Bilecki Uses Messages and Conflicting Accounts to Remove Sexual-Contact Allegation from Airman’s Reprimand

Bilecki Uses Messages and Conflicting Accounts to Remove Sexual-Contact Allegation from Airman’s Reprimand

November 2022

Fort Gordon, Georgia (Air Combat Command, 305th Cyber Operations Squadron)

Air Force Technical Sergeant – E-6

Allegations: UCMJ Article 120 Abusive Sexual Contact; UCMJ Article 128 Assault; UCMJ Article 134 Unprofessional Relationship

Facts

This was an Air Force Technical Sergeant at Fort Gordon, a fluent Japanese linguist and intelligence analyst with a 5-and-a-half year Air Force career, under an AFOSI investigation for Article 120 abusive sexual contact, Article 128 assault, and Article 134 unprofessional relationship. Maximum exposure on a referred Article 120 abusive sexual contact conviction at general court martial: years of confinement, a possible punitive discharge, sex-offender-registration consequences and serious damage to his prospects for continued service.

The case did not start as a sexual assault.

For seven months, our client and his Flight Commander, an Air Force Captain, had been in a documented improper relationship. It started at a December 2020 squadron Christmas party. Through the spring and into the summer of 2021, the two had been in regular Slack and LinkedIn exchanges and deep workplace conversations about Japan and her marriage. On a mid July 2021 morning before sunrise, the two had a private hour long walk outside her subdivision that ended with hand holding and a kiss. The Captain had told our client about a prior LOR she had received during a deployment to Djibouti for the same kind of conduct. She told our client her marriage was over and that she was wrestling with the idea of a future with him.

The morning the report was made was the second time they had met outside her subdivision before sunrise.

That morning ended differently. The Captain had her phone up like she was filming. She left and walked quickly back toward her house. Our client called out to her that he loved her. Her husband came out of the house, asked our client what he was doing, told him to go home. Our client walked home.

Inside the house, the Captain told her husband: "I did everything I could to defend our marriage." Then she called her Squadron Commander at 0645 and reported a sexual assault.

That report was the basis for the AFOSI investigation, the AFOSI ROI, and the Squadron Commander's August 2022 Letter of Reprimand citing Articles 120, 128, and 134.

Our client retained Bilecki in September 2021, and Tim entered the case that month.

The defense rebuttal walked the documentary record alongside the AFOSI ROI.

The Captain's saved Slack messages from the night before the report were on the record. She had invited our client to meet her early the next morning: "If you're lucky you might find me walking the neighborhood dark and early tomorrow if you need someone to talk to." She had told the AFOSI Special Agent that the morning meeting was something she had mentioned at work as a casual walk invitation. The Slack record said otherwise. She had also failed to surface that invitation in the document she submitted to AFOSI.

Her own prior LOR for adultery during her Djibouti deployment was on the record. So was the Department of Defense Safe to Report policy, which the defense identified as a potential source of protection from collateral discipline for qualifying minor misconduct.

The forensic record did not match her account either. Our client had recently torn his ACL and could not run. Per AFOSI's own description of the surveillance footage the Captain herself provided, she had not been wearing a shirt at the time she alleged our client had reached under one. Her account of the alleged conduct shifted across her statement to her husband, her statement to her Squadron Commander, her statement to the Master Sergeant who was her go-between, and her sworn statement to AFOSI.

We put it in front of the Squadron Commander.

The Squadron Commander withdrew the original Letter of Reprimand. The replacement Letter of Reprimand stripped the Article 120 abusive sexual contact framing. The replacement LOR cited Articles 134 and 128 only. The narrowed citations covered an unprofessional relationship via Slack, LinkedIn, and personal email between late 2020 and mid 2021, and following the Captain on foot through her neighborhood on the morning of the report. A UIF placement document issued the same day under DAFI 36-2907.

No NJP. No court martial. No administrative separation. No demotion.

Court martial charges were never preferred.

Result: No court-martial charges preferred. Original LOR withdrawn and replaced with a reprimand citing Articles 128 and 134, without Article 120. UIF placement remained. No NJP, administrative separation or demotion.

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FAQ

Q: What evidence did Bilecki use to challenge the sexual-contact allegation?
We placed the saved invitation to meet beside the Captain’s later account of that invitation. We also compared her statements to different people, the description of the footage and our client’s ACL injury. The rebuttal identified the particular inconsistencies that mattered to the alleged contact, rather than asking the commander to accept a bare denial.

Q: What changed after the rebuttal?
The commander withdrew the original reprimand and issued a replacement that omitted the Article 120 allegation. The replacement still cited Articles 128 and 134, and a UIF placement document issued with it. Our client received no NJP, demotion or administrative separation, and no court-martial charges were preferred.