The Army’s top prosecutor for sexual assault cases has been suspended after a lawyer who worked for him reported recently that he’d groped her and tried to kiss her at a legal conference over two years ago.
Lt. Col. Joseph “Jay” Morse supervised the Army’s nearly two dozen special victim prosecutors who are in charge of prosecuting sexual assault, domestic abuse and crimes against children, according to Stars and Stripes.
Morse, chief of the Trial Counsel Assistance Program at Fort Belvoir, Va., was responsible for Army prosecutorial training and assistance worldwide. He also was lead prosecutor in the case against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who pleaded guilty to the mass murder of 16 Afghan civilians in 2012.
Sources told Stars and Stripes that the female Army lawyer alleged that Morse attempted to kiss and grope her against her will. The alleged assault reportedly took place in a hotel room at a 2011 sexual assault legal conference attended by special victims prosecutors in Alexandria, Va., before he was appointed as chief of the Trial Counsel Assistance Program.
Read more at Stars and Stripes
