Soldier Mom Will Not Face Courts-Martial After All

by Alicia Cruz
The Black Urban Times

Single-mom soldier, Alexis Hutchinson, who was facing a courts-martial for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan with her unit because she had no family to care for her child is going to be discharged rather than prosecuted, the Army said today.

Spc. Hutchinson's case drew national attention after the young mother who worked as a cook in the Army was arrested for missing a movement.

She told Army officials that she could not deploy because her mother backed out of plans to care for her son, 13 month-old Kamani, just days before the scheduled deployment. After her arrest, Kamani was placed into foster care.

The Army filed criminal charges against Hutchinson last year, but a General at Fort Stewart decided to administratively separate the Oakland, California native instead of prosecuting her in a courts-martial.

Hutchinson is elated that she will not be tried in a military court, but the administrative separation isn't exactly a slap on the wrist. The General's decision will demote Hutchinson to private and she will lose benefits.

Though the Army had evidence that Hutchinson had no intention of deploying, they decided to settle on the admin separation as a courts-martial would have been too disruptive for the Army because they would have been forced to pull soldiers out of Afghanistan to testify against Hutchinson. These soldiers testimony would have supported the Army's theory that Hutchinson had, in fact, concocted a plan that she had no one to care for her child just so she would be unable to deploy.

Hutchinson's lawyer, Rai Sue Sussman, scoffed at the allegation that her client was basically exploiting her single parent status and just didn't want to deploy.

"She was willing to deploy, and was ready to do that if her mother had not backed out of taking care of her child," she said.

According to Sussman, Hutchinson's plan was for her mother, Angelique Hughes, to care for Kamani for the year she would be in Afghanistan. She gave her son to Hughes in October, but after caring for him for two weeks, Hughes said she became overwhelmed and returned the boy to his mother in Georgia a few days before her scheduled November 5 deployment date.

They day of her flight, Hutchinson telephoned her supervisors and explained her situation.

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