Retired? Court-Martial

Michelle McCaskill, Soldier Recalled to Active Duty, Sentenced to Prison for Sexual Abuse of a Child. DVIDS News, 10 May 2024. (H/T GMJR)

A retired Soldier, recalled to active duty, was sentenced by a military judge to 108 months of confinement for the sexual abuse of a minor.

Staff Sgt. William Rivers, 55, pled guilty and will serve 80 months based on terms of a plea agreement. In addition to the prison term, the military judge reduced Rivers to the rank of private E-1 and imposed a bad conduct discharge.

Rivers sexually abused his stepdaughter over multiple years in Hawaii and Florida before he retired from the military in 2017. He was recalled to active duty specifically for the purpose of this general court-martial.

Rivers was arrested at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, by the Army Criminal Investigation Division in December 2023 where he was working as a contractor. During the course of the investigation, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service obtained evidence where Rivers admitted to sexually abusing the victim for several years across multiple duty locations.

Since 1950, there have been over 30 retirees prosecuted at court-martial. Most have been living and working overseas. MEJA jurisdiction doesn't generally apply because the retiree is subject to court-martial. See ​18 U.S. Code § 3261(d). 3261(d)(2) has an exception if there is a "​the member committed the offense with one or more other defendants, at least one of whom is not subject to such chapter." (As GMJR points out, there may have been jurisdiction in the states where the offenses happened, assuming the statute of limitations had not run.)