A soldier with an exemplary service record will be allowed to finish out the remainder of his term after he was apparently targeted for dismissal by his Army superiors because they think that he is gay.

“I am still disappointed that the command did not give the proper review,” Steve Ralls, of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, who has been assisting the soldier with his case. “But they will allow him to complete his service.”

As first reported by PageOneQ last month, PFC Christopher Mastromarino, a military policeman and member of the Army’s prestigious Old Guard [http://www.army.mil/oldguard/index2.htm[ -- a regiment that serves as an honor guard at White House functions, services at Arlington Cemetery and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, as well as security at private functions for top Pentagon officials in Washington, D.C. -- was court-martialed in May after indecent assault charges were filed against him in February.

The charges alleged that Mastromarino sexually harassed other male soldiers in his unit with unwanted touching and verbal comments -- charges the decorated service member denies. He was ultimately convicted of three counts of simple assault.

But the Maryland native told PageOneQ that the prosecution’s case was filled with conflicting testimony, here-say and rumors, and a questionable timeline.

In addition, according to sworn testimony during the trial, two prosecution witnesses said that they did not consider the physical contact between themselves and Mastromarino to be an assault, although the command chose to bring those charges forward against him.

“In the Army, we hear a lot about Army values,” Mastromarino told PageOneQ. “I don’t see that in this case. I don’t see Army values being put towards me.”

Although he appealed the court’s findings, the ruling was approved in early August by the regiment’s commanding general, Major General Richard Rowe.

And while Mastromarino said he was disappointed that the charges will remain on his record, he is very happy that he will be allowed to serve out the remainder of his service contract.

“I am not a bad soldier. I do my job,” Mastromarino said. “I just want to honorably serve out my remaining eights months.”

Only a few weeks, however, it seemed unlikely that the soldier would be allowed to stay in the military.

Before his appeal was reviewed and the charges finalized, Mastromarino’s command had already begun the process of administratively removing him from the Army -- a process that began the day after his court martial. Mastromarino said he could have been immediately and officially discharged from the Army once his court martial was approved by Gen. Rowe.

But last week -- before he received word of the status of his discharge -- Mastromarino said he ran into the Old Guard’s commander, Col. Joseph P. Buche, by chance while walking down a hallway. If he was going to be removed from the military, it would have been up to the colonel to sign off on his discharge papers, Mastromarino said.

“He punched me on the shoulder and said, ‘I heard a lot of good things about you. Keep up the good work,’’’ Mastromarino said of his encounter with Col. Buche.

But while he will be allowed to continue to serve in the Army, Mastromarino will not do it in a new unit.

“Ultimately, I will not be in the Old Guard,” he said. “They will have no say over me or anything that happens to me.”

Currently, Mastromarino is applying to be a Washington, D.C., police officer. And while it might not block him from obtaining a position, the convictions on his service record will make the application process much more difficult.

“It’s going to make it very hard. They are going to have to look at it. And now they have to do an investigation... I wanted to be a police officer my whole life. And I have been preparing myself to make the next step into law enforcement,” he said, adding he is hopeful the D.C. police will not find thecourt martial a reason to refuse his application.

“They don’t understand that they have ruined plans that I have made virtually my whole life,” Mastromarino said of the soldiers who made the allegations against him. “I am disappointed.”

Mastromarino added that had it not been from the media attention his case received after he decided to going public, he said he feels he would have little chance to remain in the Army.

Ralls agreed.

“The media scrutiny was instrumental” in Mastromarino’s partial victory, Ralls said.

When PageOneQ had asked Army public affairs if it was standard operating procedure to begin administratively separating a soldier from his unit before a court martial was finalized, they declined to answer immediately, promising to return with the information at a later time. They never did.

Subhead

Mastromarino enlisted in the Army in 2003, with hopes of becoming a military police officer. Two of his older brothers also have served in the military, one in the Air Force and another as an Army chaplain.

“I kind of look up to my brothers,” Mastromarino, the youngest of six boys, said.

The Maryland native said he decided to join the Army not just to walk in his brothers’ shoes, but also to help forward his opportunities after his service.

