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Tim Bilecki

Attempted Sexual Assault of a Minor, Communicating Indecent Language to a Minor (Sting Operation Case)

Case Results

  • Not guilty of attempted sexual assault of a minor

Location

  • Joint Base Pearl Harbor, Hickam

Branch of Military and Rank

  • Air Force 
  • E-5

Charges:

Charges were preferred against our client when he answered a deceptive ad posted by Hawaii’s OSI in the “casual encounters” section of Craigslist. The ad in question was for a no-strings-attached relationship. Nowhere in the ad was age mentioned.

Our client, an Air Force E-5, answered the ad and began chatting with the undercover OSI agent. The agent stated that “she” was only 15 years old, but our client did not believe the person he was chatting with and thought he may be getting “catfished”.

OSI then sent multiple pictures of an adult female to our client and he believed the person he was chatting with was an adult based on those pictures. Our client requested a meeting prior to engaging in any sexual activity to verify that he was speaking with an adult.

OSI then sent a 28-year-old Technical Sergeant as the decoy girl to meet our client at the Hickam Gym. Content that the person he was speaking with was not underage, our client agreed via text to meet up a hotel room on base.

When our client arrived at the hotel room he was arrested, taken into custody, interrogated and charged with attempted sexual assault of a minor and communicating indecent language to a minor.

Military sexual assault lawyer, Timothy Bilecki, and his client turned down the 18-month plea deal that the government offered. At trial, the defense raised both entrapment and mistake of fact as to age defenses and pointed out the numerous flaws in OSI’s sting operation case.

The jury deliberated and found our client not guilty of attempted sexual assault of a minor. However, they did find him guilty of communicating indecent language to a minor (for language sent prior to when our client saw the 28 –year-old decoy). The jury sentenced our client to a Bad Conduct Discharge but NO Jail time.

Result:

  • Not guilty of attempted sexual assault of a minor

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Service Members Represented

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