Attorneys for U.S. Army Pvt. Travis King are preparing a vigorous defense as the 23-year-old Racine native who dashed into North Korea in July now faces multiple charges in a military court.
King, who returned to the United States last month, is charged with desertion, assault against officers and solicitation of child pornography, according to a military charge sheet first reported by Reuters.
The charges were filed Sunday and King was notified Wednesday. He is now in pre-trial confinement at a civilian facility outside Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas, according to his attorneys.
Previously, King had been undergoing reintegration procedures at Fort Sam Houston, near San Antonio.
“His spirits are OK,” said Sherry Bunn, King’s El Paso-based attorney. “He is a 23-year-old man. He has been through a lot and is going through a lot.”
Bunn said she has “grave concerns that he will be OK,” in pre-trial confinement. A hearing will likely be held next week on King’s status at the facility. The defense team is seeking King’s return to his unit while the legal process continues.
“The conditions there are horrible and it amounts to basically putting him in solitary confinement right after he’s returned from captivity,” said King’s lead attorney, Franklin D. Rosenblatt.
Rosenblatt defended Bowe Bergdahl during court martial proceedings after the Army sergeant walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held for five years by the Taliban.
King faces eight charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
King was charged with leaving the Army in South Korea on July 18 “without authority” and that he “did remain so absent in desertion until on or about 27 September 2023.”
He was charged with soliciting a Snapchat user on July 10, 2023 to “knowingly and willingly produce child pornography.” He was also charged with “knowingly and wrongfully” possessing child pornography.
Several of the other charges against King include accusations of leaving his base in South Korea after curfew, consuming alcohol and striking a second lieutenant and a staff sergeant in October, 2022.
Rosenblatt said “there are long-standing U.S. interests and policies regarding how we treat our soldiers when they return from captivity. Basically, we’ve got the code of conduct and in a lot of these things that say, we want soldiers to do all they can to try to get back home.
“And this is really an aberration in this case where the Army said, you know what, we’re just going to Hoover up everything about you, investigate as hard as we can, throw it all against you and see what sticks. This is really not the way we have handled before our soldiers when they’ve been held in enemy captivity.”
King is a 2020 graduate of Racine’s Park High School. He enlisted in the military in 2021 and became a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division.
King crossed the border from South Korea on July 18 while on a civilian tour of the demilitarized zone.
At the time, King had been scheduled to fly to Fort Bliss, where he was expected to face a disciplinary hearing related to a 47-day sentence he served for assault in South Korea. He was supposed to get on a flight to the United States but left the airport before boarding his plane.
Seventy-one days after entering the country North Korean authorities expelled King. Little is known about what occurred during his captivity.
More:North Korea says Racine soldier Travis King wants refuge in North Korea due to ‘unequal American society’
After his release, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said U.S. officials “secured the return” of King from North Korea and confirmed that Sweden and China helped with the effort.
In a statement, King’s mother, Claudine Gates, asked that her son “be afforded the presumption of innocence” and expressed concern about his mental health.
“The man I raised, the man I dropped off at boot camp, the man who spent the holidays with me before deploying did not drink,” she said. “A mother knows her son, and I believe something happened to mine while he was deployed.”
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