The second man, whose name was not disclosed, was an army veteran previously stationed at the North Carolina military base. The next morning, she told the guy she was dating at the time that his buddy had raped her, but he didnt believe her, she says. What happened next remains disputed by the family members of both men, but the medical examiner's report reveals some details. Since learning of Lavigne's death, Leshikar's daughter has opened up about it, saying she was previously afraid Lavigne would kill her mother if she spoke of it, Rick told Connecting Vets. He came with us, rode the ride. Hes at home, doing work shit. Thats all hell say about Coast x Coasts founder and CEO. As I wrote in The Fort Bragg Murders, Lavignes dozen-plus deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and elsewhere had left him addled with trauma and addicted to hard drugs and alcohol. The location was well-known, though, to other municipal authorities, who suspected it of being an illegal bar and a fire hazard, according to internal emails between city and county officials that I obtained. Nances legal reasoning may have been sound, but it still resulted in a rape counselor providing testimony against her own client at trial, a result that another judge might have bent over backward to avoid. Connecting Vets is not naming the Delta Force operator as attempts to contact him were unsuccessful, and he may still work on sensitive assignments. To buttress his depiction of her as a woman on the prowl, he put up photos of her taken that night in which she was wearing a sleeveless dress with a short skirt, and texts between her and Tina joking about going out braless or commando., Isnt it true you were flirting with him? she recalls him asking. Army investigators with CID had initially washed their hands of the case, but the two JAG prosecutors, Morman and Cohen, claimed to have only belatedly learned that the victim and defendant were both soldiers, which gave the military parallel jurisdiction to try Vallejo. 2023 Audacy, Inc. All rights reserved. Yet, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office which ran the investigation of Leshikar's death since it happened off post, ruled it to be a "justifiable homicide." But it was a disheartening conclusion, she says, to a difficult and drawn-out ordeal that she insists was not my fault.. She lives a very different life and has no contact with the elite soldiers who had been her colleagues, friends, and lovers for the better part of a decade. Vallejo was briefly detained in jail on a $100,000 bond. The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History It didnt necessarily mean they didnt believe me. Unfortunately, her experience with the military-justice system greatly set back her career, and would overshadow her whole time in the Army. William J. Lavigne II and Timothy Dumas, a veteran previously stationed at the post, were found dead at a training site on the base Wednesday afternoon. The jury panel of nine included two women and was a mix of colonels, majors, and senior sergeants, all of whom served in the Special Forces. Shortly after she and Tina arrived at Macs the night of the fundraiser, Scanlon recognized the Coast x Coast clubs logo from a Facebook photo of her old ROTC mentor, the ex-Delta soldier, which made her implicitly trust Vallejo and his crew, she recalls. She said that when she opened the door, and her daddy was mad and walking towards uncle Billy and uncle Billy came around and shot him, and then my daddy did this, her family described. As the jury filed in, everyone stood. Scanlon was looking forward to getting the ordeal over with. Scanlon never knew Lavigne, not by name. She said she tried to get them to stop using narcotics. Right as Scanlon and Tina walked into the crowded barbecue joint and beer hall, Vallejo stopped them, tried to flex, laughed, and walked away, Tina would later recall to a Fayetteville detective. He was charged with a felony for allegedly harboring an escapee. He was not a quiet professional, she says, using a term that special-operations generals came up with in the 1980s to describe themselves, and since repeated endlessly in the news media. The girl then mimicking how her father collapsed to the floor. Both Vallejo and Lavigne were exonerated. He busted a few rounds in the direction of Ian Detar, an inveterate burglar who has no fewer than 29 mug shots on file with the county. A guy whos in Delta Force would not be flashing his name around and having a nonprofit and partying at a bar. The founder and CEO of the nonprofit is a 39-year-old man, Cristobal Lopez Vallejo, who goes by the alias Cris Valley. Dumas, an ex-soldier with a shady past, was found murdered along with Lavigne in the woods outside Fayetteville in December 2020. Delta Force, and deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. The prosecution did not call Matrafailo, the Fayetteville detective who had investigated Scanlons claim, interviewed witnesses while their memories were fresh, collected evidence before it disappeared, and concluded by arresting Vallejo for second-degree rape. Arriving at the site in the early morning hours of Sept. 10, 2016, Scanlon and Tina were immediately creeped out by the griminess of the location. As a criminal profiler, Ciolino has investigated and exonerated death row inmates. US report shows China taking steps toward space dominance, Biden to allow Afghans to stay longer in US, sources say, Michigan expands absentee voting for military members, Some companies charge hefty fees to help vets with disability claims, Meet 12M+, the new community app for military spouses, Your next tech and incoming AI | Defense News Weekly Full Episode 4.28.2023, Home Improvement Loans What are my options? Scanlon says the detail initially slipped her memory. Connecting Vets contacted Cumberland County Sheriff's Office to obtain a copy of the full incident report, but was told that it will only be released with a court order from a judge. Only 11 of the deaths were determined to have been from natural causes. She yelled something unintelligible before disappearing. If he didnt have a knife, he would be toting around, like Rambo, some bow-and-arrow-type shit.. "Hard drugs and murder in JSOC: "'We have a lot of Delta Force members in our community,' says Ballard, the police detective.'Some of them are really . They didnt care with who. A news release from the FBI in February stated that the bodies of the men were found near a Fort Bragg training area. Only then did Scanlon learn the real identity of the man she knew as Cris Valley. Leshikar's daughter said that, Uncle Billy was acting strange and that's why I let my daddy in, to the house. Because otherwise I would not be using a port-a-potty., She went outside and crossed the blacktop to where the toilet was set up against the exterior wall of a metal building. Fort Bragg Delta Force Master Sgt. The samples proved a match to Vallejos DNA. She still didnt know that Vallejo was an active-duty soldier, much less that he was on Delta Force. Leshikar's family allege evidence was tampered with and that Lavigne called another Delta Force Operator to come to the scene Credit: Facebook. I remember hearing some shots. I dont know how we survived., Jane was well-acquainted with the site known as Warehouse 13. "The shooter's own words bury his ass because there is no screw driver. It was drink, sex, drink, sex. In February, the FBI announced that it is assisting in the case. William Lavigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44, were both found dead in a training area at Fort Bragg on December 2 It has now been revealed that both men were facing. Special Forces Command decided he died in the line of duty, while the local sheriff's office ruled his death a justifiable homicide, all while Lavigne, continued his work with Delta Force. The adjacent alley was full of junked cars. That August, two investigators, Maj. Brent Goodwin and Arthur Chancellor from CID, paid a visit to the Leshikar family. Scanlon says reporting the alleged attack, and the subsequent ordeal, hurt her military career. I feel guilty, Scanlon texted. Because every man with a dark beard or a hat terrified me., But, the statement continued, I am strong. Anything other than you saying yes or asking for it is not consent, her friend replied. Calls to Cumberland Country Sheriff's Office detectives to ask specific questions about the investigation went unanswered and the Sheriff's Office did not respond to requests for further comment. I followed her, the detectives notes of the conversation read. Sgt Lavigne was a Green Beret and Delta Force member. I firmly believe that I had to be his victim because I was strong enough to report him., She never got the chance to lay any of this on Vallejo, or the court. Next came back-to-back tours in Iraq. The Army missed another chance to rein in rogue elements in Delta Forces enlisted ranks in 2018, after Lavigne killed Leshikar in a drug-fueled altercation that was proof positive of something rotten in the state of Special Forces. In the event of a terrorist strike, international hostage situation, or loose nuclear weapon, its Delta or Team 6 that the president will call on to respond. Subsequently, the Army swapped out her SVC four separate times. William Lavigne and Timothy Dumas were found dead at a training site on Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Dumas, Sr., 44, and Lavigne, 37, were found dead on Fort Bragg near Manchester Road in Cumberland County, North Carolina, on December 2, 2020. The mystery around the deaths of Master Sgt. I also recently reported on a very dark story, about a Delta Force operator named William Lavigne shot and killed his best friend, a Green Beret named Mark Leshikar. Master Sgt. William LaVigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44. The detective told me, This guys active-duty, she recalls. from 67] house in Fayetteville, he had shot and killed his closest friend, a Green Beret named Mark Leshikar, with whom he had been drinking and doing drugs for days on end during a family vacation to Disney World. How coincidental is it? she says. Jane was once deployed to a country in Southwest Asia and was stationed on the same base as a contingent from Delta Force. Youre lucky Im the Army, she told him jokingly, setting her phone and purse on the folding table. !For Educational Purposes Only! I was pissed