A Navy Chief Petty Officer hosted a dinner at his home, inviting over a coworker and her boyfriend. The female coworker accused the Chief of slapping her on the butt while cleaning up after dinner. After being investigated by NCIS for abusive sexual contact, the Chief retained an Article 120 UCMJ sexual assault lawyer Tim Bilecki, who began working on the case.
The NCIS investigation concluded, and the Chief was offered NJP by the command. After reviewing the evidence against him, he turned down the NJP and demanded a trial by court martial. While this is not a tactic we often advise, the evidence in this case was flimsy at best, and we believed that if the case went to a court martial, it would have resulted in a not guilty verdict. Even though we turned down the NJP, charges were never preferred, and the case was sent instead to an administrative separation board. Bilecki represented the Chief at the administrative separation board, and the board found no basis for misconduct and retained the Navy Chief.
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