Belinda Smith The Wonders Of A mother's Love

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 at 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

53 People Reached

13 Engagements

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
PART 1.

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/)

#ucgc #justice