Col. William Wright, left, the director of the Global Information Systems Program at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., on Feb. 23, 2023. He was arraigned June 18, 2024, on charges that he behaved inappropriately with cadets and then intervened with an investigation into his behavior. (Christopher Hennen/U.S. Army)
The Army dropped charges against a West Point colonel accused of drinking with a cadet, making sexual comments to members of the women’s tennis team and asking a student to lie during an investigation.
Col. William Wright, director of the Geospatial Information Science Program at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., was expected to plead guilty in a court-martial Monday with only a judge, according to the Army’s online court docket.
Instead, the charges were withdrawn Friday, according to the docket and West Point officials.
Aimee Bateman, a civilian attorney representing Wright, declined to comment Tuesday about the case.
The dismissal was related to a procedural change that could result in an update to the case in the coming week, according to a service official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Wright was arraigned in June on charges including conduct unbecoming of an officer, failure to obey an order or regulation, soliciting someone else to commit an offense, wrongful interference with an adverse administrative proceeding and making a false statement.
The colonel was accused of providing alcohol to a cadet and drinking with the student on “a personal social basis” twice in June 2023, as well as making at least one sexual remark on Jan. 20 to three cadets somewhere between West Point and Syracuse, N.Y., according to the original charge sheet. On that day, the women’s tennis team played against Syracuse University, according to the team’s online schedule.
Wright would travel with cadets as a chaperone for the tennis team as well as for research as part of his work at the Geospatial Information Science Program, according to his LinkedIn account.
Later, Wright was accused of violating an order to stay away from cadets on the women’s tennis team and attempting to interfere with an administrative proceeding. He was also accused of lying in his own official statement to a colonel who was investigating the allegations.
This is Wright’s second time serving on the faculty for West Point. From 2008 to 2011, he served as an assistant professor in geospatial information science, according to his LinkedIn account. He then moved to Colorado to work for North American Aerospace Defense Command and later received a doctorate in geomatics from the University of Florida.
