Guilty Plea From Military Porn Site

A second Army paratrooper pleaded guilty Monday to charges stemming from an investigation of soldiers who appeared on a military-themed pornographic Web site.

Pvt. Kagen B. Mullen, 21, one of seven members of the 82nd Airborne Division charged with appearing on the site, pleaded to charges of conduct detrimental to the Army and use of marijuana.

He told a judge he received $7,500 for appearing in the pornographic scenes but didn't perform homosexual acts, though the pornography on the Web site was mostly aimed at gays.

Mullen was sentenced to 90 days in prison, a bad conduct discharge and loss of two-thirds of his pay.

Last week, Pfc. Richard Ashley pleaded guilty to sodomy, using an unauthorized prescription drug and conduct detrimental to the Army. Ashley was sentenced to about 2½ months in prison.

A hearing is scheduled May 16 for Pfc. Wesley K. Mitten.

Four other paratroopers received non-judicial punishment, and the division recommended they be discharged. The soldiers, whose names weren't disclosed, were reduced to the rank of private, lost a half-month's pay for two months and were restricted to Fort Bragg for 45 days.

The 15,000 paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne are among the Army's most elite soldiers, having volunteered to serve in a unit that trains to deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours.

The Web site does not make any direct reference to the division or Fort Bragg, a sprawling post about 70 miles south of Raleigh.

"As far as we're concerned, it's isolated to the unit, and our investigation determined that these seven individuals were the only ones" involved, said 82nd Airborne spokesman Maj. Thomas Earnhardt earlier this year.

The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy states that "homosexual orientation alone is not a bar to service, but homosexual conduct is incompatible with military service." Service members who violate the policy are removed from the military.