FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A former U.S. Army prosecutor who oversaw sexual-assault cases has been found guilty on rape charges after a six-day court-martial at Fort Bragg, military officials said Monday.
Maj. Erik J. Burris was found guilty on two charges of rape, a charge of forcible sodomy, four charges of assault and a charge of disobeying an order, the Army said in a five-sentence statement. Burris was sentenced to 20 years in prison, dismissed from the service and ordered to forfeit all pay, the statement said.
Burris, whose age was not available, had pleaded not guilty to the charges. He could not be reached for comment and the name of the lawyer representing him was not available.
Fort Bragg spokeswoman Maj. Crystal Boring said Monday that she could not immediately provide answers to questions about Burris or the evidence against him.
The statement emailed to news media outlets on Monday was the first issued by the Army about the case and provided no details about the crimes for which Burris was convicted, the number of victims or whether they included other military personnel.
Past dockets listing scheduled courtroom proceedings at Fort Bragg in recent days are no longer available online, making it unclear what, if any, public notice was provided in advance of Burris' trial. Non-military personnel cannot access the sprawling North Carolina base or its federal courthouse without approval.
The military has been under intense scrutiny in recent years over its handling of sexual-assault allegations. A trial was held at Fort Bragg last year for the man thought to be the highest-ranking U.S. military officer ever court-martialed on sexual-assault charges.
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, who served as deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, faced numerous criminal charges after he was accused of twice forcing the female captain who worked for him to perform oral sex during the course of a three-year extramarital affair, as well as inappropriate relationships with two other women. The trial ended in March when Sinclair agreed to plead guilty to some of the less-serious charges against him as part of a plea agreement that saw him retire at reduced rank while avoiding prison time.
In a March television interview with Fox 40 in Sacramento, Calif,, Burris said he had been falsely accused of assaulting members of his immediate family. A California native, Burris said the charges were motivated by a child-custody dispute involving his estranged wife.
According to prior news media accounts involving unrelated criminal cases, Burris was identified as the chief of justice for the 82nd Airborne during 2012 and 2013 — a position in which he would have supervised other military prosecutors within the famed paratrooper division.
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