Money lured 82nd paratroopers in gay porn scandal
By Kelly Kennedy
Times staff writer
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — As Pvt. Kagen P. Mullen, 21, pleaded guilty to conduct detrimental to the Army on May 1, he also made clear why seven young paratroopers risked their careers and the respect of their peers for the world of gay pornography.
They did it for the money.
Mullen testified that he had sex with a woman while six members of his 82nd Airborne company performed sex acts with each other for a video. The video was later released on a Web site that featured pornographic material for gay men.
Mullen said he collected more than $7,000 from the Web-site owner for posing and performing, as well as in finder’s fees for bringing in other soldiers. Another soldier, unnamed because he’s being discharged under an Article 15, earned $30,000, according to testimoney, and a third received $2,500.
Mullen was the second paratrooper from 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, to plead guilty in the case. Four others await out-processing following Article 15s; a third faces a court-martial May 16.
“It was all from my unit, sir,” Mullen told the judge. “We all did it together, sir.”
It started with an e-mail.
Through MySpace.com, a Web site that allows soldiers and others to post their profiles and pictures online, Mullen said he received an e-mail asking whether he would be interested in modeling.
The idea isn’t new, just the method. A soldier not associated with the case said he was approached, too, at a shopping mall.
“You have a great face,” the soldier remembered being told. “Have you ever thought about modeling?”
Another soldier said he was approached in a bowling alley.
Both those soldiers, members of the 82nd but not associated with the case, said they guessed the proposition meant more than modeling menswear and laughed it off.
Mullen did not.
“I said I was interested,” Mullen told the court.
He went to a Fayetteville home to shoot some “sample” photos, he said.
First, they took head shots.
Then they asked him to remove his shirt and flex his muscles.
Finally, he took off his clothes.
“Most of it was just me by myself taking naked pictures, sir,” Mullen told the judge.
For that, he said, he received about $5,000.
Mullen said he was offered another $2,000 for a video with a girl called “Jenny” — and with his friends.
“At first, everyone was just sleeping with her, sir,” Mullen testified. “Then they started doing things with each other, sir. I kind of tried not to really pay attention to what they were doing, sir.”
Mullen, whose wife had a baby girl last July, said he was paid a $100 finder’s fee for each soldier he persuaded to participate in the video.
“The accused in this case not only exploited himself, he brought others into this case,” said prosecuting attorney Capt. Lee Belkin. “Being a paratrooper by day and an adult porn star and an adult drug user at night is not what is expected of a member of this unit.”
It was the sex video with Jenny — made in July — that unraveled the case.
This February, soldiers from Mullen’s company alerted their platoon leader to a Web site that featured gay porn. The locally owned site showed naked young men with military haircuts masturbating by themselves or performing sex acts with each other.
The platoon leader told his company commander, Capt. James Barlow, who then spent a Saturday evening printing the incriminating pictures. He made a list of the soldiers he recognized.
“I had pretty much made up my mind about what I wanted to do based on what I had seen,” Barlow said. “What I had seen in those pictures was wrong, and against the law.”
The resulting investigation sparked jokes, fistfights and embarrassment for the charged soldiers’ battle buddies — the division famous for moving into any region within hours of being called.
It also sparked questions.
“When something like this happens, it’s personally upsetting to every member of the unit,” 82nd Airborne spokesman Maj. Thomas Earnhardt said when the charges were filed. “We all wonder, ‘Why would anyone go down that road?’”
But the bad behavior didn’t end after charges were filed.
After being restricted to post and learning of his court-martial, Mullen came up hot for marijuana on a urinalysis and was found to have prior Article 15s for cocaine use and underage drinking, Belkin said.
“I can’t remember a time when something good was surrounded by Mullen’s name,” Barlow testified.
For conduct detrimental to the Army and for using marijuana illegally, the judge, Col. Grant Jaquith, sentenced Mullen to 105 days’ confinement, docked his pay by two-thirds and handed him a bad-conduct discharge.
“People in the military just shouldn’t do that, sir,” Mullen told the judge, “or anyone, for that matter, sir.”
He will serve three months’ confinement on a plea agreement between the defense and prosecution.
Partners in crime
In April, Pvt. 1st Class Richard Ashley pleaded guilty to sodomy, conduct detrimental to the military and a drug charge and was also sentenced to three months’ confinement, loss of rank to E-1, loss of two-thirds of his pay for three months and a bad-conduct discharge.
Four soldiers have received Article 15 nonjudicial punishment of reduction in rank to private, 45 days’ restriction to the unit area, 45 days of extra duty and forfeiture of one-half month’s pay for two months.
Private 1st Class Wesley Mitten is set to be court-martialed May 16.
Mullen arrived late for his sentencing because he had gotten rid of his Class-A uniform, believing he would no longer need it. The uniform he borrowed boasted an All American combat patch he hadn’t earned. During a break, he made an obscene gesture to reporters. And as he waited for his sentence, he laughed and made jokes with his attorney.
This differed dramatically from the April 27 sentencing of Ashley. Ashley sobbed as his grandmother told the court how proud she was of her grandson, and he choked back tears as he asked for the forgiveness of his company commander.
But Mullen’s defense attorney, Capt. Ryan Dowdy, said Mullen had proven a willingness to accept responsibility by telling the truth. He said Mullen’s mother and father, and a staff sergeant who had worked with Mullen, had sent letters asking for leniency. And he offered some history: Mullen’s mother had been abused by Mullen’s stepfather.
“Looking back at his history, we might be able to see why he made some of the bad decisions he made,” Dowdy said. “At the end of the day, these were young soldiers who made bad decisions.”
Shuffling out of the courtroom in shackles and handcuffs, Mullen murmured, “This sucks.”