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Wright-Patt airman could get 16 1/2 years in sex case

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 8:24 PM Friday, January 28, 2011

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. — Chief Master Sgt. William C. Gurney was convicted at his court-martial Thursday of two charges of mistreating airmen by pursuing sexual relationships with them. Today, Gurney could learn his punishment for the offenses, with a possible end to his 27-year Air Force career at hand. The conviction stems from 2009 charges on sex-related offenses involving 10 airmen, which prompted his removal from his role as top enlisted man at the Air Force Materiel Command headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

A jury of six officers ranging in rank from colonel to captain will begin determining the sentence for the convicted enlisted man during the sentencing phase beginning at 10 a.m. EST today.

Gurney faces up to 16½ years in military confinement, dishonorable discharge, loss of military pay and benefits and reduction of rank.

On Thursday, the jury deliberated more than six hours at Scott Air Force Base before finding Gurney guilty of mistreating two female airman by making repeated sexually offensive comments to them and pursuing sexual relationships with them.

The jury acquitted Gurney on three remaining charges, unwanted touching of an airman’s breasts and buttocks; and trying to influence Air Force personnel to assign two women he liked to where he would have access to them.

Gurney, who has been relegated to desk duty at AFMC offices at Wright-Patt since November 2009, showed no emotion as the leader of the Air Force jury announced Gurney’s conviction on two counts that he made deliberate and repeated sexual comments to the two airmen and pursued sexual relationships with them. His lawyers whisked him from the courtroom without comment.

On Monday, when he pleaded guilty to 13 charges, which included dereliction of duty and sexually harassing four airmen, Gurney said he had been flattered by attention from the women and got caught up in “a cycle of sin.”

The Air Force jury of six male officers acquitted him on one count of unwanted touching of an airman’s breasts and buttocks, and two allegations that he misused his position to influence personnel to assign two women where he could have access to them.

Gurney, in his mid-40s, had been an adviser to the AFMC commander, Gen. Donald Hoffman, in behalf of more than 13,000 enlisted men and women across the 10-base command.

The two airmen involved in the charges that Gurney was convicted of were in the courtroom when the verdicts were read. The women clenched their hands in their laps and appeared to tremble. One let out a sigh.

Gurney used his authority to find and zero in on the airmen he liked, Maj. Patricia Gruen, the government’s chief prosecutor, told the jury. He made one of the photos that highlighted his genitals and was electronically transmit to an airman in his AFMC office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Gruen said in her closing argument.

“He used this organization like his own personal Match.com,” Gruen told the jurors, known as court members in military parlance. “This is how Chief Gurney chose to use his prestigious position as a command chief.”

Defense lawyer Maj. Gwendolyn Beitz countered that the women who had relationships with Gurney sent him text messages for weeks or months and willingly supplied revealing photos of themselves when he asked.

According to testimony, one airman wanted Gurney’s help with a reassignment from a Texas base to Wright-Patterson to be near her parents to help them grieve for a son killed in a military helicopter crash, while another female airman stayed at his Wright-Patt home while recovering from a dental procedure and applied unsuccessfully for a job in his office.

On several occasions when the airman who complained to Air Force investigators said she was being groped by Gurney, there were people nearby who she could have called to for help, but didn’t, Beitz said.

“One scream, gentlemen, one scream — and it’s over,” Beitz told the jury.

The women chose to play along with Gurney, then distanced themselves from him when they knew the Air Force Office of Special Investigations was scrutinizing his actions, Beitz said.

“So, they had a choice: 'If I say what I was doing, I’ll get in trouble. Or I can say, it was all the chief,’ ” Beitz said.

A two-thirds vote of the jury — four of its six members — was required for conviction on each charge.

Delivering local news first

DaytonDailyNews.com was the first news outlet to report that Chief Master Sgt. William C. Gurney was found guilty on two of five charges. Staff writer John Nolan was in the courtroom at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., bringing you a firsthand account of the trial. Pick up a copy of Saturday’s Dayton Daily News as we continue our coverage at the sentencing of the Air Force’s former top enlisted man.

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