AE Judicial Case: Frodo Swaggins vs. The Vulture 061 - Verdict
22 Oct 2020Rexicles
Selected Court: The High Court of Wallace CityHearing Type: Summary, Verdict & Sentancing
Proceedings Notes
Despite the threats of unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims from the self-proclaimed radical group 'freedom fighting anarchists of the 7th Legion' (at the behest of Frodo Swaggins), and in the interest of ensuring a fair trial we have prepared our systems to repel attack. Having spent the majority of the squadrons brief history working on our allies' expansion & stabilisation efforts we are blessed with minimal attack surface; combined with the offer of help from our allies, Imperial Enforcement Division - for which we are immensely grateful. Such pressures from terrorism should have no effect on the process of justice.
Yesterday the court posted an update as a result of the defendants application to change plea on the Conduct Unbecoming charge only, combined with the agreement that all evidence had been submitted well ahead of the 20 day disclosure period limit. We therefore moved on to deliberation immediately and are now ready to disclose the results.
Any of our allies are welcome to view the evidence in this case, although we should warn you that a small portion of evidence has been removed as it potentially violates terms of service for numerous platforms.
Observations of the Court
After reviewing the evidence I note several omissions which are both surprising and of great concern. Firstly the plaintiff allegedly told numerous parties in the galaxy that he had contacted law enforcement, the off-band comms group (FB) and the deities of FDev. When questioned directly on this matter the plaintiff then admitted he had not contacted law enforcement in either his, nor the defendants jurisdictions.
The plaintiff also declined to provide evidence of his submissions or responses from FB administrators, but we note with interest that moderators in a number of groups have apparently decided to exclude the defendant already. However the plaintiff has been shown to have attempted to manipulate the galactic community in the past and this could not be entirely ignored.
Given that certain requested evidence was not supplied - either directly declined or the courts requests were misdirected via broken record response technique - is not appreciated by the court (especially given such a serious set of allegations). Regardless the evidence that was submitted from both parties clearly shows that the death threats alleged by the plaintiff to be from the defendant were actually made conclusively by other parties - parties which don't apparently fly spacecraft nor sit within the jurisdiction of this court. There has been no evidence submitted to conclusively prove incitement of these acts on the defendants behalf although some form of collusion is entirely plausible.
Neither the court or the panel understands why the plaintiff did not either leave the FB group in question immediately as soon as insults were initiated, and did not block the parties involved. However that is immaterial to the matter before the court. Despite anything that happens from this day forth, we expect that our squadron anti-grief pilots and luminary groups such as HC & IED will no doubt see the plaintiff in the next community goal with his wing-mates preying on outnumbered & lower rated pilots as per usual.
Finally - and most critically - the fact remains that new evidence provided by the advocate from the defendant himself in yesterdays plea application illustrates the clear breach of the AE disciplinary laws, codes 1 & 3 specifically. The defendant accepts that inviting plaintiff family members into the FB group was wrong; that the content of exchanged materials and conduct was entirely inappropriate and understands that this cannot be allowed to go unpunished.
Verdicts
Accordingly on the charges of Conspiracy to Commit Murder, we find the defendant not guilty by reason of lack of evidence to support the case.
On the charges of Conspiracy to Commit Fallicide, we find the defendant not guilty by reason of lack of evidence to support the case.
In concert we also find the plaintiff guilty of Perjury in his attempts to allege the above Conspiracy charges along with alternatively fabricated and / or missing evidence to support his claims (both in this court and across the galaxy where it has been presented). As there is already a sizeable bounty on the plaintiffs head the court sees no reason to pursue this further in present circumstances.
The court has been instructed to consider charges against the plaintiff for Incitement to Commit Terrorism c.f. 7th Legion unlawful declaration of war. The Office of the Prosecutor will work on this seperately to the case before the court.
However it is a different matter for the charge of Conduct Unbecoming of a Sqdn Officer as we unfortunately find that the defendant is indeed guilty as charged.
The panel votes on verdict were unanimous; the court has no vote on verdict.
Sentencing
Being the first such case for AE we have no precedent to reference and only one case of Defenestration previously (AE: HC Case #0019 - AE vs. MarsRising79). We have been asked by the defence to consider Vulture's considerable service and loyalty to the squadron. Being that he has made such a positive impact for our small community I have accordingly taken this into account. We also take into account that the actions were not committed within the jurisdiction of the AE courts and were certainly not at the behest of any AE authority.
However the duties of an office in AE are absolute and cannot be wielded any differently. Our mandate explicitly prohibits bullying & harassment of any kind is carried out and all new members are asked to read the zero tolerance policy of the same; even against a character so often reputed for exactly that in the galaxy. When we fly, we fly with the badge in public - however this relates to comms and events outside of the cockpit and totally away from the purview of the sqdn. It is a minor dilemma.
Also compounding the issue is that this is a not a first offence and - according to character witnesses for the defence - the defendant has apparently been known to mock griefers in the past to much lesser extents "in the spirit those griefers salt mine players originally".
After taking some considerable time to debate the matter I therefore confer the sentence of Defenestration from the squadron. Sentencing to be carried out within six hours at most.
The sentencing panel (including the court this time) concluded with a split vote 2-2 on possible parole in three months, with the court added it's half vote in favour of permanent defenestration.
My personal thanks to the senior members of AE who were asked to perform duties on the disciplinary panel, whose conduct was professional at all times despite the subject matter and direct inappropriate pressures from the plaintiff attempting to influence the outcome. Special thanks to the Advocate for his work here.
No appeals are possible at this level. Case closed.
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End of Hearing