Plea Deal Includes Admission to Multiple Charges
Travis King, the U.S. Army private who made headlines by running into North Korea last year, will plead guilty to desertion and other charges as part of a plea deal, his attorney Franklin Rosenblatt announced on Monday.
Details of the plea deal
King will admit guilt to five out of the 14 charges initially brought against him. According to Rosenblatt, King will plead guilty to one count of desertion, one count of assault on a non-commissioned officer, and three counts of disobeying a lawful order. The remaining nine charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice will be withdrawn and dismissed.
Michelle McCaskill, spokesperson for the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel, confirmed the plea deal but withheld specific details. “Pvt. King has agreed to plead guilty; however, further details are not releasable at this time as the guilty plea is subject to acceptance by the military judge,” she stated.
Background of the incident
The charges against King stem from a series of troubling events before his dramatic sprint across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea on July 18, 2023. At the time, King was 23 years old and had just completed 48 days of imprisonment in South Korea for allegations including assault and public property damage.
King’s mother, Claudine Gates, has expressed concerns about her son’s mental health during his deployment. “A mother knows her son, and I believe something happened to mine while he was deployed,” she said in October.