Marine free after conviction tossed out

Marine free after conviction tossed out
San Diego Union Tribune - San Diego,CA,USA
Rape charge led to decade in prison
By Rick Rogers (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. March 14, 2009
Brian Foster
After spending a decade behind bars, a former Camp Pendleton Marine is now a free man because a military appeals court ruled that “a muddled, hearsay-based case” caused his spousal-rape conviction.
But anyone who thinks Brian Foster is bitter would be wrong. As Foster left the prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., on Feb. 20, he picked up his sergeant stripes and spoke candidly with his superiors.
“I told (them) I was happy to be back in the Marine Corps and that I'll go anywhere and do anything the Marine Corps wants me to,” Foster, 35, said during a phone interview yesterday from Belton, Mo. “I said I love my country and I love the Marine Corps and that unfortunately, these things happen in a free country.”
Foster was handed a cell phone to call his parents in Texas. It took him a while to admit that he didn't know how to use a cell phone.
“Heck, I didn't know how to turn it on,” he said.
His ordeal began when a military jury at Camp Pendleton convicted him of spousal rape and related charges on Dec. 3, 1999. He received a 17-year prison sentence.
But in a February ruling, a three-member appellate panel cited a host of problems with the prosecution's case:

There was no forensic evidence of the alleged rape.
Foster and his wife, Heather, continued having sex for years after the alleged rape and even made a sex tape together.
The rape accusation arose during a contentious divorce and custody battle for the couple's two boys.
The court-martial judge allowed misleading or unreliable testimony from three witnesses.
Foster's lead attorney handled the case poorly, such as not cross-examining a crucial witness.

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