Latest / Justice Team Podcast / From Military Justice to Civilian Advocacy with Spencer Wolfe - Part 2
Transcript
- 0:02Hey, it's Bob Simon taking a break to tell you about CallRail.
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- 0:34Well, what are some of the frustrations that you've had with, with the system?
- 0:38Um, so I think it's, it's one that's easily attributable and
- 0:42I, I, I always wanna caveat.
- 0:45Every experience I've had through life.
- 0:49Great positives, things that frustrate me.
- 0:51So if, if I had to highlight some of the frustrations, um, you know, it's, it's
- 0:57maybe that, that abuse of power kind of component that we've seen before.
- 1:00And it's, it's just that there's different leadership styles or traits
- 1:05that somebody thinks is effective.
- 1:07The Army actually has, um, literature they have.
- 1:12Training manuals on how to avoid toxic leadership, how to try to be an empathetic
- 1:17leader, how they, how do you focus on getting people to want to follow your
- 1:21orders, not just getting direct follow.
- 1:24Does,
- 1:24does it change from like chain of command down?
- 1:27Like does, 'cause you were there for two different presidencies, right?
- 1:30Correct.
- 1:31Does it, does that change from the top down?
- 1:34So the, the, the mindset behind it for the military is always a. We are
- 1:41not concerned with who is in the seat.
- 1:43We are concerned with the orders that we are given, the legal legality to follow
- 1:48those orders and executing the mission.
- 1:51And so we are, you know, the military is a non-partisan.
- 1:55Organization.
- 1:56It is a non-partisan arm of the government that is intended to
- 2:00ensure it meets its requirement.
- 2:01And the, the surface level main mission requirement is to defend
- 2:05the nation from all enemies.
- 2:08Um, and so
- 2:09even the enemy within
- 2:11it?
- 2:11Yes.
- 2:12Foreign and domestic.
- 2:13Well, let me ask, so I, and we've heard stories out there that
- 2:16there were certain, certain people within ICE that said, I don't feel
- 2:21comfortable with this, and they're.
- 2:24Aren't there means for people to say like, I feel like the orders
- 2:27I'm given are not appropriate.
- 2:28Like, what do they do under that circumstance?
- 2:30Because I had some people reach out to me that, that had that question.
- 2:33I didn't know how to answer that for them.
- 2:35Like, what do I do if I'm at ICE and I feel uncomfortable with this?
- 2:37Or if there's something so inappropriate, like, what do I do?
- 2:39I don't wanna follow these orders.
- 2:41Sure.
- 2:41And, and so I have to be clear that, you know, ICE being a federal agency that is
- 2:47distinct from the Department of Defense.
- 2:49Many different channels may exist, many different supervisory
- 2:52hierarchies that may exist.
- 2:53I know with the, within the military, at least the experience that I had, was when
- 2:57the, the COVID vaccine mandates came down.
- 3:00There certainly was a divisive kind of response to that, where some
- 3:03people were fully in support, other people were, were highly opposed.
- 3:07Um, and so.
- 3:09Being the legal advisor to the commanders as they're asking me,
- 3:13what do I do here if I don't agree with this or I don't agree with that.
- 3:17And the truth, I, I told them, I said, look, we're at this stage in this
- 3:22part of the process, um, where if somebody, if somebody isn't voluntarily
- 3:29committing to the vaccine mm-hmm.
- 3:31And we are now asking your opinion as to whether approve or deny
- 3:34their request to not get it.
- 3:37Sir, state your opinion.
- 3:38I'm not here to tell you what to say.
- 3:40If you're looking for assistance on, you wanna support their, their
- 3:44request, or you want to deny their request and you, you need help forming
- 3:48your opinion, we can talk about it.
- 3:50I can help give you a draft or whatever, but I'm not, nothing that I'm writing
- 3:54is what I'm telling you to say.
- 3:56Nobody can dictate that.
- 3:58And if somebody has an issue with what you say, you're the one who
- 4:00bears their consequences for that.
