Master Sgt. Miguel Garza was sentenced at a court-martial Aug. 7, 2024, in Kaiserslautern, Germany, to prison time and expulsion from the military. During one incident that prompted accusations against him, he repeatedly called German police officers Nazis. (Joshua Magbanua/U.S. Air Force)
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — An Army master sergeant who repeatedly called German police officers Nazis after being arrested for drunken driving was sentenced Wednesday at a court-martial to 18 months in jail for several crimes.
Master Sgt. Miguel Garza pleaded guilty to drunk and disorderly conduct, driving while intoxicated and two counts of assault with battery during proceedings at Kleber Kaserne.
The charges stemmed from two separate incidents in 2022.
Garza, a food inspector who was assigned to Public Health Command Europe, had faced five counts of sexual assault, which were thrown out as part of a last-minute plea deal.
The deal ensured that he would be jailed for at least 18 months and up to two years, and receive a bad conduct discharge.
A soldier for 17 years, Garza also was ordered to forfeit all pay and allowances and had his rank reduced to E-4.
On Jan. 1, 2022, Garza’s blood alcohol content was four times over the legal limit. After celebrating the new year with his family at home, he left for another nearby party.
When German police pulled him over for suspicious driving near the village of Enkenbach-Alsenborn, he refused to take a Breathalyzer test and was “exceptionally uncooperative and dismissive,” police officer Carsten Herm said.
Testifying through an interpreter, Herm described how he and a colleague had to forcefully remove Garza from his vehicle, handcuff him and take him to the police station.
Garza admitted in court that while he was at the station, he refused to answer questions, telling Herm: “I don’t talk to Nazis.”
Herm said at another point that when Garza was asked where his driver’s license was, he replied “the Nazis took it.”
And when we was eventually allowed to leave the station, he gave the officers a Hitler salute.
“He said to my colleague that his rank was so high up that nothing would happen to him,” Herm added.
After the New Year’s Day incident, Garza lost his first sergeant job but retained his E-8 position.
In October 2022, he got into an altercation with U.S. airmen outside a bar in downtown Kaiserslautern.
Garza explained during sentencing how he violently shoved a male airman and inappropriately touched a female airman.
He said he got violent when he offered them a ride home and they refused.
“I had no right to touch anybody just because I was upset for not getting my way,” he said. “It was wrong of me.”
The prosecution alleged that he got angry when the female airman would not allow him to touch her.
“He was belligerent and angry, and I was scared,” the female tech sergeant, who asked not to be named, told the judge, fighting back tears.
The woman’s father also testified, saying he could hear derogatory remarks being yelled at his daughter by Garza over the phone when she called him during the incident.
“I look at the Army uniform and I have an unrealistic prejudice now,” he said.
Defense attorney Will Helixon called Garza “a good man who drunkenly made mistakes.”
Garza’s mother testified by telephone from Texas, describing her son as a family man who helped raise his three younger siblings and continues to provide financial support to his extended family.
But prosecutor Maj. Sara Nicholson said Garza had no respect for authority and thought of himself as above the law.
“He believed his status in the military gave him a free pass,” Nicholson said, when appealing to the judge, Lt. Col. Thomas Hynes, to hand down the maximum two-year sentence, adding that it would send a clear message, “that soldiers cannot be promoted out of punishment.”
In a sworn statement read in court, Garza said his actions have ruined his career and his family’s future stability.
“I am truly sorry,” he said. “I hope this does not define who I am as a father, husband or soldier.”
