Army injustice: Thousands of soldiers slapped with misleading criminal record | Digital Originals
Soldiers and veterans say the Army's investigation of a now-defunct recruiting program left them with a criminal record even though they were never charged.
A new class action lawsuit alleges the U.S. Army knowingly stuck thousands of soldiers and veterans with a false arrest record over the past six years.
"Defendants have shown that they would rather indulge in bureaucratic inertia rather than fix a problem that has now destroyed the lives, reputations, and careers of numerous service members," attorneys wrote in the class action suit against the Army, its Criminal Investigation Division (CID), the FBI and the Department of Defense, as well as each agency's respective leader
Texas Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Denise Rosales graduates from the Drug Enforcement Administration's Basic Intelligence Research Analyst Training at DEA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., July 20, 2017. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Michael Giles)
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The primary plaintiff in the class action suit filed Oct. 26 is Denise Rosales, a non-commissioned officer in the Texas Army National Guard. Rosales received an administrative reprimand after throwing a birthday party for her husband that allegedly involved alcohol while on deployment in Kuwait.
She was never taken into custody or brought up on charges, but if a potential employer ran a background check on Rosales, they would read that she was arrested on Jan. 5, 2021, for false official statements, the suit alleges.
Rosales lost her job supporting the Drug Enforcement Administration and can't return to her full-time Texas Army National Guard position due to the false record, jeopardizing her retirement, according to the suit. She also worries she won't be able to attend field trips with her children, because the school runs background checks on chaperons.
"School officials, like most people, will assume the government and especially the FBI can be relied on to keep accurate records on citizens," Rosales wrote in an affidavit. She added, "I want my children to be proud of their mother and not ask why I cannot attend a school event."
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Rosales' experience is not unique in the military.
The suit addresses an obscure military process known as "titling," in which the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) creates a permanent record showing a soldier was the subject of an investigation regardless of whether they are ever charged with a crime. In many cases, CID forwards that information to the FBI’s criminal database where it shows up as an arrest.
The FBI declined to comment on pending litigation. None of the other defendants immediately returned requests for comment.
"They’ve literally destroyed lives," one attorney behind the suit, retired Green Beret Doug O'Connell, told Fox News late last year when the Army admitted it improperly titled around 2,000 service members who participated in a recruiting incentive program launched during the Global War on Terror and shuttered in 2012 after fraud allegations.
The Army began correcting those soldiers and veterans' records and has in some cases awarded promotions and backpay to service members blocked from advancing in the military due to the error.
But Army officials have continued to defend titling as an "administrative function" that does not indicate a criminal determination as recently as August of this year, when emails show CID declined to clear the record of a Green Beret veteran who said he was slapped with false charges.
"Imagine never being able to pass a background check to get a job or a license and never knowing why," Liz Ullman, a longtime advocate for titled soldiers and veterans told Fox News in an email Tuesday. "Our military and law enforcement agencies must do better and they must be held accountable for the damage they have done."
The suit aims to stop the government from creating arrest records for people who were not arrested and seeks compensation for Rosales and all other Army service members falsely reported as arrested over the past six years. While that number is not publicly known, attorneys argue it's likely more than 2,400 individuals.
"We’re looking forward to putting Army CID’s egregious and callous conduct toward Soldiers and Veterans on display in Court," O'Connell wrote in a statement to Fox News, adding that the case is also about "the Army and DoD’s bureaucratic arrogance in thinking they can get away with illegally creating false government records without accountability."
Denise Rosales, right, was never arrested or charged with a crime, according to her lawyers. But after she was investigated and reprimanded for allegedly possessing alcohol on a deployment to Kuwait, Rosales' background check began to show an arrest for false official statements. Despite numerous requests, the Army has refused to correct the error, lawyers say. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Michael Giles)
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The lawsuit alleges the military began falsely reporting that soldiers had been arrested after the 2017 Sutherland Springs mass shooting in which an Air Force veteran killed 26 people. The Air Force later acknowledged it had failed to report the shooter's felony conviction for domestic violence to the FBI database, which could have blocked him from buying guns.
The DoD inspector general recommended the military implement programs to better ensure collection and submission of fingerprints and criminal histories, according to the suit.
"But in typical military fashion, all the services overcompensated, especially the Army," the suit reads.
