My first

When I became a Military Police Investigator I was two weeks out of A.I.T. (Advanced Individual Training), which is after Basic Training (Boot Camp). My Chief of Investigations was orientating me to the post and Military Police Procedures. Kinda like an F.T.O. (Field Training Officer). We were the on duty investigators on that day when we received a radio call about a sexual assault in the post housing area. The caller, also the victim, explained what happened and a description of the individual. This occurred in the late afternoon. The suspect had given the victim a lot of alcohol and when she passed out he began touching her private areas and started to undress her. Fortunately she woke up and smacked him where in he took off. After obtaining all the information that I could get from the victim, I called in the suspect information to dispatch. We started driving around the housing area and guess who do we see. Yes, the mope. He was sauntering down the street like he was "back on the block." My Chief informs me that this is my case and the suspect is mine. So we stopped him, and after briefly questioning him, I took him into custody. I also determined that he was a civilian. This we have to handle under Title 18 of the U.S.C. (United States Code) as he was not subject to the U.C.M.J. (Uniform Code of Military Justice). He was not too intoxicated, so after he relinquished his rights I then obtained his side of the story. He unwittingly gave me the rest of the story that wrapped up this case for prosecution. One thing I learned that night was that we cannot hold in a cell a civilian unless they are being turned over to the FBI or Local Civilian Authorities within a few hours. Chief told me that we would have to cite and release. I basically said, man cite and release a felon who committed a sexual assault. That's nuts! See if we were to turn him over to the civilian authorities we (the military) would have to pay the civilians for his care. And the military was not about to do that. To me that was a WOW factor. Well this was my introduction to many a nutty things I would experience in investigating crimes on a military installation. It was like I was about or had entered the twilight zone. So as instructed I cited him then drove him to the post front gate and let the catch go. That gave a new meaning to catch and release. Later he showed up in Federal Magistrate Court where the Judge found him guilty as charged and told him to report to the Federal Prison somewhere in Louisiana. So that was my first case, first arrest as a Military Police Investigator and first case to conviction and on my first day on the job.