In August 2019, a Marine Gunnery Sergeant stationed at MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, found himself under investigation for obstruction of justice and assault following an altercation with his ex-girlfriend, a Japanese national.
The Marine Gunnery Sergeant was in a relationship with a Japanese girl he met out in Okinawa. The Marine only wanted the relationship to last while he was at Iwakuni, the Japanese girl had different ideas. She couldn’t figure out why he kept stalling about taking the relationship to the next level, until she figured out that he had another girl back in the States. This didn’t go well, and a heated verbal argument ensued and when she threatened to turn over the text messages she had on her phone to his command, the Gunny acted. He then took her phone and threw it in the river they were standing next to. He thought the problem was solved, but that just caused more drama. Later in the evening after making up and a promise to replace the phone, another argument ensued. This time it was at her place and happened while drinking. She had placed her clothes in the building washing machine and the Gunny decided to exact some revenge by pissing in the laundry machine during the wash cycle. We can say this was caught on cctv and was one of the best Marine Corps case videos we had seen in a long while. When that came to light, the relationship was over, and she did go to his command. The command placed him under investigation for an assault related to grabbing the phone and larceny for throwing it into a river and obstruction of justice for the same event.
Understanding that his career was on the line, he retained Iwakuni court martial defense attorney Tim Bilecki. We reviewed the videos, had a chuckle, then interviewed his Japanese girlfriend. She later decided not to cooperate with the government and ended up getting back with him. The command took everything in stride, and against the advice of the SJA, simply have him a 6015 and called it a day.
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