- 4:02Um, so I, I think.
- 4:04There were some that said, yeah, absolutely.
- 4:06If I think that somebody's got a valid purpose or reason to deny, I'm
- 4:09going to argue for their approval.
- 4:11And the people above me may be of a different opinion and say,
- 4:15no, I think they should get it.
- 4:16And you're, you're dumb for supporting it.
- 4:17So be it.
- 4:18The, the difference of opinion wasn't an issue.
- 4:21Um, but they had to know, am I in a position to make a a stand?
- 4:26Can I, am I in a position to, to, you know.
- 4:30Make a recommendation.
- 4:32Um, and I don't think everybody always feels that way.
- 4:34I'm, I, I would assume without knowing more of the details, that those
- 4:37individuals in ICE may have been more equivalent to the person who's just,
- 4:42look, you get told what to do and you do it, or you don't have a job.
- 4:45Mm-hmm.
- 4:45Um, and you may not have the weight or the authority to, to go, aren't those
- 4:51the folks that you would end up sometimes defending is because they either.
- 4:55Took a stand or didn't wanna follow orders.
- 4:58And so what's that like?
- 5:00So
- 5:03specific within the military?
- 5:04I definitely re recall on numerous occasions having discussions with
- 5:08people where their, due to personal beliefs due to uh, their, their sense of
- 5:14entitlement, sense of whatever they'd say.
- 5:16Like, yeah, they told me to do this, but I'm not doing it.
- 5:19And at least within the military look, there may be components where you
- 5:22can say, no, this isn't one of them.
- 5:24You can't say, I'm not showing up for pt. You can't say that I'm not
- 5:28going to my doctor's appointment that I'm scheduled for because that turns
- 5:32into a criminal, criminal offense.
- 5:34I'm, I'm not trying to maximize the punishment they can impose against you.
- 5:38Um, and so.
- 5:40I think my experience within the military can be so dis, can be distinguished from
- 5:46maybe what members of federal agencies who are, again, civilians employed by
- 5:51the federal government from those who swear on oath, raise a right hand and do
- 5:55relinquish a certain amount of rights.
- 5:58Um, that's
- 6:00it's important distinction is that the people that are working for
- 6:03ICE are civilians working on behalf of the federal government, right?
- 6:06Correct.
- 6:06So they, I mean, they can.
- 6:08You do have rights as a civilian, right?
- 6:11That you can, you cannot follow orders.
- 6:14You could have consequences to that, but you could have remedies and rights,
- 6:17right?
- 6:17I, I don't think, certainly, so I, I think as a civilian employed by a federal
- 6:24agency, your consequences for not doing your job, if that's how it would be
- 6:29described by the agency or something like that, is termination of your employment
- 6:34from a military member standpoint.
- 6:37Depending on the lens, it's viewed as far as, look, if it's legitimate grounds of
- 6:41a unlawful order goes outside the bounds.
- 6:43And
- 6:43I, I, I, yeah.
- 6:45'cause we saw orders where they would have, you know,
- 6:48the National Guard deployed.
- 6:49Mm-hmm.
- 6:51I mean that's, that's military, right?
- 6:52Or the Marines being deployed.
- 6:54Right.
- 6:54Like there, that is a situation where they could be like, you know
- 6:58what, this isn't, these are not.
- 7:00Can they say, these aren't even legal orders like this.
- 7:03So that process would take a legal advisor or a legal person reviewing
- 7:08what they've received, determining if the authority exists there, and then
- 7:12raising up the chain, Hey, we have concerns or questions about this action.
- 7:16Mm-hmm.
- 7:16Um, and the thought pro, I mean, typically decisions like that for an entire unit
- 7:22that's mobilized or something like that, elevated typically at least two.
- 7:26Uh, a full bird colonel in oh six who was advising that entire unit,
- 7:30that's typically a position that's held to, to cover a unit of that size.
- 7:33Um.
- 7:35And those are discussions happening.
