A military officer who has garnered national headlines for speaking out against Department of Defense leaders had charges against him referred to a court-martial.
Capt. Sam Stephenson, the commanding general of training command, referred six charges to a special court-martial regarding Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller on Wednesday, according to a statement.
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Scheller, who is a 17-year infantry officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been accused of violating the following Uniform Code of Military Justice regulations: Article 88 (contempt toward officials), Article 89 (Disrespect toward superior commissioned officers), Article 90 (willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer), Article 92 (Dereliction in the performance of duties), Article 92 (Failure to obey order or regulation), and Article 133 (Conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman).
There is no hearing scheduled at this time regarding the charges against Scheller, who gained notoriety for criticizing U.S. military leaders for the execution of the Afghanistan withdrawal. He posted the first of his viral videos the day after an Islamic State terrorist detonated a suicide vest outside an airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghans. The U.S. and NATO allies were conducting a noncombatant evacuation operation for third-country nationals and Afghan allies who could be in danger under the newly formed Taliban government.
Scheller had been in the brig awaiting the unscheduled hearing, but he was released Tuesday.
“Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. was released from confinement Oct. 5, 2021, as a result of a mutual agreement between Lt. Col. Scheller, his Defense counsel, and the Commanding General, Training Command,” Stephenson said. “No additional details regarding the agreement may be released at this time.”
Scheller was originally placed in the Regional Brig for Marine Corps Installations East aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. He was not held in solitary confinement, per Stephenson, but was in an individual cell. However, he was allowed recreational time for at least two hours a day and could speak with other prisoners and staff.
A Marine can be ordered into pretrial confinement, per Rule for Court-Martial (RCM) 305(d), if there is probable cause that an offense that can be tried by court-martial was committed, that the person confined committed it, and that confinement is required by the circumstances of the case.
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“The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield let someone down,” Scheller said in his first of the viral videos. “People are upset because their senior leaders let them down. And none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, ‘We messed this up.’”
“Potentially, all those people did die in vain if we don’t have senior leaders that own up and raise their hand and say, ‘We did not do this well in the end,’” he added. “Without that, we just keep repeating the same mistakes.”
Conservatives have flocked to support Scheller due in part to his criticism of the Biden administration, though he has also been critical of former President Donald Trump.
