Bilecki Investigates Camp Pendleton Allegation; Sexual Assault and Order Cases End Without Action

Bilecki Investigates Camp Pendleton Allegation; Sexual Assault and Order Cases End Without Action

April 2025

Camp Pendleton, California

Marine Corps Sergeant – E-5

Allegations: UCMJ Article 120 Sexual Assault Investigation; UCMJ Article 92 Unduly Familiar Relationship; UCMJ Article 134 Extramarital Sexual Conduct; UCMJ Article 134 Disorderly Conduct

Facts

A Marine Corps Sergeant at Camp Pendleton was investigated after a night in San Diego with a junior Marine that involved alcohol, a strip club, and a consensual barracks encounter. The case was first treated as an Article 120, UCMJ sexual assault allegation and reviewed by the Office of Special Trial Counsel. After OSTC declined to prefer Article 120 charges and deferred the case back to command, the command tried to repackage the same night as an Article 92 unduly familiar relationship case. When that failed, the command looked at summary court-martial. It ended with nothing.

This was Marine liberty, alcohol, bad judgment, a strip club, and barracks sex. Not the wisest night of his career. But bad judgment is not sexual assault, and it should not become a career ending Article 92 case just because command was angry that the Article 120 allegation did not survive OSTC review.

The night itself mattered. The junior Marine was openly sexual, showed nude photos, talked about wanting sex, and later bragged to her roommate about "fucking a Sergeant" and doing whatever she had to do to stay out of trouble. After they got back to the barracks, the encounter was consensual. Once command attention turned to her own conduct, the story changed from a consensual barracks encounter into a false Article 120 allegation.

Because the original allegation was a covered offense, OSTC reviewed it first. We were retained immediately after the investigation began and got involved while the case was still being treated as a covered offense investigation. After the witnesses were identified and the facts were developed, OSTC declined to prefer the Article 120 charges and deferred the case back to command.

That should have ended it.

It did not.

The command then tried to salvage the case by repackaging the same night as non-covered misconduct. It took the same night, the same witnesses, and the same facts, then tried to turn them into an unduly familiar relationship. On the Article 92 theory, no one needed a law degree to understand that the two had become familiar. The real question was whether command could take a consensual barracks encounter, after OSTC declined Article 120, and turn it into a career ending charge.

That still left a serious problem for any Marine NCO. Once a command decides it wants to hit a Sergeant over a junior Marine allegation, the label matters less than the damage. Rank, reputation, future assignments, and career all go on the table.

Tim Bilecki did not let the command write that story for him.

Bilecki Law Group built a detailed timeline of the entire night, from the first stop in San Diego through the barracks encounter and the next morning statements. We identified the witnesses who mattered and developed the evidence the command had ignored. The roommate evidence was critical. So was the proof that the junior Marine was talking like someone trying to stay out of trouble, not someone describing an assault.

We forced the command and prosecutors to deal with all of the facts, not just the clean version they wanted to charge. The junior Marine's conduct before the encounter mattered. Her statements during the night mattered. Her statements afterward mattered. The roommate evidence mattered. The timeline mattered. The command could not just ignore the parts that destroyed the sexual assault theory and then repackage the same night as something else.

Even then, the command kept pushing. In April 2025, it preferred a single Article 92 charge alleging an unduly familiar relationship. That charge was later dismissed. The command then looked at taking the matter to summary court-martial instead.

That was withdrawn too.

So the case ended where it should have ended in the first place. No Article 120 charge. No court-martial. No punishment. No action taken.

Result: No Article 120 charge. Article 92 charge dismissed. Summary court-martial withdrawn. No action taken.

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FAQ

Q: What made the roommate's evidence important?
The roommate described the junior Marine's own account of the encounter and her comments about staying out of trouble. Bilecki fitted those statements into a timeline of the night and the next morning. The defense relied on specific statements about this encounter, rather than treating sexual behavior in general as consent.

Q: Could the command still consider an unduly familiar relationship after OSTC declined sexual-assault charges?
Yes. The relationship allegation had separate requirements, which Bilecki still had to address. He presented the full witness record as the command considered that action. The Article 92 charge was dismissed, the proposed summary court-martial was withdrawn and no punishment followed.