LEIGHTON MEESTER - MEESTER'S BROTHER AVOIDED LIFE SENTENCE IN SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE

MEESTER'S BROTHER AVOIDED LIFE SENTENCE IN SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE

GOSSIP GIRL star LEIGHTON MEESTER's troubled family life has been exposed once again - reports have surfaced alleging her brother avoided a potential life prison sentence in 2004 after becoming involved in a high-profile sex scandal. Meester publicly revealed last year (08) she was born in a halfway house in between her mother's federal prison stays following convictions for her involvement with a drug ring that smuggled shipments of marijuana into the United States from Jamaica.
She was released in 1986 after serving 16 months of a 10 year sentence.
In May 2003, writer Julie Jargon began detailing the trial of Air Force cadet Douglas Meester, then accused of raping and sodomising a female cadet during his sophomore year in the Air Force Academy.
Reporting on Denver, Colorado blog The West Word, she wrote: "(The victim) says she was too weak to resist and doesn't recall ever saying 'no.' However, she told investigators that she 'knew for a fact that he probably thought what we were doing was consensual.'"
In a July 2003 follow-up, Jargon added: "New Commandant Of Cadets Brigadier General Johnny Weida ordered the court-martial for Douglas Meester, a sophomore cadet whom (a) freshman... had accused of assaulting her after they had both been drinking and making out in his dorm room last year... even though the Article 32 hearing officer recommended against it, saying there was insufficient evidence."
The rape charge was dropped in June 2004 in exchange for Meester's guilty plea to "conduct unbecoming of an officer, dereliction of duty, and committing an indecent act". He was fined $2000 (£1,430) and received a written reprimand.
The Denver Post, refraining from mentioning the actress by name, reported on the trial: "Members of Meester's family cried in each other's arms after Air Force Colonel Barbara Brand announced the sentence. Had he been convicted of the original rape charge, he could have gotten life."