An Air Force major accused by the military of having a lesbian affair was acquitted of sodomy, a verdict her lawyer called a "courageous judgment" and a victory for privacy rights.
Maj. Debra L. Meeks, 41, was accused of having a two-year, live-in relationship with civilian Pamela Dillard, who the defense called an untruthful predator bent on destroying a military career.Meeks also was acquitted of conduct unbecoming an officer, a charge stemming from Dillard's claim that the major had threatened her with a gun.
Meeks put her head in her hands, slumped in a chair and hugged her lawyer when the military jury's verdicts were read late Thursday night after seven hours of deliberation.
"I'm just glad this nightmare is over," a teary-eyed Meeks said as she emerged from the courtroom. "My dog is at home and I'd really like to go home to my dog."
Prosecutors had no comment.
Defense lawyer Michael Tigar said jurors - all officers of higher rank than Meeks - issued a "courageous judgment" that should encourage "all members of the military to seek only to serve their country honorably and to do so without undue and unwarranted prying into their private lives."
The military's 1994 "don't ask, don't tell" rule permits gays to serve as long as they don't have sex with service members and keep their sexual orientation and conduct private.
Sodomy, defined under military law, is "unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex."
Meeks has refused publicly to disclose her sexual orientation, and again declined to discuss it after the court-martial. "It's my personal, private life," she said.
Dillard testified that she and Meeks began having a sexual relationship in Virginia in 1992 and continued after Meeks transferred to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Dillard claims she eventually moved to San Antonio at the request of Meeks and was "her wife, essentially."
Tigar, however, said just because Meeks let Dillard live in her home while Dillard did free-lance work and studied for an exam to enter medical school did not mean the two had an affair.
Dillard testified the relationship began crumbling in 1994 and that a female air force officer become involved with Meeks.
Jonie Isner, a prosecution witness and longtime friend of Dil-lard, said she attended an "engagement party" for Dillard and Meeks in April 1992.