Home Décor with Stolen Goods
If every time you punished your Sailors you received something you wanted, how hard and how often would you discipline your Sailors? Senior Leaders are responsible for discipline and the enforcement of rules and regulations in a wide variety of situations. Using discipline that benefits the leader administering it, directly undermines the trust and respect of any Sailor who had knowledge of the unethical behavior. This paper discusses the background and impact of an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) who made the unethical decision to claim the skull and horns of a trophy bighorn sheep recovered during a case he prosecuted as his own.
Background
An AUSA in Arizona named Vargas (Potts, 1995) prosecuted a hunter who illegally poached a trophy bighorn sheep on Indian Reservation Property. As part of the punishment administered by the court, the hunter surrendered the skull and horns he had mounted as a trophy by a taxidermist to Arizona Game and Fish Law Enforcement Officials. Following the successful prosecution, Vargas requested Arizona Game and Fish’s permission to temporarily maintain possession of and display the mounted skull and horns of the trophy animal, …show more content…
Upon leaving his AUSA office, he decided to take the skull and horns with him, claiming them as his own personal property. When questioned about the source of the mounted trophy, he falsely described it as a gift from a Native American who lived on the Indian Reservation where the hunter had poached the animal. A follow on investigation resulted in his forfeiture of the trophy, and Vargas pleading guilty to violation of 18 United Stated Code 209 that states salaries of Government Officials are payable only by the United States. (Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure, 2016)
With an understanding of the background behind the attorney’s actions, what is the implication of these unethical actions and the attempt to
If every time you punished your Sailors you received something you wanted, how hard and how often would you discipline your Sailors? Senior Leaders are responsible for discipline and the enforcement of rules and regulations in a wide variety of situations. Using discipline that benefits the leader administering it, directly undermines the trust and respect of any Sailor who had knowledge of the unethical behavior. This paper discusses the background and impact of an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) who made the unethical decision to claim the skull and horns of a trophy bighorn sheep recovered during a case he prosecuted as his own.
Background
An AUSA in Arizona named Vargas (Potts, 1995) prosecuted a hunter who illegally poached a trophy bighorn sheep on Indian Reservation Property. As part of the punishment administered by the court, the hunter surrendered the skull and horns he had mounted as a trophy by a taxidermist to Arizona Game and Fish Law Enforcement Officials. Following the successful prosecution, Vargas requested Arizona Game and Fish’s permission to temporarily maintain possession of and display the mounted skull and horns of the trophy animal, …show more content…
Upon leaving his AUSA office, he decided to take the skull and horns with him, claiming them as his own personal property. When questioned about the source of the mounted trophy, he falsely described it as a gift from a Native American who lived on the Indian Reservation where the hunter had poached the animal. A follow on investigation resulted in his forfeiture of the trophy, and Vargas pleading guilty to violation of 18 United Stated Code 209 that states salaries of Government Officials are payable only by the United States. (Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure, 2016)
With an understanding of the background behind the attorney’s actions, what is the implication of these unethical actions and the attempt to