Kunsan airman sentenced to six months for Christmas assaults
Franklin Fisher
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — An Air Force staff sergeant convicted of assaulting two fellow airmen at Kunsan Air Base last Christmas was sentenced Wednesday to loss of rank, loss of pay and jail time.
Staff Sgt. Rashaud L. Blandburg, a member of Kunsan's 8th Fighter Wing, was sentenced to demotion from pay grade E-5 to E-4, forfeiture of $1,345 of pay per month for five of the six months he'll spend in jail.
A three-member jury composed of a major, a master sergeant, and a technical sergeant deliberated the sentence for about four hours Wednesday.
The Air Force tried Blandburg under the rules for special courts-martial before Air Force Col. Steven A. Hatfield, chief military judge for the Pacific Circuit.
The jury on Tuesday found Blandburg guilty of two counts of assault, resisting apprehension and making a false official statement. But it acquitted him of another assault count stemming from an accusation that he spit on a staff sergeant in November 2005.
Prosecutors contended that Blandburg tackled and punched a senior airman without provocation at Kunsan's Loring Club on Christmas morning 2005. That led to one of the assault charges.
When an Air Force first lieutenant intervened, the prosecution charged, Blandburg kicked him in the head.
That gave rise to a charge of assault on a commissioned officer, but the jury found that Blandburg was unaware that the person who intervened was an officer. The jury instead convicted him of assault.
In charging Blandburg with making a false official statement, prosecutors said he lied to his first sergeant about the Christmas incident.
The charge of resisting arrest grew out of a Sept. 24, 2005, incident at the base Community Activity Center. When Air Force police asked airmen at the scene to show their identification cards, Blandburg refused to comply, officials said. When officers moved to apprehend him, he resisted, officials said.
Blandburg had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
He was to be transported Wednesday to the U.S. military's jail at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek.