Fired West Point commandant acquitted of drunk driving and disorderly conduct

An Army colonel who was dismissed in October as garrison commander for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, was found not guilty of drunken driving and disorderly conduct charges which forced him to resign from his command.

A federal jury acquitted Army Col. Anthony Bianchi of the two more serious charges he faced after he was arrested last July for driving through Thayer Gate at West Point without stopping for military police. The jury found him guilty of disobeying a stop sign, one of his attorneys told Task & Purpose on Wednesday.

Earlier in the evening, police said Bianchi had been “verbally abusive toward wait staff” in the military academy’s Eisenhower Hall, according to court documents.

On Sept. 13, a jury found Bianchi not guilty of the charges stemming from the incidents, but he was found guilty of disregarding a stop sign at Thayer Gate and fined $150, according to court documents posted in the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system.

“Last week marked the end of a 13-month period of uncertainty for my family,” Bianchi said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “The past year has been marked by a persistent sense of stress and anxiety, a crushing financial burden, and a persistent sense of shame and embarrassment for me and my family. Even after being marginalized personally and professionally, I have come to the conclusion that much of the struggle was unnecessary — I feel personally and professionally vindicated by this verdict and I look forward to now being able to focus on transitioning into retirement, now that this is fully behind me.”

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Bianchi was initially charged with misusing a government vehicle to drive from his home to the Army’s Eisenhower Hall for a personal event and then to the Thayer Hotel for drinks. That charge was later dropped, according to John L. Buckheit, his lead attorney.

In a quirk of the legal jurisdiction that applies to some military trials, the charges against Bianchi were brought under New York State law, but his trial was held in federal court under the Assimilative Crimes Act, which “makes state law applicable to conduct occurring on lands reserved or acquired by the Federal Government.” West Point is a federal military installation.

On the night Bianchi was arrested, the colonel refused to take a breathalyzer test, Buckheit said. An administrative law judge for the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles later ruled that the military police had improperly handled their request to test his blood alcohol content, ruling: “Defendant was taken from his residence without a warrant two hours after an incident at West Point, in violation of the Fourth Amendment, by friends recruited by lawmakers to lure him out.”

Military.com was the first to report Monday that Bianchi had been acquitted of charges of driving under the influence and disturbing the peace.

A contested night

The night that ended Bianchi’s time at West Point began with a police call to a mess hall and ended hours later when the same police officers spotted Bianchi driving through a gate on the base.

On July 22, 2023, the Provost Marshal’s Office at West Point dispatched two military police officers to Eisenhower Hall around 8:40 p.m. after receiving a call about a verbal altercation between Bianchi and the wait staff, court documents show.

According to police, Bianchi “was upset about the food he was given and was verbally aggressive toward (the waiter) and threatened to fire him,” according to court records. One of the officers said they saw Bianchi drinking “what appeared to be an alcoholic beverage,” smelled alcohol on Bianchi’s breath and noticed his speech was slurred.

At approximately 12:38 a.m. on July 23, 2023, both military police officers were at the Thayer Gate when Bianchi drove through the gate without stopping for security and without showing his identification. He then allegedly drove through a stop sign without stopping, court documents state.

At 1:35 a.m., the provost marshal and two of Bianchi’s colleagues arrived at Bianchi’s home, according to court records. Two subordinates asked him to speak to military police and he was taken to the police station, where he refused to have his blood alcohol content tested and asked to speak to an attorney. He was arrested for suspected drunk driving and was read his rights at 3:50 a.m.

Bianchi again refused to submit to a blood-alcohol test after receiving an order from the military police commander at 4:40 a.m., even though he was threatened with a charge of failure to obey an order under the Uniform Code of Military Justice if he did not comply, court records said. He was later released and shortly thereafter suspended from his position as garrison commander.

One of the military police officers later testified at Bianchi’s trial that he saw no signs that Bianchi was intoxicated at the Thayer Gate and that he had no reason to stop Bianchi after he drove through the gate, according to a partial transcript of the proceedings obtained by Task & Purpose.

In his statement to Task & Purpose, Bianchi acknowledged drinking alcohol on the evening of July 22, 2023, “But that was much earlier in the evening and the credible evidence presented at trial did not support the government’s allegation.”

Buanchi said he has submitted his request to resign and is awaiting the military’s response.

According to his official Army biography, Bianchi was commissioned as an artillery officer out of West Point in 1997. He deployed to Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2012. Before serving as a garrison commander at West Point, Bianchi was a professor in the systems engineering department there. He has also received a Bronze Star, the Army Achievement Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal, among other awards.

“I have had a long and fulfilling career leading and caring for our country’s greatest people, and I have no regrets,” Bianchi said. “I bear no grudge against the service or the U.S. Military Academy, an institution I have proudly supported and loved since graduating in 1997.”