Mom mired in son's Navy legal battle
Armed with a cordless telephone and a mother's determination, Diane Ambrose is waging a one-woman legal battle to keep her son from being kicked out of the Navy.
With phone bills reaching $400 per month, the Unity Township woman keeps in touch with her son, Petty Officer 3rd Class Chad Echard, who is stationed at Guantanamo Bay, a 45-square-mile naval base on the southeast end of Cuba.
Echard, 25, is a police officer, known in the Navy as a master-at-arms. He faces a general discharge from the Navy for his role in a minor traffic accident Feb. 28 at the base, located in an area that also is home to a variety of military units, including 1,900 members of the Joint Task Force. The JTF guards suspected terrorists at Camp Delta, a prison within the base.
According to reports, Echard is charged with hitting a JTF soldier who had run out from the front of a bus and into the path of his vehicle at night. The soldier was not hurt and refused medical treatment, accident reports revealed.
The reports indicated Echard was given a Breathalyzer test that registered 0.11 percent, which is above the legal limit for intoxication while driving in most states. He was charged with reckless driving and driving while intoxicated after being handcuffed at the scene and taken into custody by his fellow officers.
The next day things started to spiral out of control, Ambrose said.
"Chad's devastated, devastated," Ambrose said. "None of us believed it would ever go this far."
Echard was informed that he faced a summary court-martial, during which a single officer would determine his guilt or innocence. He would not be entitled to a military lawyer and could not present witnesses.
Echard's naval lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. Loretta Nygard, said Echard learned 48 hours after the accident that he would be given a general discharge. As a result, he could be required to pay back his $8,000 enlistment bonus and forfeit all education benefits under the Montgomery GI Bill.
Echard refused the summary court-martial and demanded a general court-martial, in which a military judge and a jury composed of officers and enlisted personnel would hear the case. Rules of evidence apply, and witnesses can testify and be cross-examined by the defense.
According to their statements, Echard and other witnesses deny he was drunk. Nygard alleges that witnesses have been intimidated and records have been altered.
She said the Navy initially prevented her from talking to Echard or the witnesses. Nygard said she was denied access to his service record. She also began receiving warnings from other sailors that records had been tampered with and that sailors who could aid Echard's defense were afraid to come forward.
Nygard, a 19-year veteran of the Navy's legal service, said one sailor told her that the communication log from Feb. 28 had been changed and witnesses had been ordered not to talk to her.
She said two prosecuting attorneys from the Judge Advocate's Office came to the base and began interviewing witnesses. Nygard said one eyewitness to the accident is so frightened that he wanted to be represented by an attorney during questioning.
"It was very intimidating, very coercive," she added.
Nygard said there are other problems with the case against Echard. She said there was no probable cause to detain Echard and added that she hasn't been able to obtain a recent inspection report that may cast doubt on the accuracy of the Breathalyzer machine.
Meanwhile, the accident victim, Paul Burnstein, gave a statement March 8 in which he said he was wearing camouflage when he was hit. He expressed surprise that the case has taken on such a serious overtone.
"I'm surprised the base is making a big deal out of this," Burnstein said in the statement. "In my opinion, this was ... (an) accident."
Burnstein could not be reached for comment.
Echard is a member of the base's physical security force responsible for the confines of the base. Nygard said there is tension between the security units and between the JTF and base residents. Nygard said that after the incident about 20 members of the JTF, some of whom were intoxicated, gathered around the scene when Echard's colleagues arrived.
Master-At-Arms Matthew Cuccaro gave a statement that said, when he arrived, he talked to Echard and found "absolutely no indication he might have consumed alcohol."
"His eyes were clear and not dilated, his speech was normal, he maintained good balance and I detected no odor of alcohol," Cuccaro said.
"Neither of us wanted the JTF to think we were covering up for one of our security guys, and we were worried that they might start fighting. Also, I thought it would look good to the JTF to cuff MA3 Echard so that they would not think we were protecting one of our own guys."
Another security officer, MA3 Leonardo Guzman, told Nygard that he had seen the original incident report while it was being drafted, but the next day the report "was completely different."
"I know of a lot of people who are scared to come forward with information about this case, because they don't want security to come after them," Guzman said in a statement.
MA2 Joseph Yanello said he saw no signs that Echard was drunk, and he was surprised when the test results indicated a 0.11 percent blood-alcohol level.
"I would have smelled the odor of alcohol and noticed signs of intoxication," Yanello said.
Gabriel Puello, a public affairs spokesman at the base, said he could confirm only that Echard has been charged and that no final action has been taken against him. He declined further comment.
For now, Echard's case is on hold.
After Ambrose began to complain about her son's treatment, she was contacted by the Navy's Southeast Command in Florida and the Navy's Inspector General about the case. Since Ambrose began raising a fuss, the case has been taken out of the base commander's authority until it is reviewed by the Southeast Region Command, in Jacksonville, Fla.
A spokesman for the command did not respond to a request for comment.
"I can't understand why they're in such a rush to do this," Ambrose said. "Neither can Chad. He said, 'Mom, I'm not going to plead guilty to something I didn't do.'"
After his arrest, Echard's gun and badge were taken from him. He reportedly was reassigned to cleaning toilets and now works on vehicles.
Ambrose said her son wants to stay in the Navy and hopes to become an officer.
