There exists the reasonable expectation that every officer be able to always present themselves as a gentleman, but we know deep down in our hearts that this is not altogether true. Life is messy, and so are relationships. The brass on your uniform does very little to change that. This is the case of an Army Captain who was falsely accused of sexual assault under Article 120 of the UCMJ and domestic violence under Article 128 of the UCMJ.
This Captain saved his career because he invoked his rights early in the process once the accusations had been leveled, retaining court martial attorney Timothy Bilecki. This is important because Bilecki’s defense team was able to guide the Officer through the extensive command and the CID investigation, utilizing our vast years of experience in the military justice system. One slip-up on his part and military prosecutors would have smelled blood in the water. Like sharks, they would have devoured an honorable Officer while just calling it lunch.
Bilecki gathered critical evidence that military prosecutors wouldn’t take the time to collect and interviewed witnesses for the purpose of discovering the truth. In our experience, if you told a military prosecutor that evidence that the man they are prosecuting is innocently rested behind the door in front of them, they’d sit down and smoke a cigarette until the court martial is over.
After extensive conversations with the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) and considering our investigation, charges were not even preferred on the Captain, who was on the precipice of having his life destroyed. This is remarkable because the UCMJ would have wrecked this man’s life if he didn’t fight back. Now, he’s where he should be, and that is in the fight for this nation’s security. Justice was served, truth reigned supreme, and this nation is safer because of that fact.
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