that another obstacle had gone up, she says. Another struck hit him in his right side. I had to get shots and blood drawn to get tested for STDs so many horrible times. Constant appointments with lawyers, detectives, investigators, and advocates had disrupted her military career, and caused her to miss out on her units 2017 deployment to Iraq. Its like watching a scary movie. Twice she broke down in tears and the court had to call a recess, she says. It was standard practice at the time, Col. Kazin says. or Erin Scanlon, a junior Army officer in the artillery branch, Fort Bragg was a prime posting. Leshikar and Lavigne were also known to use cocaine, Leshikar's family said. Jane is out of the military now. Anecdote, family member was [redacted] group, got recruited to Delta, turned them down. Dumas was scheduled to appear in Forsyth County District Court on Dec. 17 for charges of breaking and entering, communicating threats and impersonating a law enforcement officer, according to court records. He was taught how to survive behind enemy lines, resist interrogation, and escape from POW camps. This is a very secluded parcel, the fire marshal wrote in an email to the zoning department. And I was in law enforcement for all of the years that he was growing up so I was very hard on my kids, tried to make them strong and independent. Vallejo, wearing his full-dress uniform, was seated at the defense table, next to his defense attorney, Kris Poppe, a former JAG prosecutor who previously served as an infantry officer. A nonprofit associated with the club, the Coast x Coast Foundation, raises money through annual cross-country motorcycle rides to honor fallen special operators. The rest of the court-martial is a black box to her, because she spent it sequestered in the prosecutions witness room, which she says she was not permitted to leave. In a motion dated June 12, the defense stated that one of the civil-affairs officers was expected to testify that she had observed close, friendly, and flirtatious interaction between Vallejo and Scanlon all night. All of his questions were directed at Scanlons honesty and candor, he says. Death certificates for Dumas and LaVigne state each died from gunshot wounds and were shot by an unknown assailant.. Erin Scanlon wants to go on the record again so that her alleged attacker is identified as Delta Force. Then the shooter then winds up dead on the military base, basically gets assassinated. It was a fundraiser to honor five slain Green Berets, hosted by some SF guys, Tina texted. And in North Carolina, there is no statute of limitations for rape. Efforts to reach these people by phone were unsuccessful. LaVigne also was involved in other Cumberland County cases that never resulted in charges, records show. He proceeded to rack up practically every qualification an infantryman can attain, undergoing advanced training in land navigation, reconnaissance, surveillance, sniping, and high-altitude parachuting. Each year, they hold a string of events in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, North Carolina, and Virginia, where they sell merchandise, take donations, and raffle off items such as bottles of wine printed with portraits of fallen Delta Force soldiers, concealed-carry holsters, and pistols painted in the colors of the American flag. William LaVigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas Sr., 44, is. It was shocking, Scanlon told The Fayetteville Observer in 2019, and honestly a little bit unbelievable. (Attempts to reach Matrafailo by phone were unsuccessful.). The 37 year old deployed 14 times and was a member of the Delta Squad, an elite special operations force which of course necessitates a wide variety of skills and training to join. The trial record shows that Vallejos defense called eight additional witnesses. Scanlon had to order another Uber, as the first one had given up and driven off. Scanlon derisively refers to the latter four as groupies. A Fayetteville police detective used the same language in his report on her case. Leshikar was a member of 19th Special Forces Group and had previously deployed to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. After I gave my statement, the CID agents left the room. Do you realize what you did? she replied at 4:25 a.m. Are walking blood banks coming to a field hospital near you? Ultimately, both CID and the sheriffs office determined there was no criminal culpability.. Because of his traumatic brain injury, Leshikar was prescribed Tramadol which he became addicted to, his family said. Joseph Morman, Scanlon says. Poppe couldnt recall why that was the case, but conceded that it was somewhat unusual for the main police witness in a criminal trial not to align with the prosecution. Between the summer of 2018 and the fall of 2020, Lavignes behavior became increasingly erratic and dangerous. Sad as it is, that happens a lot. Poppe was unable to remember the substance of Matrafailos testimony, only that it involved some aspects of the investigation that had not been discussed., A few months after the trial, Matrafailo would be accused of making inappropriate contact with Scanlon on social media: sending her suggestive emojis, making