OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — A former AFN radio DJ was sentenced here Saturday to two years in prison and a bad conduct discharge for bilking the Air Force out of more than $31,000 in housing allowance payments.
Senior Airman Timothy D. Howard also was sentenced to reduction to the military’s lowest pay grade, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a fine of $31,658, said Master Sgt. Matthew L. Summers, a base spokesman.
A jury of seven Air Force officers imposed the sentence Saturday night after finding Howard guilty earlier in the day on counts of larceny and making false official statements.
The trial began Wednesday before military judge Lt. Col. Gregory Friedland.
Howard hosted "The Morning Wake-up Call" Mondays through Fridays from 5:45 to 10 a.m., broadcasting to the Seoul area on American Forces Network’s "Eagle" radio. Officials took him off the air in early February so he could prepare for his court-martial, they said.
Prosecutor Capt. Kevin Burke said Howard filled out housing allowance paperwork in 2003 stating that his wife lived in Boston, Mass., when she actually lived in Washburn, Maine. In 2006, Howard filled out paperwork stating his wife lived in New York City, although she was actually living in her native Turkey, the prosecution said.
Agents of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations found that the Boston address was a United Parcel Service store. The New York City address was that of a woman who said Howard’s wife had stayed with her briefly in 2003 but never again since.
