OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — An Air Force sergeant with more than 12 years of service was sentenced to a bad conduct discharge Thursday after a court-martial found him guilty of possessing child pornography.
Tech. Sgt. Robert W. Fields, 33, also was sentenced to six months in prison and reduction to pay grade E-4. He was in pay grade E-6 before his conviction.
A military judge, Air Force Col. Steven A. Hatfield, found Fields guilty of wrongful possession of child pornography and willful dereliction of duty. Hatfield is chief circuit military judge for the Pacific Circuit, out of Yokota Air Base, Japan.
The judge acquitted Fields on a charge of making a false official statement.
Under the law, defense lawyers said, Fields automatically will forfeit all pay and benefits during the jail term because his sentence involves a punitive discharge and confinement.
As Hatfield read the sentence, Fields’ face remained blank, as it had throughout the one-day proceeding. But his wife, who had sat in the back of the courtroom, could be heard sobbing occasionally as the trial moved into its final stages.
Fields was transported Thursday night to the Army’s confinement facility at Camp Humphreys, south of Osan Air Base.
Fields had chosen to be tried by a military judge alone rather than by jury. Not known Thursday night was whether Fields would choose to appeal. Defense lawyers said that on Friday they would file a formal request that Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary R. Trexler, who commands the 7th U.S. Air Force, headquartered at Osan, waive the pay forfeitures so Fields’ wife and three children “can have food and clothing.” Fields’ base pay is about $2,500 a month, defense lawyers said.
Fields’ legal troubles began Jan. 27, after military customs inspectors randomly selected him for a search of his household goods. According to trial testimony, when inspectors arrived at his on-base dorm room, they asked whether he had any pornography. He said he did not. After finding numerous pornographic magazines, inspectors asked to see his computer.
Upon finding pornographic images there, they notified the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), which also searched his computer, finding more than 5,000 pornographic images, including some categorized as child porn. During Thursday’s trial, the Air Force introduced into evidence 25 child porn images.
Authorities brought a dereliction charge because Fields had not told the inspectors pornography was among his household goods when they came to inspect. They charged Fields with making a false official statement because the military customs form he filled out upon arrival at Osan Air Base on Jan. 4, 2004, stated no pornography was in his possession.
Field’s attorneys countered Thursday that the form did not refer explicitly to household goods; they said Fields understood it to refer only to luggage with him on arrival.
The defense argued that although Fields had downloaded adult pornography, he never intentionally downloaded child pornography and had been unaware the files were on his computer. When, the defense said, Fields had discovered some child porn images, he had deleted them. Whatever remained on his computer when inspectors looked it over were images he had been unaware of, the defense said.
Fields was the second Osan airman this week found guilty and ordered jailed on child pornography charges. Senior Airman Bernard J. Howard of the 51st Logistics Readiness Squadron was sentenced Tuesday to eight months of confinement, reduction to pay grade E-1, and a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force following his conviction.