weird comments about ads for lingerie, and the like. Going around chatting with people like a politician.. That night he shattered my whole world, the statement read. The LaVigne and Leshikar familes had just returned from a trip to Disneyland. Lavigne then went into the home, and locked himself inside with both of their daughters, who were around five years old at the time. On the way to the staff sergeants house, where shed spend the night, she looked at her phone and saw that Vallejo had sent her a text: How are you? That would have been enough, Poppe argues, to spook Scanlon into making a false accusation of rape, lest word get out and she be reprimanded for fraternization. Thats being a girl at a bar., According to text messages she sent a girlfriend the next day, Scanlon was drunk and flirted with him. But she didnt consent to what later ensued, she immediately added. 2023 Audacy, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Thereafter, things moved very slowly toward a trial. They have zero remorse. She doesnt mean that any of the killings she witnessed were illegal or outside the rules of engagement. She accused a Special Forces operative of rape. The police were called, and Vallejo left without incident. But the instructions to the jury show that the judge, Col. Jeffrey Nance, allowed the panel to consider Scanlons relationship with the staff sergeant insofar as it was probative of her motive, if any, to fabricate her allegations against the accused. The judge cautioned the panel that they were forbidden to conclude that Scanlon, having willingly slept with one enlisted man, was likely to do it again; but to use an old legal clich, that was a bit like throwing a skunk into the jury box and instructing the jurors not to smell it. In fact, studies show that the conviction rate on penetrative-rape and forcible-sodomy charges is generally lower in military courts than civilian ones. Because she was already guilty of one instance of fraternization, with the staff sergeant to whose house she had been headed to that night, she had a motive to lie and pretend that the encounter with Vallejo was nonconsensual, in Poppes theory of the case. Then, on Sept. 1, 2018, Lavigne was charged with felony harboring an escapee and maintaining a vehicle or dwelling to manufacture a controlled substance. Like Gallagher, Anayat was an ordinary Tier 2 special operator, of whom there are as many as 10,000. She felt the implication was clear: Obviously youre a liar.. Its not even clear what agency, military or civilian, is investigating. No more than 10 minutes after arriving, Scanlon sent a text message to a 25-year-old staff sergeant, another soldier at Fort Bragg, whom she occasionally hooked up with. The body of Master Sgt. Sketchy-looking, Scanlon describes it, comparing it to a rundown CrossFit gym, with a roll-up garage door, by a railroad track and a junkyard.. By the time of Vallejos trial, it was clear that the Army had missed a chance to intervene in the boundary-pushing, motorcycle-borne debauchery of the Coast x Coast club as early as September 2016, when Scanlon went to CID and alleged that Vallejo had raped her behind their un-permitted clubhouse in downtown Fayetteville, which just happens to be adjacent to the county jail, a building full of cops. It was a warm night in the Carolinas, with a quarter-moon in the sky. A sort of Delta Force biker gang that story wouldnt have been good for the Army, not at a time when the Navy was getting hammered by allegations of rampant drug abuse, fratricidal violence, and sexual assault in the ranks of its SEAL teams. I defaulted to what the USASOC prosecutor and the DA would decide, and consented to removal of the case to Fort Bragg, which resulted in an unanticipated four-month delay. Connecting Vets reached out to members of Lavigne's family for comment, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication. The military had kept it quiet, though. The following year, the legal travails of ex-SEAL Eddie Gallagher would make national headlines for months on end. Then, on Dec. 2, 2020, Lavigne turned up dead, shot multiple times in the chest, his body wrapped up as if for disposal, and placed in the back of his truck, which was left abandoned on a dirt road near Lake MacArthur. Then, just before the opening arguments were scheduled to take place, military lawyers from Fort Bragg intervened. One penetrated his neck and lodged in his back. Tina watched Vallejo walk up behind Scanlon, causing Scanlon to dart off, according to the statement Tina gave Matrafailo. Army records show Dumas served in the Army as a property accounting technician from November 1996 to March 2016, separating as a chief warrant officer 3. In the military and in popular culture, their kind is revered. So who did, and why? Now, she told him that she would be over shortly, and used her phone to order an Uber to take her there. Lavigne later said in a statement to police he was removing the car's battery. I know this was specifically Delta Force, but its like this across the whole of USASOC, using an acronym for the U.S. Armys Special Operations Command. Fort Bragg officials announced that the Master Sgt. In Dumas' case, he had a Dec. 