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Colonel paternity tangle
Army War College O-6s linked in DNA test switch
By Brendan McGarry - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Oct 25, 2008 6:26:04 EDT
When they first met in the summer of 1997, he was a major; she was a specialist.
He was the executive officer of the 240th Quartermaster Battalion at Fort Lee, Va. She was a communications specialist in the security and operations office.
Greetings in the hallway became long conversations in his office. Both were married with children.
“Eventually, we did kiss after work hours,” she said. “Eventually, we agreed to meet.”
So began the affair and eventual paternity dispute involving former Col. Scott M. Carlson and the woman, as she recalled the story. She agreed to be interviewed by Army Times on the condition that her name be withheld to protect the identity of their 10-year-old daughter.
Carlson, a 2007 graduate of the prestigious Army War College, was convicted in September by a jury in Cumberland County, Pa., on charges related to arranging for a classmate at the college — a colonel later assigned to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense — to take a paternity test for him.
Now, the two could face jail time.
Carlson, 52, who retired only weeks before the jury’s decision, is to be sentenced Dec. 30.
“It was more disappointing to me that someone with this level of experience and education would do this,” said Derek R. Clepper, senior assistant district attorney in the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office and the prosecutor in the case.
The classmate, Col. Bruce S. Adkins, 47, is to stand trial Nov. 22 on similar charges, including felony criminal conspiracy for tampering with the public record or information. A reservist, Adkins’ retirement is pending the outcome of the case, said his attorney, Greg Abeln.
Clepper said of Carlson and Adkins, “I don’t understand how they got so far along in their career.”
Carlson’s attorney, Dennis Boyle, said Carlson denied asking Adkins to take the test.
“We do believe there are good grounds for appeal,” Boyle said.
The affair
The former specialist said she and Carlson began an affair in November 1997 that lasted through the summer of 2000.
She was married at the time with three children. He was married with a daughter, who is now serving in Iraq with the Marine Corps, Boyle said.
Boyle said Carlson denied having a physical relationship with the specialist after the baby was born Aug. 25, 1998.
At first, the specialist didn’t think the baby was Carlson’s.
Her husband’s name was initially listed on the birth certificate, but a DNA test administered later that year excluded the man from paternity of the child.
In 1999, she and her husband divorced. The same year, she left the Army.
Meanwhile, Carlson continued to advance in his career with overseas assignments in Bahrain and Egypt.
“Every year, I was like, ‘Can you sign her birth certificate?’ ” she said. “There was always a reason why he couldn’t.”
The dispute
The former specialist said she received her first monthly child support payment from Carlson for $50 in August 2000. He states in a letter presented as evidence in the case he began paying child support as far back as January 1999. Regardless of when payments began, both sides agree Carlson paid child support for several years.
The payments — allotments from Carlson’s military pay sometimes augmented with money orders — increased until late 2006, the woman said.
She said that in May or June of that year, facing rising child care costs, she asked Carlson to raise the monthly allotment from $400 to $600. “He said that money was tight. He was going to get some kind of raise in October,” she said. “I said, ‘Fine.’ There was a level of trust there.”
In October, Carlson, then enrolled as a student at the Army War College at the Carlisle Barracks, Pa. — the Army’s premiere leadership school — was promoted to colonel. But November came with no change in allotment, the former specialist said. She said she decided she had had enough.
“I said, ‘That’s it. I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt. ... We’re going to establish paternity and put a court order in place.’”
In December 2006, she sued for increased child support. On Dec. 29, she said she received a one-time payment of $600 from Carlson, then nothing.
“He got word of [the complaint] and he immediately stopped the allotment,” Clepper said.
Boyle, Carlson’s attorney, said Carlson made payments totaling $1,050 that month and “only stopped paying child support because Cumberland County told him to stop until the actual amount [owed] was calculated.”
Carlson was eventually ordered to pay $991 a month in child support and more than $11,000 in back payments — which he did. But not before he enlisted the help of a classmate at the college to try to cheat a paternity test, Clepper said.
