An Army officer who led an ROTC program at a California university was handed a reprimand this week after pleading guilty to hiding a camera in a changing room at a clothing store.
Lt. Col. Jacob Sweatland, who formerly led California Polytechnic State University’s ROTC program and served as a senior instructor, was arrested in September 2022 after being caught hiding a camera in a changing room at a PacSun, a clothing retailer predominantly for teens and young adults, at Pismo Beach, California.
According to reporting from the San Luis Obispo Tribune, a girl found the camera while changing. Sweatland later called the store, asking whether they had found his “key fob.” When he came to the store, he was met by authorities and fled on foot but was later taken into custody. Army officials swiftly fired him from his ROTC position.
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Reprimands are administrative censures, effectively about as low on the totem pole of military justice as punishments go, and act as career blemishes.
“Col. Jacob J. Sweatland was convicted by a military judge, pursuant to his pleas, of one specification of indecent visual recording and one specification of conduct unbecoming an officer in violation of Articles 120c and 133, UCMJ,” Ian Ives, a spokesperson for U.S. Army Cadet Command, told Military.com in a statement. “The military judge sentenced the…
