On January 21 long time Birther Gary Wilmott created at petition at the WhiteHouse.gov web site to have Terry Lakin reinstated into the Army and have his pay and pension restored. The petition needs 100,000 signatures in 30 days to receive an answer in 60 days from the White House. That’s unless Trump has issued an executive order to change that. As of this writing the petition is falling short. It has 292 signatures. That means only 99, 708 to go! (I refuse to link the silly petition here.)
Rondeau even devoted an entire article to the momentous event that the ex Cold Case Posse lead Mike Zullo had signed the petition. I have no idea what was newsworthy about the fact that a fired volunteer posse member had signed an obscure petition but apparently Rondeau thought it was headline worthy.
Sharon Rondeau at the Post and Email blog has been pushing the petition incessantly When the petition drew only 74 signatures in the first 5 days Rondeau speculated that there had to be a technical glitch because the petition should have had “hundreds or even thousands of signatures” by that date. As we can now see that was absurd.
Today Rondeau wrote: “A petition launched on January 21 by Gary Wilmott on behalf of the former Lt. Col. Terry Lakin shows 295 signatures as of this writing, although it is suspected that thousands more have signed.” Rodeau gave no evidence to back up her claim that thousands had signed.
These folks just don’t get it. The ex-COL Lakin wasn’t charged and convicted because he asked to see a copy of President Obama’s birth certificate. He was convicted for disobeying and order to deploy. He was convicted because he defecated on his military oath. He was convicted because he let down his fellow soldiers. Telling the same lie over and over doesn’t make it true.
Rondeau also seems to have forgotten that Lakin pleaded guilty to violating article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) (failing to meet with a superior officer and failing to report to duty at Fort Campbell). Lakin admitted what he did was wrong. He pleaded not guilty to the more serious charge of missing a movement but was convicted by his fellow officers on that count too.
Lakin cried like a baby during elocution and was eventually sentenced to 6 months confinement with loss of rank, pay and benefits. He was lucky that friends had talked him into ditching his original attorney Paul Jensen who had allowed him to commit the crimes in the first place for a more experienced military attorney Neal Puckett. Puckett guided Lakin through the sentencing phase and helped him get off with six months confinement vs. a potential three year sentence.
But Wilmott, Rondeau, Charles Kerchner and the others want everyone to forget all that and let Lakin back in the Army. So how would you feel about serving with Lakin? Do you think you could trust him with your life? If Lakin were to get a pardon it won’t be because of a silly petition signed by a handful of Birthers.It will be because Lakin might have a connection through conservative channels through people like Margaret “Ducky” Hemenway who was a Lakin spokesperson during his trial and held a position as a Defense Department Congressional liaison during the George W. Bush administration.
Maybe it would be a good thing for Lakin to reinstated and returned to his old unit. Some of Lakin’s former soldiers might enjoy having him back in so that could hold a welcome home blanket party for his Blue Falcon ass.
RC Radio Blog 
Why is Lakin’s attorney unreachable, RC?
Which attorney? Jensen or Puckett?
Dog got to him?
How about “Convicted After Pleading Guilty”?
Good point. The Lakin supporters seem to forget that he pleaded guilty to blowing off a meeting with his superior officer and failing to report to Fort Campbell, KY. He pleaded not guilty to missing a movement, which also was the most serious of the charges. This pleading in itself was disingenuous. He refused to go to Fort Campbell because that was where his unit was to deploy to Afghanistan. By refusing to report to Fort Campbell he was of course missing a movement. That’s why the members had no difficulty convicting him.
“By refusing to report to Fort Campbell he was of course missing a movement. That’s why the members had no difficulty convicting him.”
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There’s a bit more to it than that — “missing a movement” is not enough. Lakin was charged with Article 87 in the form of “missing movement by design,” and he could only be convicted if it were shown that he had been ordered to be on a specific flight (in this case, US Airways Flight Number 1123).
Neal Puckett, his second civilian counsel, gambled that the government did not have the evidence to prove that the flight had been specified in the order. Of course, had the original lawyer, Jensen, not foolishly waived Lakin’s Article 32(b) investigation, Puckett would have known better.
So they took that charge to a panel of members and, sure enough, the government proved their case and Lakin was convicted
Thank you for the clarification Wonderer22. COL Dwight Sullivan and CDR Phil Cave both pointed out on Reality Check Radio at the time that waiving the right to an Article 32(b) hearing was a foolish move on Jensen’s part. They explained how it would have been to the defendant’s advantage to see the evidence that the government had against him.
Jensen and Lakin wanted to turn the hearing into smear the President spectacle and make it all about his birth certificate. When Judge Lind nipped that in the bud Lakin and Jensen apparently concluded that the hearing was a waste of time. It appears that came back to bite Lakin in the end.
Another fact that Sharon Rondeau and the Lakin supporters continue to ignore is that Judge Lind ruled that the authority for the orders Lakin disobeyed ultimately derive from Congress’s power to raise an army in the Constitution as well as power of the Commander in Chief. Therefore, the eligibility of the Commander in Chief was irrelevant as to the legal authority of Lakin’s orders.
One good thing about this petition is that it shows how dead the Birther movement really is.
Game on. I found a petition that is beating the Lakin petition and it is two days newer. Let’s make it happen!
Petition to explain to the American people why Donald Trump is such a needy little bitch.
This one has 1174 signatures. Lakin’s is at 802.