WüRZBURG, Germany — First Lt. Andrew Rutan looked unhappily into space as a panel of his peers examined his secrets, projected as a slideshow on the courtroom wall.
Prompted by the Army prosecutor, a Criminal Investigation Command special agent narrated as the photographs from the “My Pictures” folder of Rutan’s Dell laptop computer popped over the heads of courtroom spectators — vacation photos of German castles, pictures of friends clowning, another soldier’s promotion ceremony.
Then Special Agent James Siegmund reached a folder called “What I Want,” with a subfolder called “Girlies.” Inside: 440 downloaded images of naked or nearly naked girls, many in suggestive poses. Siegmund said he calculated 320 met the legal definition of child pornography.
Some of the jurors looked away.
“This case isn’t about a vicious criminal or a lunatic,” said Capt. Howard Matthews, the prosecutor in the court-martial. “It’s about a good soldier — a soldier who has a secret obsession.”
The six-officer panel found Rutan guilty of receipt and possession of child pornography, and of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, but spared his military career after he made an emotional plea to remain in the Army. They gave him no jail time but ordered him formally reprimanded and fined $835 a month for 12 months.
Commanders and co-workers said Rutan is stellar at his job. A 2000 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, he pilots an AH-64 Longbow Apache and is a troop executive officer in the 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment from Illesheim, Germany. Defense attorneys handed jurors a thick notebook filled with testimonials from friends and fellow soldiers, several of whom testified they would unhesitatingly follow him to war.
“He’s an outstanding officer,” said Lt. Col. Michael Barbee, the squadron’s commander, testifying over an Internet Web camera hookup from Iraq. “Of the 10 lieutenants I have in my squadron, he is one of the top two.”
Last fall, Rutan took his personal laptop along with him when the 6/6 Cavalry traveled to Poland for the monthlong Victory Strike III exercise.
First Sgt. Tracey Lockwood testified he borrowed Rutan’s computer the afternoon of Oct. 1. He said many officers – including Rutan — left their computers unattended in the command tent, and soldiers felt free to borrow them to play games or watch movies.
Lockwood said he opened Rutan’s computer to show someone photographs of the exercise. Unable to open the right folder, he said he started clicking on others. One popped open, he said, revealing two photos of young girls nearly naked.
He said he reported the incident to Barbee who, after consulting with an investigation command agent, seized the laptop and locked it up until the unit returned from the exercise in late October. Rutan was charged after investigation command computer experts discovered the images on his hard drive. He stayed behind as part of the rear detachment when the 6/6 Cavalry deployed to Kuwait in February for the invasion of Iraq.
Rutan’s attorney, Capt. Jonathan Crisp, argued the young officer collected the photos as art and naively believed the disclaimers on Web sites that the photos complied with U.S. statutes. A defense expert said he thought only about 20 of the images legally constituted pornography.
