Kokesh Penalty Reduced to General Discharge (with Video)
Dave Helling - Kansas City Star
But the corporal, who is now a student at George Washington University, said he'll appeal.
"We can't drop this," he said. "No precedent has been established. The Marine Corps got away with something in this case."
His attorney, Michael Lebowitz, said he'll take the case to the Navy Discharge Board, and then to federal court if necessary.
Kokesh is a member of the Individual Ready Reserve, a commitment that was set to end next Monday. Bergman's decision means his separation from the Corps will come just days before his service was to end anyway.
Other than issuing a statement containing the decision, the Marine Corps had no immediate comment.
The final decision was Bergman's to make because Brig. Gen. Darrell Moore, who would have normally decided the case, instead sent it up the chain of command. In a statement, the Corps said Moore made that decision "to ensure no questions of objectivity and impartiality."
Moore, the head of the Marine Mobilization Command, received an e-mail from Kokesh containing an obscenity earlier this year. Kokesh sent a similar email to Maj. John Whyte, who was investigating Kokesh's use of a stripped-down Marine uniform in a "street theater" protest last March in Washington.
That protest, and Kokesh's e-mail to Whyte, prompted an attempt by the Marine Corps to reduce Kokesh's original active duty honorable discharge to other-than-honorable. The general discharge splits the difference - it's a tougher sanction than an honorable characterization, but less punitive than an other-than-honorable discharge.
Lebowitz said even though the appeal will continue, the general discharge was a good outcome for his client: "I want to stress that we did beat them back on the other-than-honorable (discharge)."
Kokesh said he wanted to continue to argue the case for other servicemen and women; that way, he said, "the next Marine who faces harassment and intimidation will have something to stand on."
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