An Army Sergeant was caught in an Air Force “To Catch a Predator” sting operation in Honolulu, Hawaii. In this case, an Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) agent was posting ads online and taking on the persona of a 15-year-old boy looking for sex. The Army Sergeant was arrested after arriving at the bait house on Joint Base Pearl Harbor – Hickam, Hawaii.
After being arrested, the case was transferred to the Army Criminal Investigative Division (CID), where a forensic examination of the Sergeant’s phone was conducted. The digital forensic examination found child pornography on Sergeant’s phone. He was subsequently charged with attempted sexual assault of a child, attempted lewd act on a child, and possession of child pornography
Tim Bilecki, an established court martial defense attorney in Hawaii, was retained and filed a motion to suppress the suspected child pornography found on our client’s phone, which had been obtained without a proper warrant. The military judge granted the suppression motion in full.
Mr. Bilecki then leveraged that suppression motion and obtained a pre-trial agreement for our client. According to the pre-trial agreement, the most serious offenses — attempted sexual assault of a child and possession of child pornography — would be dismissed in exchange for a plea of guilty to the attempted lewd act on a child (sending sexual text messages) with a confinement cap of 12 months.
This pre-trial agreement was accepted, and our client escaped a conviction for the two most serious charges against him.
Defending Service Members Globally
Wherever Duty Calls, Our Defense Follows