Army War College O-6s linked in DNA test switch
By Brendan McGarry - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Oct 25, 2008 6:26:04 EDT
When they first met in the summer of 1997, he was a major; she was a specialist.
He was the executive officer of the 240th Quartermaster Battalion at Fort Lee, Va. She was a communications specialist in the security and operations office.
Greetings in the hallway became long conversations in his office. Both were married with children.
“Eventually, we did kiss after work hours,” she said. “Eventually, we agreed to meet.”
So began the affair and eventual paternity dispute involving former Col. Scott M. Carlson and the woman, as she recalled the story. She agreed to be interviewed by Army Times on the condition that her name be withheld to protect the identity of their 10-year-old daughter.
Carlson, a 2007 graduate of the prestigious Army War College, was convicted in September by a jury in Cumberland County, Pa., on charges related to arranging for a classmate at the college — a colonel later assigned to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense — to take a paternity test for him.
Now, the two could face jail time.
Carlson, 52, who retired only weeks before the jury’s decision, is to be sentenced Dec. 30.
“It was more disappointing to me that someone with this level of experience and education would do this,” said Derek R. Clepper, senior assistant district attorney in the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office and the prosecutor in the case.
The classmate, Col. Bruce S. Adkins, 47, is to stand trial Nov. 22 on similar charges, including felony criminal conspiracy for tampering with the public record or information. A reservist, Adkins’ retirement is pending the outcome of the case, said his attorney, Greg Abeln.
Clepper said of Carlson and Adkins, “I don’t understand how they got so far along in their career.”
Carlson’s attorney, Dennis Boyle, said Carlson denied asking Adkins to take the test.
“We do believe there are good grounds for appeal,” Boyle said.
The affair
The former specialist said she and Carlson began an affair in November 1997 that lasted through the summer of 2000.
She was married at the time with three children. He was married with a daughter, who is now serving in Iraq with the Marine Corps, Boyle said.
Boyle said Carlson denied having a physical relationship with the specialist after the baby was born Aug. 25, 1998.
At first, the specialist didn’t think the baby was Carlson’s.
Her husband’s name was initially listed on the birth certificate, but a DNA test administered later that year excluded the man from paternity of the child.
In 1999, she and her husband divorced. The same year, she left the Army.
Meanwhile, Carlson continued to advance in his career with overseas assignments in Bahrain and Egypt.
“Every year, I was like, ‘Can you sign her birth certificate?’ ” she said. “There was always a reason why he couldn’t.”
The dispute
The former specialist said she received her first monthly child support payment from Carlson for $50 in August 2000. He states in a letter presented as evidence in the case he began paying child support as far back as January 1999. Regardless of when payments began, both sides agree Carlson paid child support for several years.
The payments — allotments from Carlson’s military pay sometimes augmented with money orders — increased until late 2006, the woman said.
She said that in May or June of that year, facing rising child care costs, she asked Carlson to raise the monthly allotment from $400 to $600. “He said that money was tight. He was going to get some kind of raise in October,” she said. “I said, ‘Fine.’ There was a level of trust there.”
In October, Carlson, then enrolled as a student at the Army War College at the Carlisle Barracks, Pa. — the Army’s premiere leadership school — was promoted to colonel. But November came with no change in allotment, the former specialist said. She said she decided she had had enough.
“I said, ‘That’s it. I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt. ... We’re going to establish paternity and put a court order in place.’”
In December 2006, she sued for increased child support. On Dec. 29, she said she received a one-time payment of $600 from Carlson, then nothing.
“He got word of [the complaint] and he immediately stopped the allotment,” Clepper said.
Boyle, Carlson’s attorney, said Carlson made payments totaling $1,050 that month and “only stopped paying child support because Cumberland County told him to stop until the actual amount [owed] was calculated.”
Carlson was eventually ordered to pay $991 a month in child support and more than $11,000 in back payments — which he did. But not before he enlisted the help of a classmate at the college to try to cheat a paternity test, Clepper said.
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