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. (Christopher Hennen/U.S. Army)
The Army has again arraigned a West Point colonel on charges related to providing and drinking alcohol to at least one cadet, asked witnesses to lie about it and then lied himself during an investigation, according to court documents.
Col. William Wright pleaded not guilty Dec. 2 during an arraignment before military judge Lt. Col. Carrie Ward at the U.S. Military Academy, according to the Army’s online court docket. He has requested a jury trial.
Wright, director of the academy’s Geospatial Information Science Program, was first arraigned June 18 but the charges were withdrawn on Oct. 18 — just days before he was expected to plead guilty to some or all of the charges.
“During the legal process, an administrative change to Col. William Wright’s arraignment ensued without altering the core legal proceedings involved,” a spokesperson at West Point said about the legal back and forth.
In the new round, prosecutors dropped the charge of conduct unbecoming of an officer and added a count of interfering with an adverse administrative proceeding.
The new charges include three counts of interference alongside three counts of disobeying orders or regulations and two counts of making false statements.
“As the legal process unfolds, Col. William C. Wright is present for duty at West Point,” according to a statement from the academy. “He has been reassigned to a separate position within the academy and does not have contact with cadets. Allegations against Col. Wright are merely accusations, and he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
Aimee Bateman, an attorney for Wright, declined to comment on the new charges.
The colonel was accused of providing alcohol to a cadet and drinking with the student on “a personal social basis” twice in June 2023, once in Hilo, Hawaii, and again in Fort Greely, Alaska, according to the charge sheet.
Wright, who graduated from West Point in 1999, traveled 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.
Wright was accused of violating an order to stay away from cadets on the women’s tennis team in January and asking three people to lie in their testimony about alcohol consumption during an administrative proceeding.
He was also accused of lying twice in his own official statement to a colonel who was investigating the allegations.
All names except Wright’s were redacted from the description of charges against him.
This is Wright’s second time serving on the faculty at 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 earned his Ph.D. in geomatics from the University of Florida.
The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 6.
