Case Result: Marines and Sexual Assault

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Marines and sexual assault allegations account for a good portion of cases as military court martial defense attorneys. From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, Marines are going to get him in trouble with the UCMJ before taps plays tonight. That being said, what we are seeing in the era of the military’s Sexual Harassment/Assault and Prevention (SAPR) campaign is complete nonsense and nothing highlights that more than the case of a Marine at Camp Foster Okinawa.

This Marine was at an Airbnb party hosted by his ex-girlfriend. Now, what did this Marine do when attending a party hosted by your ex? Well, he hooked up with her best friend, of course. The Marine and his ex’s bestie headed to a room and they start to throw down. That’s when another Marine walked and saw the girl on top of the Marine riding him like she’s trying to win a belt buckle at a local rodeo. The Marine gave his buddy a thumbs up and the rodeo continued.

Meanwhile, another Marine walked in and freaked out because of the relationship between the girl and the ex-girlfriend who was hosting. The Marine told the ex and this resulted in a cluster of epic proportions that caused the sex to stop. Remarkably, the party carried on and the drinking resumed. Later that night, the girl who was engaging in the sex acts puked because of drinking too much alcohol.

As the party ended, the girl still wanted a piece of the Marine, but they were too drunk to drive. So they spooned in the back of a car until they were sober enough to drive in the morning. When they woke up, they made their way back to base where the Marines had consensual sex two more times that morning in the barracks. However, during the last session the Marine’s finished inside of her and she insisted he purchase some Plan B, which he did that morning.

Unfortunately, the Marine noticed something burning a week later and he was diagnosed with Chlamydia. The Marine lost his mind and told just about everyone in the barracks that the girl was sleeping around with everyone and that she gave him Chlamydia. Not the classiest move, but then again, Marines watching each other’s backs can be argued here.

Approximately 9 months went by without any fuss, but rumors of the night’s interactions had been swirling. One full year after the events described, our Marine came across the girl in a bar with another Marine. He gave that Marine a solid heads up about what was in his future, but the other Marine chose to fight over the matter. It was only then, one year later, that the girl accused him of sexual assault. Keep in mind that this is one year later after she was caught on top of him at the AirBn, spooned with him in the back of a car, and then sobered up only to have sex two more times the following morning in her barracks room.

Unfortunately in the era of SAPR, facts like those don’t matter to NCIS or commands. They were intent on railroading our Marine. Thankfully, the Marine retained sex assault court martial lawyer Tim Bilecki. The case was headed to court martial because the command was intent on destroying this Marine and the Marine was simultaneously intent on proving his innocence.

Charges were preferred at a general court martial and Bilecki fought for this Marine at every turn and absolutely destroyed the prosecution’s case. We fought the case at the Article 32 preliminary hearing and filed literally 100s of pages of motions in preparation for the trial. We won every single motion we filed and absolutely made the prosecution look ridiculous. With just two weeks left before the trial, the prosecution gave up. We literally were so far ahead after the motions hearing that the government withdrew and dismissed all charges and specifications weeks before the court martial because they realized that we would destroy them at every turn during the trial. Not only were all charges withdrawn, but the Marine was able to reenlist and receive a promotion. As it turns out, he was a damn good Marine after all.