The Army’s fired its top sexual assault prosecutor over an email from a decade ago in which he doubted a victim’s allegations.
The Army fired its top sexual assault prosecutor last week before he filed his first case after a 10-year-old email surfaced in which he appeared to belittle a victim’s claims.
AP first reported that Brig. Gen. Warren Wells was removed from his job as the Lead Special Trial Counsel on Friday by Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth. Wells was appointed to the job in December 2022 and his office was scheduled to begin prosecuting cases in early 2024.
In his role as a military defense counsel in 2013, Wells emailed his staff that “you and your teams are now the ONLY line of defense against false allegations and sobriety regret.” He told them they were the only “personal defenders” of troops no lawyers would defend, “even when all signs indicate innocence.
“Congress and our political masters are dancing by the fire of misleading statistics and one-sided, repetitive misinformation by those with an agenda,” he wrote.
At the time of the email, Wells was a Lt. Col. and the Army’s Great Plains regional defense counsel in Kansas. In an email sent to his senior defense counsel, he complained about what he alleged were false allegations by victims. The case that Wells was reacting to in his email later led to the firing of an Army two-star general in Japan for his failure to investigate sexual assault charges in his command, according to AP.
One advocate for reform in how the military handles sexual assault wondered if Wells promotion to the high-profile position was a troubling sign about the Army’s commitment to change.