- 7:37Well high up the chain.
- 7:38I, in my experience, I only got to touch on that a handful of times.
- 7:44Uh, so I had a client who was imposed punishment and they reduced his rank.
- 7:48I looked into the commanding general for his unit, had pushed out certain
- 7:53regulations, and very specifically in plain language, it said that the
- 7:57commander who imposed this punishment cannot reduce somebody of that rank.
- 8:01They don't have the authority to, and I notified the legal advisor for the unit
- 8:06and he goes, uh, I, I, you know what I, I, I think that that was supposed
- 8:10to be changed 'cause there was a change to the rules a couple of years ago.
- 8:13So I think that just got left in there by accident.
- 8:16And I said that sounds like it was the rule that was in
- 8:19place when you guys did this.
- 8:21I don't.
- 8:22Okay.
- 8:22So there was a process that exists within the Uniform code that's called an Article
- 8:261 38 complaint, and it goes to the commander that wronged you if they imposed
- 8:30on a right that they weren't supposed to or anything like that, you have to
- 8:32notify them and request they remedy it.
- 8:35If they deny you, it immediately gets elevated to the
- 8:38commanding general above them.
- 8:39And so he denied it.
- 8:41I submitted it up.
- 8:42About a week and a half went by and the legal advisor to that commanding general,
- 8:47a full board colonel, contacted me and said, um, so what we think you should
- 8:53do is if you put in a request to have this removed, we think it'll go through.
- 8:59And if it doesn't, if you're not happy with the result, just contact
- 9:01me and we're gonna act on this.
- 9:03Okay.
- 9:04So I put up the request within 24 hours, they reinstated his rank,
- 9:07went back, everything was cleared.
- 9:09Um, so that was one of those situations where.
- 9:13I saw his position of maybe that rule shouldn't have been in place at the time.
- 9:17Maybe it should have been rescinded, but it was in place at the time.
- 9:20And so if you're not gonna give it to me, I will go up to the next level.
- 9:24And it's hopefully the check and balance that's supposed to exist there.
- 9:29Yeah,
- 9:30yeah.
- 9:30Yeah.
- 9:30So that's, um, you know, I'll turn the page now.
- 9:32This is, you know, mid-July or late July, we're filming this.
- 9:37Going into private practice.
- 9:38Yeah.
- 9:39So you're starting at a, well, a national law firm, but in their Phoenix
- 9:42office with, with Sweet James and Crew.
- 9:45Yep.
- 9:45Which I'm super happy about.
- 9:46I know we talked about this for a long time.
- 9:48'cause I think you have the opportunity to, because you've worn so many
- 9:51different hats where you could do that there and learn how to do what
- 9:55you're great at, which is helping human beings in the courtroom.
- 9:58I, yeah, so I, I, and I was thinking about this on the way in, you know, really
- 10:02kind of trying to, to narrow down why.
- 10:05Why I wanted to go this direction.
- 10:06And, and you were a huge, huge aspect to that, maintaining the relationship that
- 10:10I've had with you and, and understanding and following the work that you've done.
- 10:14Um, I think it gave me a great avenue to see.
- 10:17I enjoyed obviously being in the courtroom.
- 10:19That was a great experience for me.
- 10:20But when I was prosecuting, um, that was in, at Fort Bliss, I was relegated
- 10:26out to the US Attorney's office to be a special assistant US attorney,
- 10:29and I would prosecute offenses that occurred on, on federal land.
- 10:32I had discretion over my cases.
- 10:34I got to look at all the investigations.
- 10:35I gotta determine if they were sufficient or insufficient and kick
- 10:38them back and then decide what are we taking to trial so that authority
- 10:42over does this case have merit?
- 10:44Is there worthwhile in pursuing this?
- 10:47I loved that discretion being a defense attorney.
- 10:51I got to see the personal aspects.
- 10:53I got to see the context.
- 10:54Yes, you can say that somebody did a bad thing.
- 10:57Do you understand why?
