THE WONDERS OF A MOTHER'S LOVE.
The Court-martial of Cadet Webster Smith was just too much for
Belinda, Webster’s mother. She exhibited great dignity and restraint.
She was the most gracious lady under pressure while in the public spot
light since Coretta Scott King, Myrlie Evers, and Jackie Kennedy all
rolled into one. They mourned the death of their husbands. Belinda
mourned the sacrifice of her son, and the death of his Coast Guard
career.
The civilian employees a
t
the Coast Guard Academy could not help but notice, her poise and
dignity under such enormous pressure. They were mothers and sisters.
Webster could have been their son or brother. They were so moved that
they were compelled to act. They had to reach out to her in a practical
way. They presented her with a note and a gift. The card read,
"We are so proud of the way you have carried yourself here, with
much dignity and poise. Please take this small token of respect and do
something nice for yourself. “
Belinda Smith found some relief in writing a journal. She reduced her thoughts to writing. This is a sample:
QUOTE:
“ If you could only feel what I have felt for these past 6 years, I
have a strong relationship with JUSTICE that I am not able to shake.
People say, "get over it, get a life!" I cannot! I closely watch
Webster's life and all of my children's lives after this tragedy, and I
am amazed by the spirit within them."
QUOTE
Part 1. (To be continued)
#ucgc #justice
THE WONDERS OF A MOTHER'S LOVE. (PART 2)
The Court-martial of Cadet Webster Smith was just too much for
Belinda, Webster’s mother. She exhibited great dignity and restraint
QUOTE:
“ If you could
only feel what I have felt for these past 6 years, I have a strong relationship
with JUSTICE that I am not able to shake. People say, "get over it,
get a life!" I cannot! I closely watch Webster's life and all
of my children's lives after this tragedy, and I am amazed by the spirit within
them."
UNQUOTE
Continued:
PART 2.
QUOTE
"I sometimes think, I use to be able to overcome obstacles, (I
had so many). If this is possible, I gave my spirit, my soul and my mind to my
children, and they are using it to go on in life. Today though, I felt that in
many ways I failed......I became an empty shell at one point in my life, soon
after the death of my brother. Looking back, those are the moments when I knew
my children's firm foundation was in place. I see it now in Webster,
Brittney and the twins. They have been through a lot and look at them,
still achieving and motivated to make it. That's why I said I failed them, I
lost that! God's grace is sufficient. “
“The two weeks
of the court-martial was very difficult for me, because as I've said before; I
knew in my heart that Webster was being setup and I was sure when the evidence
was heard, he would be exonerated. Somewhere along the way, I begin
to tell myself, these people are not going to allow my son to walk out of here
an innocent man that he is, because this would bring the Coast Guard to their
knees. There is a lot I could say about this but I will not. Would
I let another one of my sons go to the Academy, well, one of my twin sons was
determined to go the CGA, actually Alex was in the prep program a NMMI, until
Capt. B decided not to accept him because he had a 2.4 GPA but accepted other
cadets at NMMI that had a even lower GPA to go to the academy. That same
year Kristen Nicholson’s younger brother was accepted. Kristen said in an
email to my daughter and me, and she actually said, I am doing what I was told
to do and went on to say as I understood, you do what those over you tell you
to do, There were two female cadets that came to the court-martial in
support of Webster, but were afraid to say so, They would always come up
to me and give me a hug. One even alluded to the fact that Jesse Harms
would go from the court-martial to the upstairs law office where the girls were
to tell them what was said in court. One day, I waited at the end of the
stairs and yes he came down the stairs just as they said. I was also told
that Shannon and Shelly were spending time together during the court-martial,
and we actually saw them together at Panera’s Bread when we all went to
eat. I bought this up to LT
Kirkby, Webster’s Navy lawyer, and he did nothing about it. During the
Court-martial, Admiral Van Sice came up to Webster and me, and he spoke to Webster
and said something to the fact that , everything will be alright it will take
some time.”
“This is
LIPSTICK JUSTICE that we have witness. Lipstick covers the lips in order
to make them beautiful and when it wears off, you will see all the
imperfections that is always there. The girls in this trial wore that
lipstick and I will not rest until I see their bare lips. You may not
understand my analogies, but it make sense to me. I know for sure that as
I read further the record of trial, that night that those girls met, LTJG
Miller said that there were 7 girls and so did the first reporting in the
news. Then at trial she said there were seven (7) girls and later changed
it to five (5) because the judge said and lead her to change it to 5, You
know why, the second meeting that they had, Katie had told them about Shelly
and Sheri and Kristen went to get those two. I know they are hiding that
lie. Katie was the only person that knew about Shelly and Stacy was the
only one that knew about Katie, When Stacy met with Kristen in their
private meeting, Stacy told Kristen about Katie and that's how Kristen found
out. They then went to Katie and confronted her about Webster and all she
could do after that was to join in because she was angry possibly that Webster
had told Stacy. Katie knew she had to save her face so she wrote a
statement to keep her and her father out of trouble to appease them, but she
had enough integrity not go alone with the "witch hunt". The
biggest secret isn't Shelly's. it's the fact that they are covering up why
Shelly did not want to come forward and bring charges against Webster until she
was confronted by her regimental commander and the legal team, especially after
they threaten to charge her with
disobeying a direct order and article 125. They either falsified the date
of Shelly's statement which is Feb.16th or they had to use undue command
influence to get her to testify either way; it was unethical. Even then, if the
statement was written on Feb 16 why did they not give this to the Defense upon
their Discovery Request? No, the defense did not know about Shelly until
March 8th when Anderson sent a letter stating, all witness has to on the list
by March 10th. This caused the defense to have to delay the Article 32 to
compose themselves. Sometimes, I think this was a plan to delay the trial
so that they all could graduate before the trial began in order to convince
Shelly she could get her degree, even if she was charged with any crime.
