WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — An Air Force major general in Ohio on Saturday was convicted by a military judge of one of three specifications of abusive sexual contact.
Maj. Gen. William Cooley was convicted in the first military trial of an Air Force major general, according to CBS News and The Associated Press. The weeklong court-martial was held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, located east of Dayton. Officials said the verdict marks the first court-martial trial and conviction of a general officer in the Air Force’s 75-year history.
Three charges were filed against Cooley stemming from the 2018 incidents. One alleged a forcible kiss and two alleged forcible touchings, the AP reported. Cooley was convicted of the forcible kissing specification but acquitted of the other two charges, the news organization reported.
Cooley was accused of abusive sexual contact in an encounter with a woman who gave him a ride after a backyard barbecue in New Mexico in 2018, according to the AP. Air Force officials said the woman is a civilian and not a Department of Defense employee.
"Today marks the first time an Air Force general officer has been held responsible for his heinous actions," the woman's attorney said. https://t.co/jx6tpeORSW
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 23, 2022
According to Air Force Times, the woman was Cooley’s sister-in-law. The woman agreed to be publicly identified by her relationship to Cooley, but not by her name, for the first time on Tuesday, according to the website.
Cooley commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, at the time of the incident.
According to the Air Force website, Cooley was the Special Assistant to the Commander of Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He was promoted to major general on July 3, 2018.,
Cooley entered the Air Force in 1988 through the ROTC program after graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, with a degree in mechanical engineering, according to his profile on the Air Force website. He received his master’s degree in mechanical engineering two years later from the University of New Mexico.
In 1997, Cooley was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in engineering physics at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Cooley will be sentenced Monday and could face as many as seven years in jail and the loss of rank, pay and benefits, the AP reported.
Cooley had the option of a trial by court member jurors or by a military judge; he chose the latter option.
The two-star general’s defense team argued that the pair shared a consensual kiss that his sister-in-law has blown out of proportion, Air Force Times reported.
“Today marks the first time an Air Force general officer has been held responsible for his heinous actions,” the woman’s attorney, Ryan Guilds, said in a statement. “Hopefully, this will not be as difficult for the next survivor.”
A message seeking comment was left for Cooley’s attorney on Saturday, according to the AP.
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