- 10:58Do you understand the story behind this person?
- 11:00Um.
- 11:01Uh, an example was a, a, an individual I represented who had been serving
- 11:10for almost as long as I'd been alive.
- 11:12So he was, he'd done active time, he was in the reserves, but
- 11:15he was an activated reservist.
- 11:17So he was working year round, full-time job.
- 11:19And he was recruiter, he had been recruiting so long, he'd recruited all
- 11:24three of his sons to, to the military.
- 11:26Um, and he was now getting court martialed.
- 11:30For testing positive for marijuana.
- 11:32On multiple occasions, he was taking marijuana because he was on
- 11:38his third or fourth back surgery.
- 11:39Wow.
- 11:40Uh, fourth knee surgery, he was using a walker.
- 11:43I mean, it was 60, almost 60 years old, and even way better than being on opioids.
- 11:48And that was the issue was that he'd been prescribed opioids for a long time.
- 11:51But as a service member, you cannot use marijuana.
- 11:54And look, I understand that the letter of the law is can't use marijuana.
- 11:59I understand that maybe there were other avenues that he
- 12:01could have sought to try and get alternatives or something like that.
- 12:05But under the, the veil of, of 30 plus years of military service and
- 12:09what one of the sons that he had recruited into the military had
- 12:12passed, uh, was killed in action.
- 12:14He had given this country so much and I jumped on the case.
- 12:19I was super excited to not just tell his story, um, but also try to identify.
- 12:26Where the, the system had had failed him, and one of them was, yes, he
- 12:30had a number of positive tests.
- 12:34However, the way in which those tests were collected weren't correct.
- 12:38So I filed a motion before the judge could even rule on the motion
- 12:42to exclude a number of the tests.
- 12:43The government called me, we tend to agree, so they reduced it down from the
- 12:47seven or eight charges he had to one.
- 12:49And then we were arguing over her whether he gets to retire at his
- 12:52current rank or one rank below.
- 12:54And by the time we told the judge everything he had done, the
- 12:56judge goes, no rank reduction.
- 12:58Absolutely not.
- 12:59Wow.
- 12:59Yeah.
- 13:00But it takes that diligence to be able to fight for someone, learn the human story.
- 13:03We talk.
- 13:03I mean, this is why like it's a perfect transition for you.
- 13:05'cause it's the same thing.
- 13:06You learn the human story, the why, and then you can, you can work backwards.
- 13:10Man.
- 13:10That's, that's awesome.
- 13:11Shit.
- 13:11So like what are another issue?
- 13:13I mean, 'cause you were down in El Paso.
- 13:15Do you guys, did you ever have to deal with.
- 13:18Um, any type of immigration issue 'cause you're so close to the border.
- 13:21So being in federal court, I got to see, and I was, um, I made great relationships.
- 13:28I was, I was really able to connect with the people, the US Attorney's office,
- 13:31many of whom were former military members or, or current reservists.
- 13:35Um, and so they deal with the immigration issue of unlawful re reentries.
- 13:40I got to see, uh.
- 13:42Two separate trials where they were trying multiple members from
- 13:44the same incident where they were collected and things like that.
- 13:47Um, and I had actually in law school, um, I had interned for a
- 13:52judge at that courthouse in that federal courthouse for a summer.
- 13:55So I, I got to see quite a number of how regularly unlawful
- 13:59reentry cases popped up.
- 14:01Um, from the military side.
- 14:03I didn't.
- 14:04Touched those very much.
- 14:06There was brief moments where there, there was a correlation between
- 14:10involvement of military members and, um, crimes that were being investigated
- 14:14by the US Attorney's Office.
- 14:15So there was joint, uh, law enforcement investigation through.
- 14:19The, um, border Patrol, Homeland Security, the FBI and the militaries, um, criminal
- 14:27Investigations division, or CID and then as kind of the bridge between military
- 14:31prosecutors and the federal prosecutors, I would be looped in to try to understand,
- 14:36Hey, do you need assistance from us?
