The staff judge advocate at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota has been reassigned while he is under investigation by the Office of Special Investigations.
Lt. Col. Deric Prescott, the staff judge advocate, is being investigated by OSI in relation to a previous permanent change-of-station move, said Lt. Col. Uriah Orland, a spokesman for Global Strike Command.
Orland, who spoke to Air Force Times on Tuesday, would not say anything more about the investigation and did not know when Prescott was reassigned.
Orland said the commander of the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot, Col. Matthew Brooks, decided to reassign Prescott as the investigation began. He will remain reassigned until the investigation is complete.
"Until [the investigation] is done, there's no accusations of crime, there's no charges applied, the individual is presumed innocent and will remain so until proven otherwise," Orland said. "The investigation allows the commander then to look at facts and then determine if charges should be preferred or what actions should be taken."
OSI declined to discuss the case and reiterated that Prescott is presumed innocent.
"We take all allegations of misconduct by any airman seriously, and on a day-to-day basis, OSI's job is to determine if an alleged crime has actually been committed or not," OSI spokeswoman Linda Card said in an email Tuesday.
As staff judge advocate, Prescott served as the legal counsel to Brooks.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
