FORT STEWART, Ga. — An Army captain accused of strangling a young girl is headed back to court after backing out of a plea agreement and having his first trial end in a mistrial. Now, prosecutors have added another allegation involving an incident that allegedly occurred more than a year earlier in Hawaii.
Captain Lee T. Burk, assigned to the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, at Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, is facing three domestic violence charges involving a female family member under the age of 16.
His second court-martial is scheduled for January 11–14, 2027, at Fort Stewart.
Burk was originally charged in August 2025 after allegedly grabbing a young girl by the neck and strangling her with his hand during an incident near Savannah, Georgia, on January 10, 2025.
The case appeared to be heading toward a guilty plea earlier this year, but that changed when Burk withdrew from his plea agreement.
Michelle McCaskill, Director of Communications for the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel, confirmed to The Salty Soldier that Burk had been scheduled to plead guilty in January but instead chose to contest the charges.
His trial began in March before a panel of Army officers. Rather than reaching a verdict, the proceedings ended in a mistrial, and the original charges were dismissed.
The Army has not provided an explanation for what caused the mistrial.
On June 12, 2026, military prosecutors brought three new charges against him, including an allegation dating back to his time in Hawaii.
According to the newly obtained charge sheet, Burk is accused of grabbing a young girl by her ankles sometime between October 10 and December 31, 2023, at or near Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
The allegation was not included in the original charges and extends the accusations against Burk back more than a year before the reported incident in Georgia.
The two remaining charges accuse Burk of grabbing a female minor by the neck and strangling her with his hand near Savannah on or about January 11, 2025.
Both incidents involve a girl identified in the military charging documents as an immediate family member under the age of 16. The names are redacted, and the documents do not confirm whether all three charges involve the same child.
The Army has not disclosed when investigators learned about the alleged Hawaii incident or why it was not part of the original prosecution.
The addition of the Hawaii allegation means Burk is now accused of domestic violence involving incidents at two Army installations, separated by more than a year and thousands of miles.
Following the new charges, the Army scheduled another preliminary hearing and ultimately sent the case back to a general court-martial.
Burk appeared for arraignment on October 8, 2026, at Fort Stewart, where Lieutenant Colonel Todd M. Chard is listed as the military judge overseeing the case.
The prosecution is led by Captain Jacqueline M. Dieguez, while Captain Anthony J. Scarpati serves as Burk’s lead defense attorney.
Two additional hearings are scheduled for October 20 and November 20, with the trial set to begin January 11, 2027.
The Army’s public docket has not yet identified whether Burk intends to plead guilty or contest the new charges before another panel.
For now, the captain who once appeared headed toward a guilty plea is preparing to face trial again, this time with an additional allegation of violence against a child.
Burk is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The Salty Soldier will continue following the case as it moves toward trial in January.
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