Lt. Col. Humphrey Daniels III was sentenced on Wednesday to three years of confinement and dismissal from the Air Force after a court-martial found him guilty of charges including rape.
Daniels, of the Air Force District of Washington at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, was convicted of raping a civilian woman at or near Minot, North Dakota, in 1998.
Daniels was also found guilty of one charge and one specification of dereliction of duty for taking classified materials to his home and leaving them unattended, and one charge and three specifications of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman for lying to Fairfax County, Virginia, police several times in December 2014.
In addition, Daniels was convicted of one specification of conduct unbecoming for misrepresenting to a colonel the basis for his request to be placed on emergency leave status.
He was found not guilty of another specification of conduct unbecoming for wrongfully impeding the investigation, Lt. Col. Brus Vidal, spokesman for the Air Force District of Washington, said in an email.
The panel of eight officers delivered the verdicts on Monday.
In addition to his confinement and dismissal, Vidal said Daniels will receive a reprimand. He will not be reduced in rank, Vidal said, because that is not an option for officers.
Vidal said that the dismissal will also preclude Daniels from receiving retirement benefits, if it is upheld after all appeals are exhausted.
Daniels' court-martial began June 5 at Andrews.
Andrew Cherkasky, Daniels' attorney, said in a statement that he is "overwhelmingly disappointed by the verdict," continues to maintain his innocence, and plans to appeal the verdict "on the grounds of factual insufficiency and legal error."
"Lt. Col. Daniels has great respect for the military justice system, but in this case, he feels strongly that a miscarriage of justice has occurred," Cherkasky said in the release.
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.
