.

Cases are pending against Brown’s alleged co-conspirators. Under the terms of the plea bargain, Brown agreed to testify against them.

Brown, formerly of Marine Aircraft Group 36 at Futenma Marine Corps Air Station, also admitted he took unauthorized leave Jan. 24, the day he was transferred to Headquarters and Service Battalion, Marine Corps Base, Okinawa.

He was arrested three days later by military police at his girlfriend’s apartment in Okinawa City.

Two former supervisors testified Brown, a native of Louisiana, was an outstanding Marine who had fallen on hard times in the past two years with the death of his mother, his father’s attempted suicide and his girlfriend’s abortion. But Maj. Kathy Estes, the prosecutor in the case, argued he had wasted his potential.

"He doesn’t understand what it is to be a Marine," she said, pointing out that Brown had previously been counseled for writing bad checks.

She said he was also placed on liberty restriction and had his license revoked for 60 days in October after being caught driving recklessly along Highway 58 while making "insulting gestures at Japanese nationals."

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