Often in military law, the defense strategy will lead you to fight the mere premise of the charges and seek complete exoneration of the client. At other times, your client walks into a sting operation at a local motel and he’s recorded on video trying to pay a prostitute for sex. He wasn’t there to rescue her from a life of human trafficking, and he certainly didn’t accidentally walk into the wrong room. He was there to for a prostitute but got busted instead.
To make matters worse, this client was a Lieutenant Colonel stationed at MacDill AFB and stood to lose a great deal if this case made its way to a court martial. We’re not talking about an 18 year old PFC who is just going to get busted back down E-1. A court martial would have devastated this man’s career as his guilt was cbeyond contestation. Thankfully, the Lt. Colonel retained hard hitting military court martial defense attorney Tim Bilecki.
Bilecki immediately went to work and determined the right course of action was to help the Lt. Colonel navigate the military justice system to a point where the consequences were less severe. Bilecki skillfully advocated for his client drawing upon his 20 plus years of work with the military justice system. The reality is that, right or wrong, service members visit prostitutes around the world on a regular basis and some just get caught. The Lieutenant Colonel had an excellent career and this lapse in judgment shouldn’t take everything away from him.
As a result of Bilecki’s work, the Lieutenant Colonel ended up with a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand (GOMOR) and he was even able to ensure GOMOR was only filed locally. That’s a hell of a result for getting caught red handed soliciting prostitution. The Lieutenant Colonel likely won’t be pinning on his first General Star anytime soon, but at least he can retain his career, retirement, and his freedom.
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