“I want to be a police officer, and I was hoping to get some good police training” in the military, he said. “And, I also wanted to serve my country.”

After being stationed at Fort Wood in Missouri and then on the Korean peninsula -- received numerous awards, medals and accolades for his service and volunteer efforts at both stations -- Mastromarino decided to try something different, and closer to home. So, he applied to The Old Guard.

And, due to his spotless and outstanding service record -- as well as glowing letters of recommendation -- he was one of a small handful of soldiers that are handpicked to join the regiment each year.

“One of the most prestigious honors is to be a member of the honor guard,” he said. “I have been very honored to do it.”

But, Mastromarino said within a few months of joining The Old Guard in October 2005, soldiers in his unit began to spread rumors about his sexuality, after he moved in with his openly gay cousin and partner who lived in the Washington, D.C. area.

“I realized it was a different climate than what I experienced in my previous units,” Mastromarino said, adding he had never had any problems at any of the other units he had served with in the past.

Although he tried to joke about the homophobic comments, it did not take long, Mastromarino said, for the rumors to become something more venomous, aggressive and frequent.

“People started calling me ‘fag’ and ‘queer’. And I’ve had people write things on the bathroom wall about me like, ‘Mastro is a faggot’” he said.

In addition, Mastromarino said it eventually got to the point that often when he would walk into a room, other soldiers would say things such as, “Fags shall die,” and “I wish all queers would disappear.”

“It started becoming hateful,” he said.

So, in early 2006, Mastromarino reported the harassment to his Equal Opportunity Officer who assured him that the issue would be addressed and the harassment stopped. It did not.

Instead, in January 2007, charges were brought against Mastromarino for allegedly sexually harassing a soldier in his unit. The soldier alleged that Mastromarino had come from behind, bent him over and spread his feet as if to conduct a law-enforcement-style wall search.

But in documentation provided by SLDN, the soldier who made the first allegations against Mastromarino back in January said if those actions had been carried out by anyone else, it would not have felt like an indecent assault, and it would not have bothered him.

According to SLDN, the soldier said in his sworn testimony to investigators that he only felt like the incident was an assault because he thought Mastromarino is gay.

“For some reason, he thought I was hitting on him,” Mastromarino said, adding that the soldier was young and impressionable, and may have been influenced and his actions instigated by others around him.

“I think that that statement had a huge impact,” Mastromarino said, adding that he has done security work as an MP at Pace’s home in Washington. “I think it had a great bearing on my case.”

During his initial interview with PageOneQ, Mastromarino declined to reveal whether or not he is a gay or bisexual man, because, he said, under the military’s policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” he is not permitted to answer that question as an active duty service member.

Those initial allegations in January were investigated by the military police, but dropped within hours for lack of evidence. Then, the case was referred to the CID for an independent review, as the Army requires when the military police investigate a fellow officer.

The CID investigation concurred with the military police findings that the charges should be dropped due to a lack of evidence. The agency issued its report on Feb. 15.

Later that same day, Mastromarino’s regimental commander presented him with an Article 15, a non-judicial punishment for minor disciplinary offenses (http://usmilitary.about.com/od/justicelawlegislation/a/article15.htm) that can be refused by the soldier, accusing him of indecent assault and solicitation of an indecent act.

Five days later Mastromarino declined it, maintaining that he had done nothing improper or indecent.

“He was in their yelling at me and telling me I was a horrible soldier,” Mastromarino said of his commander. “I was almost in tears... it was degrading and humiliating.”

Once he declined, his command began its own independent investigation into the allegations of indecent assault. According to Mastromarino, no new information was gathered, other than most soldiers in his unit think he is gay.

“It was just a fishing

expedition,” Mastromarino said.

Then, on March 13, during an interview Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace called homosexuality immoral, then adding that there was no place in the military for immoral behavior.

Three days later, charges were brought against Mastromarino for indecent assault, which led to his court-martial and conviction of simple assault in May.

PageOneQ had requested an interview with Rowe, but was referred to the Army’s public affairs by the major general’s office.