17 court date in. On Sept. 8, 2021, the Coast x Coast club holds a public event in Fayetteville, at their usual haunt, Macs Speed Shop. Training program helps transitioning service members build their VA careers, 2 US Army helicopters crash in Alaska, killing 3 soldiers, Japanese Breakfast's Michelle Zauner tells Glennon Doyle she is 'afraid of her mental health', Half million PACT Act claims have been filed at VA as budget battle looms, Honoring survivors of military sexual trauma. According to him, agents initiated a collateral investigation with Fayetteville police. The hard-partying antics of the Coast x Coast club could certainly be seen as a manifestation of that sort of attitude, a sense of exemption from ordinary strictures and petty rules. How did the Uber driver react to the distress shown by 1LT Scanlon? a juror asked Tina. He is courteous, with an iron handshake, and gives his name as Joe. Which is why he became a Green Beret and why 'De Oppresso Liber' meant everything to him because that was who he was to his core.. A Defense Department memorandum based on the Cumberland County Sheriff's report revealed additional inconsistencies. I only recently learned about Lavignes July 2020 arrest from a police report that the sheriffs office initially withheld. A spokeswoman for the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office said the 911 call for the Walkertown incident came it at 12:54 a.m. April 11, 2020, as an anonymous assault in progress. He then allegedly forcibly penetrated her vagina with his penis against her will, Detective Matrafailo wrote in his report. Instead, her aunt and grandmother relayed what she described. I didnt say anything when he did that. In September 2021, I visit the crack house where the incident occurred, a run-down home on Enloe Street accessible by a dirt road that a spokeswoman for the sheriff describes as a known drug house. Seven or eight people are sitting on the stoop or standing around the driveway. There are a dozen-plus local-news hits under his Anglicized name, Cris Valley, and a simple Google search turns up numerous photos and videos of him. According to a source who spoke to SOFREP on the condition of anonymity, Army investigators discovered that the truck belonged to 37-year-old William J. Lavigne II, an Army Master Sergeant. After speaking with a chaplain, she met with her units SARC, or sexual-assault response coordinator, who took her to meet with agents from the bases Criminal Investigation Division. You get everyone in for a forensic interview, get emails, social media and everything else in the next 48 hours. I was with them for years, constantly, she says. Over the course of 18 months between 2020 and 2021, more than 80 military members stationed at the base died from "sudden" and. Those deleted files were the only record of the testimony the jurors chose to believe over hers. We drank so much, she says. She attained the rank of captain, but the missed deployment, the transfers between units, and the stigma that attaches to female soldiers who report being raped all the gossipy, nontangible ways, she says, that marks you out as a problem child diminished her prospects of advancement. There is zero respect for women in that community, she says. As Rolling Stone reported in a previous piece, "The Fort Bragg Murders," in March 2018 right around the time that military prosecutors took control of Vallejo's trial Lavigne shot and killed a Green Beret in the living room of his house in Fayetteville without suffering the slightest legal consequences.". . After taking her statement and reviewing her text messages, Detective Matrafailo drove her the three blocks to the warehouse in an effort to identify the precise location. Additionally, Lavigne never stated or implied that he moved the screw driver or any weapon after shooting SFC Leshikar.. 1st Class Mark Leshikar. . At the time the body was rolled no screw driver was found, the Medical Examiner's report states. It appears that a lot goes on here.. Seeking to impeach Scanlons credibility and establish that she had tried to conceal the existence of an eyewitness, Poppe sought and obtained the SVCs testimony on this point. It was not a decision to try to sneak it out of Cumberland County. The only purpose of convening the meeting with the DA, Col. Kazin says, was to make sure that the JAG prosecutors understood whether Scanlon preferred to have a military or civilian trial. As soon as it concluded with an acquittal, the Army deleted the audio recordings. Its not going to be good for you., For the jury, it must have been a somewhat close call, because they submitted at least 18 questions to the witnesses. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Around the same time, he went on a cross-country ride with the Coast x Coast motorcycle club, starting out of Los Angeles and bound for Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The DA treated the killing as a justifiable homicide and Lavigne was not charged with a crime. Leshikar's family alleged that Lavigne was never administered a toxicology screen to test him for alcohol or narcotics in his system following the shooting.
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