Yokota Air Base is home to the 374th Airlift Wing, 5th Air Force and U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — An Air Force trauma nurse was acquitted this week of four domestic violence counts stemming from a family dispute 15 months ago on this airlift hub in western Tokyo.
A panel of eight officers on Monday found Capt. Omar Vargas, assigned to the 374th Medical Group, not guilty of slapping, hitting/pushing, strangling and causing a door to hit his 19-year-old daughter on Dec. 22, 2024. Col. Shad Kidd presided over the six-day general court-martial.
“I’m glad that I’m free of all my charges that this kangaroo court decided to bring me up on,” Vargas told Stars and Stripes immediately after the verdict, before embracing family members. “The prosecutors are very unprofessional.”
He was also acquitted of striking his daughter when she was younger than 16 during an incident prosecutors said happened between May 2017 and May 2019 in Virginia.
Most of the counts centered on a December 2024 argument at the family’s Yokota home. During the confrontation, Vargas suffered a finger injury that required stitches when a door slammed shut, a point both sides agreed on.
In closing arguments Monday, the military prosecutor, Maj. Rachel Barker, said the daughter had been bracing herself against a door to keep her father from entering when the dispute escalated. She argued that Vargas struck and choked his daughter and cited an audio recording the daughter provided to investigators.
“The recording ended when Vargas slapped her face,” she said.
The defense attorney, Michael Waddington, argued that investigators failed to examine the daughter’s phone or collect forensic evidence, including DNA. He contended that the daughter was the aggressor and said she had slammed the door on her father, causing injury.
Waddington presented images in court that he said showed injuries to Vargas and his wife, including a black eye he attributed to the daughter. He also argued that photos the daughter took immediately after the incident showed no bruising, despite her claim that she had been struck.
“Nobody in this case has injuries to their body but the dad and the mom,” Waddington said.
In her closing remarks, Barker also referenced the earlier allegation, saying Vargas had struck his daughter when she was younger and promised not to do so again.
“But in December 2024 he broke that promise,” Barker said.
Waddington countered that Vargas had served more than two decades without prior incident and described him as a supportive father.
“Capt. Vargas has two decades unblemished,” he said. “They have got nothing against this guy.”
