Rocky Point grad facing trial in death of fellow soldier
Justin Boyle will be court-martialed on manslaughter charge
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A soldier from Rocky Point is facing trial in the death of a fellow paratrooper who had to be restrained after becoming unruly outside a Fayetteville, N.C., bar, according to Fort Bragg officials.
Sgt. Justin Boyle, 28, of Rocky Point, is one of seven soldiers accused in the death of Pfc. Luke Brown, 27, of Fredericksburg, Va., who was found dead inside a car parked in a Fort Bragg parking lot shortly before 4 a.m. July 20, 2008.
On April 30, Maj. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division, referred all charges against Sgt. Boyle in the death of Pfc. Brown for court-martial, a legal procedure in which a soldier is tried before a military court of law. The charges include involuntary manslaughter, conspiracy to commit battery, and communicating a threat -- all violations of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. Sgt. Boyle is the first of the seven suspects to be court-martialed in the incident.
A veteran of military campaigns in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Sgt. Boyle faces 10 years in prison if convicted of the charges. A trial date has not yet been scheduled.
Sgt. Boyle, who enlisted in the Army in the days following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is a 1999 graduate of Rocky Point High School. He is the son of former Rocky Point Board of Education trustee Fran Boyle.
Anita Gorecki, a Fayetteville attorney representing Sgt. Boyle, said her client is expected to be arraigned on the charges this Thursday. At that time, Ms. Gorecki said, the defense has the choice to enter or defer a plea, and to choose whether he would like a jury panel consisting of either all officers or a mix of officers and enlisted personnel. It is possible that both the defense and the prosecution could agree on a trial date at that time, Ms. Gorecki said. Prosecutors did not respond to messages seeking comment for this story.
"His behavior, to any reasonable person, was very odd that evening," Ms. Gorecki said.
The witness testified that soldiers from Pfc. Brown's unit tried to restrain him to get him to pass out so they could move him out of the woods, Ms. Gorecki said. The witness said Pfc. Brown was punched and choked by his fellow soldiers, who then tied his hands and placed him in the back of a car, according to several published reports.
Sgt. Boyle told the Fayetteville Observer newspaper that Pfc. Brown was choking another soldier when he found him in the woods, according to a story published in the Observer May 2.
Ms. Gorecki, who was once stationed at Fort Bragg with the Judge Advocate General's office, said the only witness to testify during the hearing was not present for all of the events that transpired that night.
Ms. Gorecki said there were no illegal substances found during Pfc. Brown's autopsy, which was performed by The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology based in Washington, D.C. She said the cause of death could not be determined from the autopsy.
"By all accounts Pfc. Brown was a great soldier and a great person," Ms. Gorecki said. "This is, to me, the definition of a tragedy."
Pfc. Brown was an intelligence analyst, who joined the Army in January 2007. His many decorations include the Global War on Terror Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon and the Parachutist Badge.
The other accused soldiers were also charged with involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy to commit battery. Along with Sgt. Boyle, Spc. Ryan Sullivan, 23, of Mount Laurel, N.J,, is also charged with communicating a threat.
Maj. Gen. Scaparrotti must still decide whether the other six soldiers will be referred for court-martial.
peggy@northshoresun.com
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