Tuesday, March 27, 2001

Liberty - 128

On liberty in Matzatlan from the Wake Island Mikey bought Colina Ojeda (prostitute) a drink. She asked to dance and her "boyfriend" Efran Minas came in and began hitting her. Mikey was pulled into a fight when he tried to defend Colina. The shore patrol was called and when Minas dies Mikey was charged. Lt Ferrari (JAG in San Diego) offered 3 yrs negligent homicide before Mikey was assigned an attorney. H asked for the assignment after C denied Bs request. C relented to H that B take 2nd chair but said "keep him out of trouble." Ferrari maligned and baited both B and H over their handling BBs case. "Like father like son," he said. Capt O'Byrne was determined to make an example out of Mike. BB offered his help but H turned him down as having nothing to offer but bad advice. Ferrari slammed Mike hard during cross examination and brought up his father beating his mother. He got Mikey to say that he had wanted to kill his father back then. Colina and Santos Ramirez were Ferrari's witnesses and completely lied on the stand. Mikey was found guilty but when B saw his watch that had broken at the beginning of the fight he noticed that the shore patrol had been called 5 minutes before the fight started. Gunny & H found Hector Valdez a fisherman who had gotten a settlement of $1,000 6 mos prior when "beaten up" by another sailor. They got Valdez to admit that Ramirez had paid him $100 to start a fight with a sailor then they had beaten him up to make it look "real." B found that Colina was really Ramirez's girlfriend. They pulled a "sting" where gunny faked shooting BB to convince Colina that her life was in danger from Ramirez. She exonerated Mikey; but he was assigned to work during the next 6 shore leaves for fighting.

M was tricked into defending Sgt Joe Dutch an "official" marine mascot bulldog who impregnated a Borzoi while UA. M held a hearing and convinced the XO not to "discharge" Butch but to allow him to go to boot camp for re-training. They also got him a mate so he wouldn't go UA. C was shown talking on the phone to Adm Don Guter an old friend who was the SECNAVs top troubleshooter. At the end M met Guter (the real JAG in a walk-on) who told C that they "couldn't pay him enough to be the JAG."

Tuesday, March 13, 2001

Valor - 127

Sgt Joan Steel was captured by terrorists and held in Iraq for 1 mo. She was then captured on boat of explosives heading for USS Vance but stopped in the enhance security proceedures and the terrorists aboard were killed. H & M investigate if she had been recruited by the terrorists. She had filed MECEP (officer) papers but was turned down by her CO based upon uncertainty about her judgement by saying that he didn't know her leadership well enough. When hearing an explosion she left her vehicle sending it back to ship and she ran to it armed only with a pistol. After being terrorized she helped them gain security code access to the harbor because "she thought it would make it easier to catch them." Her fingerprints were on the detonating device and she wasn't forthcoming with information. H & M found that she had gone into a shop alone to rent video's for the terrorists and warned the proprietor but didn't make any effort to escape out the back way. H felt she had impaired judgement due to captivity but M believed she had been recruited because of her Cos decision. Went to article 32 hearing but W came with information that her same terrorists were planning another bombing and needed her help to capture them. H told her it was foolish to go back but she went anyway. She wore a transponder belt but took it off and didn't give the prearranged signal when snuck out the back way and went w/ terrorists. While everyone was talking about where she had gone and why they all heard a bomb went off. It turned out that she had fought with the men in the van and detonated it before they could reach US students at archeological site.

Brum and Renae were miffed that they had to pack M & Hs suitcases and remain home "aiding and assisting." Brum took B out to McMurphys bar to talk about women and ask him to be his best man at the wedding. Ht & Renee have woman talk and get drunk on wine whining about H being an "immovable object" to Renae's "irresistable force." Ht said that some people had "diggity." C inquired to Ht if he had missed their engagement party and ended up accidentally volunteering to host it.