At least she had her degree if they gave her walking papers.
“I know I will
find a way to be heard! I am missing something! I pray for Katie
and the other girls in this case and when I feel it's time, I will reach
out. I have noticed that Katie no longer has friends from the Coast Guard
on her Facebook. That may be because she has broken ties with them.
I am researching and studying as much as I can from information from these
sites. I have also noticed, that Kristen, Shelly, Kristen's friend
"Jersey" who also testified are all pregnant or had babies before
there 5 years were up. Kristen married Howard Baker the guy who told her
about Katie's relationship with Webster.
UNQUOTE.
Most
people know the basic premise of the story, the collusion of several young
women that resulted in the court-martial of the first cadet at the U.S. Coast
Guard Academy. Shelly Raudenbush Wyman was the lone victor of the several women
that accounted for the 22 charges against Webster Smith. Why did she come
forward over two months after Webster Smith was removed from classes, following
the allegations by then Regimental Commander-Kristen Nicholson, her two best
friends Shannon Frobel, Kristin Strizki and Nicholson's subordinates: Stacy
Chmielecki, Keri McCormack, and Katie Colella?
During
the Court-Martial, Webster was represented by LT Stuart Kirkby and Merle J.
Smith. Neither believed that the charges would prevail for the government. They
did not pursue details of Shelly's relationship with the other female cadets. They
could not mention Katie Colella or call her to the stand, Captain Judge, the
Trial Judge at the court-martial, denied her as a defense witness. Besides
Kristen Nicholson, she was the only person who could detail how and why she
came forward. Her father had just been appointed the Dean of Students at the
Academy and wanted no part of it. This was not the only reason that Smith's attorneys
did not further pursue Shelly. Shelly Raudenbush Wyman was charged with two
UCMJ violations--including disobeying an order--by the Coast Guard Academy, to
push her to cooperate. She consulted with an attorney before the Smith trial
and would not testify in the May pre-trial hearing so that she would not
incriminate herself. The academy did not give her prosecutorial or testimonial
immunity until the day she testified.
Why did she come forward?
The
only cadet that knew about Webster and Shelly's sexual relationship was
then-cadet Katie Colella.
Katie
Colella and Webster went out several times in November of 2005. Over
Thanksgiving Break when Webster decided to stay at the Academy, he picked her
up from Captain Colella's home in Ledyard, Connecticut. They went out on the
first of two or three dates, with the blessing of the Captain. The first night,
they went to a club called Complex and outside of the Complex Webster told
Katie about Shelly. Katie asked Webster to end it if he wanted to hang out with
her.
Before the investigation, as the evidence revealed, Katie had not told the
Regimental Commander about Shelly.
Katie
played as integral a role as Kristen Nicholson did in pushing the charges
but when it came time to end Webster's career, she was nowhere on the charge
sheet. The circumstances around their relationship could not be crafted for a
charge sheet and maybe she had a little more integrity than the others.
In
February of 2006 when CAPT Wisniewski realized that Webster was not going to
plead guilty to the original charges, he stood before the Corps of Cadets in
the Chase Hall wardroom and asked for any additional female cadets to testify against
Webster Smith.
Katie Colella, Shelly's track teammate, told Kristen of the conversation about
Shelly. Kristen, the acting Regimental Commander, approached Shelly (Shelly
admitted in trial) and several days later, she was interviewed by CGIS.
Not
only was there a question of criminal prosecution for Shelly, she squelched
rumors to save her engagement to Grant Wyman by agreeing to help the girls with
Webster Smith. Shelly's fiancé was not there to support her during any of the
hearings or the trial. Shelly did not attend or testify against Webster at the
sentencing hearing Katie Colella was later kicked out on an Honor Violation;
but, she was readmitted later in the Spring of 2008. Several other senior
officers’ kids were readmitted after being kicked out. (Another cadet who was
kicked out of the Coast Guard Academy because of an honor violation was the son
of Admiral James Loy (retired). He was readmitted to the Academy in about1992, and then kicked out again for
another Honor Violation. Then he goes through OCS and earns a commission
despite his Academy background.)
Webster's
continued relationship with Shelly was never allowed into evidence in court. Her
lobbying Webster to join the track team, and her frequent trips to Webster's
dorm room to comfort him after several issues that Webster had had with his
ex-girlfriend, Kristen Nicholson, in early November were never allowed into
evidence.
The Court of Appeals majority ruling stated that there was no reason for Shelly
to misrepresent the truth in trial.
Even
in civilian life, after a conviction and serving time in jail, Webster was not
free from Coast Guard interference in his life. A web site was set up for his
friends and family to keep in touch. It was shut down.
This
entry was posted by cgreports.wordpress.com on June 11, 2009 at 6:26 pm and is
filed under Uncategorized.
QUOTE:
"We were notified today that Webster Smith, the first cadet to ever
be courts-martialed at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy has had his site blocked by
the U.S. Coast Guard. Smith’s website “Friends of Webster” is not accessible
inside the Coast Guard domain. We reviewed the site and couldn’t find anything
in our cursory review that would warrant being blocked."
UNQUOTE
(See-http://cgreport.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/webster-smith-former-u-s-coast-guard-academy-cadet-blocked-inside-coast-guard-domain/)
