A Marine Corps Staff Sergeant became ensnared in a law enforcement sting operation in Hawaii when he responded to a fake ad placed on Craigslist by the NCIS agents. Similar to many other sting operations throughout the region, an NCIS agent sends photos of a woman in her 20s claiming that she was under the legal age limit for consensual sexual relations. If a service member ignored her claims and chose to meet, he would be arrested, interrogated, and charged with attempted sexual assault of a minor.
In the case of the Marine Staff Sergeant, a confession was made to law enforcement once he was taken into custody. Law enforcement also seized and searched his phone, finding other contraband items.
The Marine initially sought an Article 120 UCMJ sexual assault attorney in Japan, Tim Bilecki, to obtain a more acceptable pre-trial agreement from the government, which insisted on no less than 5 years in prison. After digging into the case’s details, Bilecki became convinced it could be fought with an entrapment defense. Not only was the NCIS agent misleading the accused by claiming she was underage, but she was the one to take the conversation in a sexual direction, not the accused.
Bilecki used this information as leverage in the pre-trail negotiations and was ultimately able to secure a pre-trial agreement with a cap on confinement of 14 months with deferral of forfeitures for 6 months. This agreement allowed our client’s family to continue receiving pay for six months while he was in confinement.
Defending Service Members Globally
Wherever Duty Calls, Our Defense Follows
