AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — A former cadet's contention of a long-term relationship working as a spy for the Office of Special Investigations is drawing attention after the lawyer for a cadet convicted of sexual assault contended that the informant had a motive to manufacture testimony that would please his handlers at the office.

Testimony indicated that former cadet Eric Thomas may have signed paperwork to become a confidential informant months earlier than academy officials have admitted and that officials at the Office of Special Investigations may have lied to top academy brass about the nature of the informant' work.

The revelations came in a hearing for former cadet Stephan Claxton, who is appealing his 2012 sexual-assault conviction at the school because his lawyers were not told that star prosecution witness Thomas was working as an informant.

Evidence from Friday's hearing will be used to decide Claxton's claims at the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.

Claxton's lawyer, Frank Spinner, said that by covering up Thomas' status as an informant, prosecutors tarnished the case against his client, who served a six-month sentence. Spinner told Air Force judge Col. Natalie Richardson that Thomas' work as an informant gave him a motive to entrap Claxton.

"Was Thomas intentionally setting up Claxton?" Spinner asked.

Air Force lawyers countered that Thomas wasn't an informant on the Claxton case, but a regular witness. They also said that their case against Claxton was strong enough to win a conviction without Thomas on the stand.

"If there was error, it was absolutely harmless beyond a reasonable doubt," Capt. Richard Schrider said in closing arguments.

Former Office of Special Investigations special agent Brandon Enos testified that investigators began to trust Thomas after he passed the polygraph test of the truthfulness of claims, including that cadets may have used drugged liquor on women at a 2011 party.

Thomas gave tips that led to more than a dozen investigations of drug use, drug sales and sexual assault among academy athletes, including a core group of football players.

Office of Special Investigations reports revealed in the hearing that Thomas was also a troubled cadet who hoped helping investigators would help him overcome a pile of misconduct demerits that would later get him expelled.

Share:
In Other News
Load More