Bilecki Examines Alleged Image Distribution; Camp Pendleton Investigation Closes Without Charges

Bilecki Examines Alleged Image Distribution; Camp Pendleton Investigation Closes Without Charges

December 2023

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California

Marine Lance Corporal – E-3

Allegations: UCMJ Article 117a Wrongful Broadcast or Distribution of Intimate Visual Images

Facts

This was a Marine Lance Corporal at Camp Pendleton under an active NCIS investigation for Article 117a wrongful broadcast or distribution of intimate visual images. Maximum exposure if the matter moved to court martial: years of confinement, federal felony exposure, and a punitive discharge.

A Military Protective Order had issued in October 2023 restraining contact with the named civilian protected person.

Our client retained Bilecki at the investigation stage, before any charges were preferred.

The defense focused on what our client had allegedly distributed. The couple had created and exchanged images during their relationship, but consent to that private exchange did not authorize sending them to someone else. Bilecki reviewed the messages and images to distinguish those exchanges from the later distribution allegation. We presented the chronology and the gaps in proof of the claimed transmission while the investigation was still open.

The matter closed pre-preferral.

No charges. No NJP. No administrative separation.

Result: No charges preferred. No NJP. No administrative separation. Matter closed pre-preferral.

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FAQ

Q: What did the defense challenge in the image-distribution allegation?
Tim examined the actual messages and image history to identify what had been shared, with whom and in what context. The fact that the former couple created images together was background. The issue was whether the evidence supported the wrongful distribution alleged in the report.

Q: Did the investigation’s closure also cancel the protective order?
The recorded result was no charges, NJP or administrative separation. The protective order was a separate command action. This account does not establish when it ended, so it does not claim that closure of the investigation automatically lifted it.