A Lance Corporal in the Marine Corps was charged with sexual assault and forcible oral sodomy after giving a video confession to NCIS.
Facing an uphill battle, the defense, led by Tim Bilecki, an Article 120 UCMJ sexual assault attorney in Hawaii, investigated the case and learned that, on the weekend the alleged sexual assault occurred, the Corporal flew from Hawaii to California and proposed to his then-girlfriend (now alleged victim) and gave her an engagement ring, which she accepted. The couple then traveled to Los Angeles, California, where the Corporal introduced his fiancé to his family.
After fooling around on the night of their engagement and fooling around the following day, the Corporal began having sex with his fiancé. She told him to stop because she wanted to wait until they were married. He then performed oral sex on her. She told him to stop, and he continued for about a minute.
Unfortunately for the Marine, his girlfriend turned fiancé, turned victim, was a self-proclaimed virgin who wanted to wait until she was married to have sex.
Unbelievably, the following day, she cried rape and baited her fiancé into making admissions by sending him numerous text messages. A few weeks later, and while working with NCIS, she then placed a deceitful pretext phone call to her fiancé, with NCIS on the line, and asked him repeatedly what happened on the night in question and that she just wanted to hear from him in his own words “what you think you did.” On this recorded phone call, the naïve Corporal made additional admissions that were used against him in court.
More problematic, the Corporal continued to send dozens of text messages back and forth to the alleged victim after the event occurred that contained several admissions and apologies. All of which were used against him in court.
At trial, Bilecki attacked the case and put on a ‘consent and mistake of fact as to consent’ defense. During the cross-examination of the alleged victim, Mr. Bilecki caught her in many lies and got her to admit that she previously perjured herself at a prior hearing. Of course, she was never prosecuted for perjury.
At the end of the weeklong trial, the young Marine was found not guilty of the sexual assault but guilty of the forcible sodomy that allegedly occurred after the sex. He was sentenced to 12 months confinement and a Bad Conduct Discharge.
This case, again, serves as a prime example of why you should seek immediate legal counsel if accused of a crime, and in particular, sexual assault.
Bilecki’s defense team firmly believes this conviction would not have occurred if the client had secured counsel early on to protect him from the incriminating text messages, the pretext phone call and, most importantly, the videotaped confession to NCIS.
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