Today, Congresswoman Sylvia R. Garcia (TX-29) issued the following statement regarding the Senate’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act and what this means for getting justice for Spc. Vanessa Guillen:

“I thank the Senate for passing the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, which, after 50 years, will provide much-needed reforms to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The bill is now heading to President Biden’s desk and will finally become a vehicle for justice for all victims of sexual assault and harassment in the military while transforming the institution’s culture–it will ensure that what happened to Spc. Vanessa Guillen never happens again to another soldier.

I thank the Guillen family for their tireless fight to get justice for Vanessa, Congresswoman Jackie Speier for her leadership and for fighting for Vanessa and all victims of sexual harassment in our country, and all my colleagues in Congress who, from the beginning, joined this fight, united to find justice for her. We are one step closer to justice and protection for our soldiers.”

SUMMARY OF RELEVANT PROVISIONS IN THE UNIFORM CODE OF MILITARY JUSTICE (UCMJ) REFORMS INCLUDED IN THE NDAA PASSED BY THE SENATE

Special Trial Counsel

• Creates an Office of the Special Trial Counsel within each Service and ensuring their independence by requiring they directly report to the Service Secretary. The provision also defines the role and responsibilities of these prosecutors and including their required experience.
• Criminalizes sexual harassment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. All claims of sexual harassment will be required to be investigated by an independent investigator outside the chain of command.
• Establishes judge-alone sentencing and sentencing parameters to increase fairness across the system.
• Increases the notification for Survivors of Sexual Assault by directing the Services to notify survivors of sexual assault about the outcomes of any administrative action taken against their perpetrator.

Sexual Assault Response and Prevention

• Requires a study on including a military occupational specialty for Sexual Assault Response Coordinators.
• Authorizes Special Victim Counsel to hire additional administrative support personnel.
• Allows the DoD Safe Helpline to intake restricted and unrestricted reports for eligible sexual assault victims.
• Requires a briefing on implementation of certain recommendations of the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military.
• Requires the Department of Defense to track allegations of retaliation by victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment and related persons.

Reform and Improvement of Military Criminal Investigative Organizations

• Requires the military services to reform their criminal investigative organizations consistent with the guidance provided and submit a report through the Secretary of
• Defense not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act.

Racial Disparities

• Requires the secretaries of each service to provide detailed demographic information including sex, ethnicity, and rank on both the principal and victim of an offense under the UCMJ. The report will include investigations, nonjudicial punishment, administrative action, and all levels of courts-martial.

A Harris County grand jury today indicted Mark Aguirre for Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon in a case being prosecuted by the Public Corruption Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

Aguirre, a former Houston police captain who was no longer on the force at the time of the incident, first came to authorities with claims of pre-election fraud, but was himself charged in December 2020 for running a man off the road and pointing a gun at his head in order to try to prove his claims. When presented with all the evidence, a grand jury Tuesday determined that there was probable cause for a crime, and indicted the defendant.

“He crossed the line from dirty politics to the commission of a violent crime and we are lucky no one was killed,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has said about the case. “His alleged investigation was backward from the start, first alleging a crime occurred and then trying to prove it happened.”

The second-degree felony is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

According to a previously filed court document describing probable cause for the charge, Aguirre told police shortly after the Oct. 19 incident that he was part of a group of private citizens called “Liberty Center,” who were conducting a civilian investigation into an alleged ballot scheme. Aguirre said he had been conducting surveillance on the victim for four days under the theory the victim was the mastermind of a giant fraud, and there were 750,000 fraudulent ballots in a truck that he was driving, according to the document. Instead, the victim turned out to be an innocent, air-conditioner repairman.

The document continues that Aguirre ran his personal SUV into the back of the truck to get the technician to stop and get out, according to the document. When the technician got out of the truck, Aguirre pointed a handgun at the technician and forced him to the ground, and put a knee on the man’s back – an image captured on the body-worn camera of a police officer.

There were no ballots in the truck. It was filled with air-conditioning parts and tools.

Aguirre never told police that he had been paid a total of $266,400 by the Houston-based Liberty Center for God and Country, $211,400 of which was deposited into his account the day after the incident.