Pfc. Wesley K. Mitten Arriving On TuesdayThe ringleader of a group of 82nd Airborne Division soldiers charged
with having sex for money on a military-themed gay pornography Web
site was sentenced Tuesday to three months in a military prison.
Pfc. Wesley K. Mitten is the last of three 82nd Airborne Division soldiers charged.
"The accused was the ringleader. He brought people in," Capt. Lee Zeldin, the lead
prosecutor, told the judge.
Mitten admitted to telling at least two soldiers in his unit about the site. He also
made two films.The judge, Col. Grant S. Jaquith, sentenced Mitten to 100 days
in jail, but his plea bargain capped the jail term at three months. Under military
court rules, the accused gets the lesser of the two sentences.
Mitten, 21, also was demoted to private, will lose two-thirds of his pay and will
receive a bad conduct discharge as part of a plea bargain.
Two other soldiers previously pleaded guilty in connection to the Web site.
Pfc. Richard Ashley pleaded guilty in April to sodomy, conduct detrimental
to the Army and using an unauthorized prescription drug. He was sentenced
to 75 days in prison.
Pvt. Kagen B. Mullen, 21, pleaded guilty earlier this month to conduct detrimental
to the Army and to using marijuana. He was sentenced to 90 days in prison.
All three were assigned to Company C, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry
Regiment.
The judge questioned Mitten for about 90 minutes before accepting his guilty
pleas to sodomy, conduct detrimental to the Army and using cocaine.
Mitten told the court that he was contacted by the Web site's producer, Dennis
Ashe, through the Internet in August.
Ashe, a leading producer of military-themed pornography, owns three
Fayetteville-based production companies: Active Duty Productions, Pink Bird
Media and New Fame Media, according to the N.C. Secretary of State's Office.
Mitten said he met with Ashe the day after he was contacted. The producer asked
him to pose for nude pictures and offered to pay him $2,000 to perform in a gay
pornography video.
Mitten, performing under the name "Donnie," and another paratrooper met at
Ashe's house the following day and filmed a pornography video.He testified that
Ashe set up a camera controlled by a computer from another room and filmed
the paratroopers having sex.
He made a second video with another paratrooper a few months later.
Mitten told the judge that he made $6,000 from August to November.
Before accepting the plea, the judge asked Mitten why he did it.
"It was for the money, your honor," Mitten told him.
Army prosecutors said Mitten had no regard for right and wrong.
"He exploited other members of the unit, but it was OK because Pvt. Mitten
was making a buck," Zeldin said.
Mitten's mother, Leslie Hanson, testified on his behalf during the sentencing
phase of the hearing.Hanson said her son was raised in a military family and
often helped her when his father was deployed. Mitten's father is an Army
command sergeant major.
Hanson said her son understands that what he did was wrong.
"He does know right from wrong. I think many people make mistakes,"
she said.Mitten apologized to the Army, his unit and the court.
"I am sorry for disgracing my family name and my unit. I am sorry and I wish
I could take it all back," he said.
Mitten is being held at Fort Bragg and will be transferred to Charleston, S.C.,
Quantico, Va., or Camp Lejeune to serve his sentence. Ashley and Mullen are
serving their sentences in Quantico.Four other soldiers assigned to the unit received
nonjudicial punishment related to the Web site. The Army is not required to disclose
the names of the four soldiers. All four were reduced in rank to private, forfeited half
a month's pay for two months, performed extra work and were restricted to Fort Bragg
for 45 days.
The Army has discharged one paratrooper and has recommended that the other
three be discharged, division officials said.
QEK: All this fuss when there are so many of us who would have done it free of charge.......
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