- 14:38Or is this something we need to take on?
- 14:40Are we dividing prosecution?
- 14:42Because anybody who's subject to the UCMJ can be prosecuted
- 14:46in a me, um, military court.
- 14:48Doesn't have to happen on a military installation.
- 14:49Doesn't have to happen.
- 14:51Um, just when you're, you're, you know, on base on duty.
- 14:56You're on duty 24 7.
- 14:58Um, and so there were some correlations.
- 15:01There were some cases that popped up where.
- 15:03A service member may have been involved or something like that,
- 15:05but nothing that I prosecuted.
- 15:06Well,
- 15:06I've seen some stuff in this, in the, the news where like, people that served the
- 15:10Mil US military were getting deported.
- 15:12Like, how does that happen?
- 15:14So I did have one client where this was kinda the case.
- 15:17So, um, and I don't know this this system perfectly, but I, I have
- 15:21a, a general understanding of it.
- 15:22So when I was stationed at Fort Leavenworth.
- 15:25One of the key things that occurs there is that the Army's, uh, rehearing
- 15:29center of excellence occurs there.
- 15:30So if a case is overturned on appeal and sent back to the trial court, they
- 15:35don't go back to the original courthouse.
- 15:37They don't go to the original jurisdiction or the original installation.
- 15:40They retrial all the cases at Fort Lor.
- 15:43Um, so I had a client who had, was very early into his military service,
- 15:47but had served about a year, and then he was convicted of a crime
- 15:50that was then over overturned.
- 15:52He came back to us and.
- 15:56I was working with the prosecutors as trying to understand whether there was
- 15:59a deal to be made on the, on the case, and my client was not a US citizen.
- 16:05Um, and what is required is a hundred days of honorable service.
- 16:12At a hundred days of honorable service in the United States military, you can
- 16:14apply for citizenship and it goes through your chain of command, who then sign
- 16:18off and submit the proper paperwork that then processes for your citizenship.
- 16:22Wait, I did not know this.
- 16:24So non-US citizens can get into the armed forces.
- 16:28Yes.
- 16:29And if they do a hundred days.
- 16:31They can actually apply for citizenship.
- 16:32Correct.
- 16:33Doesn't that sound like a fantastic opportunity?
- 16:35It is.
- 16:35Was presented.
- 16:36I did not know that.
- 16:36And it's one that's, that is exercised quite a bit.
- 16:39I, I served with quite a few individuals who did not have US citizenship
- 16:43when they joined and did that as a means, as a path towards citizenship.
- 16:46Wow.
- 16:47Yeah.
- 16:47Um, and then that ended up being a huge fighting point
- 16:51over his case, which was, um.
- 16:54We couldn't, we couldn't plead.
- 16:57There was no plea to be had because if you pled guilty to any offense, his service is
- 17:00not honorable at that stage, and he would lose the ability to gain citizenship.
- 17:04Um, fortunately for him, the facts were on his side as far as
- 17:09a, he did not commit the crime.
- 17:12I fought tooth and nail because the government.
- 17:17The prosecutors view the case differently is it may not be something that we
- 17:21can prosecute in a criminal case and, and, you know, uh, prosecute
- 17:25to beyond a reasonable doubt, but we can take into an administrative
- 17:27separation where the, the standard of proof is a preponderance of the
- 17:31evidence and we can get him kicked out.
- 17:34And I. Rose quite raised quite a bit of a stink over that case.
- 17:41I submitted one of those Article 1 38 complaints to the two Star General at my
- 17:45installation when, oh no, I apologize.
- 17:47Three Star General.
- 17:48And when he said no to doing what I asked, I had to raise it to a four star level.
- 17:53Um, and.
- 17:56I, I threw my name quite a bit out there.
- 17:59We filed with the appellate court Ritz for, for habeas corpus.
- 18:02Um, and ultimately he was found even at the administrative level
- 18:08not to have committed misconduct.
