BAUMHOLDER, Germany — A Baumholder-based 1st Armored Division soldier accused of stabbing a German woman is in legal limbo as German officials decide whether to keep jurisdiction over the case or cede it to the U.S. Army.
Pvt. Charles Savage, 24, has been in custody since April 11, when German police arrested him for allegedly stabbing the unidentified woman seven times.
Savage has not been charged by the Germans or the American government because the German Ministry of Justice hasn’t decided if it will keep jurisdiction or allow Savage to be tried by the U.S. Army.
Savage has been in jail for nearly a month without formal charges, and could remain there as long as six months without charges under German law, said Dorris Möller-Scheu, spokeswoman for the German prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt.
He can be held as long as three months before being allowed a defense attorney, Möller-Scheu said. However, Savage appeared April 13 in front of a U.S. Army magistrate to determine “whether the request for confinement (from Germany officials) complied with applicable law,” according to a response from Maj. Michael Indovina, 1st AD public affairs officer.
Savage is being held at the U.S. Army Confinement Facility-Europe in Mannheim, according to Indovina.
It’s not unusual for soldiers to be held by the Army at the request of German officials, said Charlie White, a Maine-based attorney and Air Force veteran who, as a civilian, spent five years defending American soldiers in Europe.
More often than not, German authorities cede jurisdiction in such cases to the U.S. military, White said. Exceptions may be assaults on Germans — especially members of prominent families — and cases involving the death penalty, he added.
Germany does not have the death penalty and under the Status of Forces Agreement has the right to try Americans accused of committing crimes on German soil, rather than turning them over to U.S. military authorities to face a capital trial.
Just who the woman is remains unclear as assault victims are not identified under German procedures.
Savage was arrested after he allegedly stabbed the German woman seven times, Möller- Scheu said. The soldier had met the 31-year-old woman three weeks earlier and had been sleeping on the couch at her apartment.
On the night of the attack, the woman awoke to find Savage “sitting on her bed, stabbing her,” Möller-Scheu said. “She doesn’t know why.”
Savage was considered absent without leave from his unit at the time of the incident, military officials said.
The woman, whose name has not been released, is recovering after surgery for a punctured lung.
