Case Result: Military Family Challenges

Military life is hard on families and it is true that spouses and children bear much of that burden as much as the service members themselves. You’d like to think that each adult involved would handle those trials with the utmost professionalism, but you have to remember that the average service member is pretty young. You’ve got adults who were just a few years prior who were minors themselves and now they are trying to balance multiple relocations, financial stressors, and all the conflict that comes with trying to keep a family together through it all. Family life is hard. Military family life is very hard.

An Army Specialist stationed at Camp Carroll found himself in such a crucible. He and his wife were going through a tumultuous season exacerbated by multiple relocations and long periods of separation due to deployments. There were additional domestic disturbances combined with involvement by Child Protective Services that pushed the relationship to a breaking point.

As the initiation of a divorce commenced, the Specialist then found himself facing serious allegations from his soon to be ex-wife. The charges included strangulation and sexual assault, though the timing of these allegations brought into question the motive. Criminal Investigation Division (CID) got involved and the young specialist wisely retained attorney Tim Bilecki to fight on his behalf.

Bilecki immediately went to work with his own investigation into the claims and used his experience working the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) office to assess the credibility of the claims. It became apparent early on that there were reasons to question the allegations as inconsistencies continued to arise. Bilecki was able to expertly navigate the military justice system and present the finding in such a clear and concise manner that charges were never preferred. The case was closed due to a lack of probable cause and the service was able to move without any further adverse action against his career.