- 18:09Wow.
- 18:09He was released, honorably, paid back for the time that he served in jail.
- 18:14Um, and.
- 18:16The last time that I saw you when we had dinner in Arizona, I had just
- 18:19gotten a text from him that he was boarding his flight to New York to
- 18:22go be with his family and that his citizenship application was already in.
- 18:25Man, that's powerful.
- 18:26Yeah.
- 18:27Wow, man, that's such a, I mean, that's a very life changing moment.
- 18:31I, I have.
- 18:31Wow.
- 18:32I have that text.
- 18:33How long did you have that case?
- 18:40Seven months.
- 18:40Six.
- 18:41Seven months.
- 18:41Wow.
- 18:42Yeah, and I mean, I did not know.
- 18:45That was a path.
- 18:45So when we're hearing stuff in the news that people that are served or getting
- 18:49deported, so that likely means that they got this path to citizenship and
- 18:54they did some way to say, you committed a crime, now we're gonna revoke.
- 18:57I mean, it has to be something like that.
- 18:58So I, I could see many avenues.
- 19:00I could see, um, that they were discharged and their, their period of
- 19:03service was not considered honorable.
- 19:05Um, I could see it as, you know, in the case of my client, he'd already
- 19:08served more than that a hundred days before he had been taken to trial.
- 19:12Um.
- 19:13The paperwork hadn't been completed.
- 19:15And if that's the case, then you know, more concerning as to where's the
- 19:20bottleneck, where's the restriction?
- 19:21And I can't say for sure whether it's the individual who has the responsibility
- 19:26to, to, you know, push their thing ahead.
- 19:28Or did somebody leave it on a desk?
- 19:30Have you, I mean, I Do you think anybody's out there just enlisting in the u
- 19:34enlisting in the US Army solely for the purpose of getting US citizenship and
- 19:38just doing it for a nefarious purpose.
- 19:40Is
- 19:40No, no.
- 19:41Well, uh, do we have systems designed to ensure that somebody
- 19:44isn't joining the military to try to gain access to something that
- 19:47is a matter of national security?
- 19:48Absolutely.
- 19:49Do.
- 19:50I, as I stated, I work, I, I had the pleasure of serving with individuals
- 19:55who were, you know, citizens of other countries or seeking citizenship
- 19:59in the United States, and they were always incredibly high integrity
- 20:05individuals, high work ethic, and.
- 20:08A pleasure to be around.
- 20:09So, man, this is such a good step.
- 20:11All right, so where, how do people find Captain Spencer Wolf?
- 20:14What's the best way to contact you now?
- 20:15Uh, so, uh, I'm certain that I will probably have a Sweet
- 20:18James email coming up soon.
- 20:20Um, I, on my state bar profile at the State of California, um, I have
- 20:25always listed my personal email.
- 20:27So as much as that thing is starting to get a little bit flooded
- 20:30as time goes on, uh, Spencer c Wolf, Spencer cWolf@gmail.com
- 20:35is an easy way to contact me.
- 20:37I've.
- 20:38Been a huge fan of mentorship.
- 20:40Um, that's something I've been blessed by.
- 20:42I talked about you, I've talked to, um, talked about the people that
- 20:45helped me get into law school and they helped me navigate that avenue.
- 20:47And so I've always wanted to try and give back.
- 20:50I've tried to help mentor individuals who are interested about the JAG
- 20:52course, so if anybody has questions about that, they're, they're more
- 20:54than welcome to reach out to me.
- 20:55Awesome.
- 20:56Well, welcome to the quasi civilian field.
- 20:58I mean, you're gonna be full on private, but still in the military.
- 21:01It's awesome.
- 21:02Well, thank you for watching, listening to this episode, the Justice Team Network.
- 21:05The Just team podcast.
- 21:07The just team network.
- 21:07But man, there's so much stuff that I learned this episode that
- 21:09I'm gonna deploy immediately.
- 21:11Thanks brother.
- 21:12Thank you.