Evidence record

TSGT Damion Yates Package

This case packet concerns the Damion Yates case and includes military justice materials related to charge disposition, preliminary hearing review, and recommendations about whether the case should proceed.

Short Summary

The package is important because it is the primary source packet for the Damion Yates case review and contains military justice records tied to charge disposition, preliminary hearing review, and referral recommendations.

Key Details

Source / author: Military justice case materials
Date: Case materials include 2016-2017 records
Document type: Case packet
Topic: Wrongful conviction claim; due process; case review
Service branch: Air Force

Key Points

The packet contains preliminary hearing and disposition materials from the Damion Yates case.
The preliminary hearing text says Facebook messages contradicted the accuser's claim that she believed Yates would be away from the house during her stay.
The preliminary hearing officer recommended that no sexual assault charge be referred to a general court-martial or any other court-martial.
The preliminary hearing officer recommended dismissal of the charge and specification and wrote that the government would not be able to prove sexual assault beyond a reasonable doubt.

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times to different people. And to the extent there is corroborating evidence, the evidence
supports both versions.

But there is one example where the victim has made a demonstrably false or misleading
statement, and she has made it multiple times. Al C Quintello has consistently made it-part of
her narrative that when she ananged to stay at TSgt Yates' house,ltre was unier the impression
that he would be gone because he was going on leave to visit his kids, but that his plans later
changed. She was clearly intending to give the false impression that he changed his plans so he
could spend time with her and that she only asked to stay there because she ttrought the house
would be vacant. She even expessed the view that he changed his plans as partif a well-
thought out plan that he developed to have sex with her. But the evidence pioues this to be false.
The Facebook messages unequivocally prove that he made it very clear from the outset that he
would be home when she came to st8y, at least until January 30. She knew very rvell that he rvas
going to be home, as he said "We'll be under the same roof for a few daya i guess." She
responded: "Okay that's fine". And he rerninded her later that hc would be hlrne and offof
rvork during her visit- ln fact, they had extensive, playful discussions about where she would
sleep arrd rvhether he rvas rvilling to alternate betrveerr tlre couch and the bed. The Facebook
llre.ssages alscr indicate a plan on the part of both parties to keep fuer presence at his house secret
tionr her husband because hc disapproved of their fricndship and to kcep it secret frour others to
avoid having "people.tal!." So, it appean to me that A lC Quintello realized that people rvould
having trouble believing her rape ac@unt if they knerv thar she had essentially invited henelf to
stay with TSgt Yates for sweral days rvhen she knew he rvould be home; thui, she decided to
intentionally lie to make her rape account more plausible. Unfortunately, these
misrepresentations had the opposite effect, seriously darnaging her overall credibility. While the
fact-that she tnisrepresented this fact does not meant that she was not sexually assauited, there is
no doubt that a skillcd defense counsel rvill be able to exploit these misleading statanents to
effectively impeach her credibility.

I note that TSgt Yates' did plars change at one point, and he decided not to go out of town and to
shorten his leave, but the evidence proves that he changed his leave ptans before AIC
euintello
anived and informed her of this. In fact, it rvas AIC Quintello who,just hours before her
scheduled arrival on January 27, asked if she could stay with TSgt Yites two days longer
because she was unable to get a flight out on February I as she originally planned.

Nor does the evidence-support lhat TSgt Yates had any plan to get in AIC
Quintello's pan6. To
the contrary, he specifically totd her not to wear revealing clothing around his house, so he
would not be tempted by her, as reflected in this exchange:

TSgt Yates: BTll/, sparulex and booty shorts are not authorized"

AIC Quinrello: lVhy not?