Former Wright Patt commander sentenced to 21 days in jail
Air Force prosecutors had argued for that jail sentence in their case against Col. Christopher Meeker at Wright-Patterson, in the same building where he once served as commander.
Earlier Tuesday, Meeker pleaded guilty to willfully disobeying an order from a superior officer and fraternizing with an enlisted member of the Air Force.
Lt. Gen. Donna Shipton, commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson, testified during the trial's sentencing phase that she had ordered Meeker to have no personal or electronic contact with an Air Force staff sergeant who worked at Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) headquarters as an aide to Gen. Duke Richardson, AFMC commander.
Later, Meeker, speaking through heavy breathing and sniffing, told Air Force Judge Matthew Stoffel that his removal from command of the 88th Air Base Wing, his non-judicial punishment and an order barring contact with the staff sergeant had been a "475-day journey of trying to do the right thing and also trying to help this person I care about."
"I never intended these actions to be disrespectful," he said.
Prosecutors countered by saying Meeker disregarded the no-contact order flagrantly, saying his wife discovered him kissing the staff sergeant in a bar, while the child of another staff sergeant recognized Meeker in a restaurant with her on another occasion.
"He knew point-blank that what he was doing was wrong," said prosecutor Capt. Connor McAfee.
McAfee pointed to the words of the staff sergeant with whom Meeker had a relationship.
In an interview with Air Force investigators, she painted a portrait of nearly daily contact with Meeker, electronic conversations wiped away by the Signal app and meeting for sex "four to five times a week," at a time when the no-contact order was in place.
"Col. Meeker has been full of apologies and devoid of resolution," McAfee said.
Prosecutors had asked Stoffel to impose a sentence of 21 days, forfeiture of pay and a reprimand.
Meeker offered guilty pleas to one charge and a specification of a second charge in exchange for a second specification of that second charge — engaging in extramarital sexual conduct — being withdrawn.
Shipton described meeting with Meeker after she learned that he had violated the no-contact order.
"It was his opinion that (the staff sergeant) was spiraling," Shipton said. "He felt she would not be here if he hadn't taken action against the no-contact order."
Under questioning by Judge Stoffel, Meeker said that, after the staff sergeant had been hospitalized for treatment of her mental health, she went to the back door of Meeker's residence, then on Wright-Patterson.
"She felt I was her last resort," Meeker told the judge.
But he also acknowledged "I willfully disobeyed the order through a lack of discipline and selfishly for my own personal happiness."
He described meeting her at a public "food hall" in the Dayton area.
"I violated fraternization rules in a public setting to the extent that everybody at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base now knows about it," Meeker said.
Meeker, an Air Force Academy graduate and a career civil engineer, faced a maximum sentence of up to seven years, among other penalties. He now lives off base and has been separated from his wife.
The violations of the no-contact order happened after Shipton had fired Meeker from command of the 88th Air Base Wing in December 2023.
Meeker chose to be tried by a military judge, rather than a jury or "court members," in military language.
Meeker assumed command of the the 88th Air Base Wing in July 2022. Since the inception of the 88th in October 1994, no prior commander of the wing had been relieved of command.
Col. Dustin Richards assumed command of the wing about a year ago.
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