FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — An Army colonel previously acquitted in Kansas civilian court of sexually abusing two young relatives is now facing a military court-martial for those same allegations—and additional accusations involving two more minors.
Col. Scott C. Nauman, 53, is being tried before a panel of officers at Fort Leavenworth from November 3 to November 7, 2025, according to Army court records. Nauman has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including three counts of sexual abuse of a child under Article 120b, one count of sexual assault under Article 120, and two additional counts of sexual abuse of a child.
Nauman, who has served in the Army since 1995 and was promoted to colonel in 2017, is assigned to the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth. The proceedings are being held under the jurisdiction of the 4th Judicial Circuit with the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth serving as the General Court-Martial Convening Authority.
Acquitted in Civilian Court Earlier This Year
The court-martial follows Nauman’s acquittal in March 2025 by a Leavenworth County jury, which found him not guilty of two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. That civilian case centered on accusations that Nauman inappropriately touched two of his young relatives—ages 11 and 15 at the time—between 2020 and 2022.
During that trial, both girls testified that Nauman gave them massages and measured them for bras in ways they described as uncomfortable and inappropriate. Prosecutors alleged that the behavior escalated to groping over and under clothing, though Nauman’s defense denied the claims and the jury ultimately acquitted him.
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New Allegations Reach Back to 2012
The military’s case, however, goes beyond the charges already heard in civilian court. According to Army Office of Special Trial Counsel spokeswoman Michelle McCaskill, the Army has jurisdiction to pursue additional alleged incidents that occurred on federal property—something state courts could not do.
Those new charges involve two other relatives who say Nauman sexually abused them roughly a decade earlier, between June and July 2012, while he was assigned to Fort Riley, Kansas, and Fort Drum, New York. Both women were younger than 16 at the time. The alleged abuse took place in and around a white trailer-based camper on those installations, according to court documents.
During Nauman’s civilian trial, the judge barred the jury from hearing testimony from these two adult relatives, who claimed to be former child victims. Prosecutors said the women would have testified that Nauman engaged in various acts of sexual abuse against them when they were minors.
Prosecutors appealed the judge’s decision, hoping the court would ultimately allow the jury to hear what they described as powerful testimony from the other alleged victims. That appellate fight delayed the trial for two years, and in the end, the judge maintained the decision to keep their testimony out.
Because the alleged camper incidents occurred on U.S. Army property at Fort Riley and Fort Drum, the Army can now bring those allegations into the military case, McCaskill said.
Prior Legal Battles Over Evidence
The Army case builds on a complex legal history stretching back several years. In a 2024 Kansas Court of Appeals decision, State of Kansas v. Nauman, the court reviewed the state’s failed attempt to introduce testimony from two adult relatives who claimed Nauman had molested them as children. The appeals court found that the lower court erred in excluding their testimony, ruling that Kansas law does not require “strict similarity” between past and current sex offenses for such evidence to be admissible.
That ruling opened the door for the Army to bring forward those same witnesses in its prosecution—something the civilian trial did not allow.
Nauman, a West Point graduate and Navy War College alumnus, has served in uniform for three decades. His career, once marked by leadership roles in the Army’s professional education system, is now overshadowed by the serious accusations that could end it in disgrace. If convicted, he faces the possibility of life in prison and dismissal from the service.
His attorney, Aimee Bateman of Leavenworth, has declined to comment publicly on the ongoing military proceedings.
The court-martial, set for November 3–7, 2025, is being held at Fort Leavenworth Courtroom, with Col. Larry Babin presiding as the military judge.
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