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Army

Command sergeant major at Fort Polk charged with child pornography, other sexual misconduct

By

Rose L. Thayer

Stars and Stripes • April 5, 2023

Command Sgt. Maj. Jeremy Compton, 44, was charged with owning and distributing child pornography, adultery and distributing explicit photos of himself while in uniform. He will face a jury at a court-martial in May. He is assigned to the 46th Engineer Battalion at Fort Polk, La.

Command Sgt. Maj. Jeremy Compton, 44, was charged with owning and distributing child pornography, adultery and distributing explicit photos of himself while in uniform. He will face a jury at a court-martial in May. He is assigned to the 46th Engineer Battalion at Fort Polk, La. (U.S. Army)

A 44-year-old command sergeant major accused of distributing child pornography, adultery and sharing explicit photographs of himself while in uniform will face a court-martial next month at Fort Polk, La., according to court documents.

Command Sgt. Maj. Jeremy Compton served as the top enlisted soldier of the 46th Engineer Battalion at Fort Polk for two years before his arraignment on six counts of sexual misconduct Nov. 8.

Compton pleaded not guilty, according to online court records. He is charged with four counts of owning and distributing digital images of a minor, or what appears to be a minor, engaging in sexually explicit conduct, according to Compton’s charge sheet. Two of the charges are for incidents that occurred between Aug. 23, 2020, and Sept. 8, 2020, and two charges occurred between April 20, 2021, and June 21, 2021.

Compton, who is married, is accused of having sex with someone who was not his spouse in Little Rock, Ark., on or about May 1, 2021, according to the charge sheet. The final charge against Compton alleges he distributed images of himself dressed in his military uniform exposing himself at least once between April 2, 2021, and April 30, 2021.

Charge sheets are typically available for public release after a service member is arraigned, but Brig. Gen. David Gardner, commander of Fort Polk, declined to do so in November citing a concern of impacting the pool of available jurors at the base. However, the court has decided to expand its call for jurors beyond Fort Polk, and subsequently Gardner agreed to release the information this week, said Shelby Waryas, a Fort Polk spokeswoman.

Fort Polk officials did not provide any additional information about the charges against Compton.

A court-martial with a jury panel is scheduled for May 30. Compton, who is not confined, is represented by two military attorneys, according to online court records.

Compton enlisted as an engineer in January 1998, according to an online biography. He has served at Fort Bragg, N.C., Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and Fort Hood, Texas. He also has been assigned to bases in South Korea and Italy. He served on deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Liberia.

Crime and courts

Rose Thayer

Rose L. Thayer is based in Austin, Texas, and she has been covering the western region of the continental U.S. for Stars and Stripes since 2018. Before that she was a reporter for Killeen Daily Herald and a freelance journalist for publications including The Alcalde, Texas Highways and the Austin American-Statesman. She is the spouse of an Army veteran and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in journalism. Her awards include a 2021 Society of Professional Journalists Washington Dateline Award and an Honorable Mention from the Military Reporters and Editors Association for her coverage of crime at Fort Hood.