A male Company First Sergeant was accused of punching his female 1LT Platoon leader and slapping another female PFC while drinking at an on-post bar at Camp Stanley, Korea.
After Tim Bilecki was retained as an Article 128 UCMJ military assault lawyer to defend this case and began his investigation, it became apparent that the story of what actually occurred at the bar that evening was substantially at odds with what the two females alleged. The investigation revealed that the female Lieutenant and the female PFC who were allegedly punched and slapped were, in fact, fraternizing with each other prior to the alleged assault. The defense further revealed that the other seemingly unbiased witness to the assault, another female E-6, also had an improper relationship with the two females in the bar.
It turned out that the government’s three seemingly unrelated witnesses were actually all close friends, and all had an improper relationship with each other. Also, even though the Company First Sergeant was accused of punching a female Lieutenant and slapping a PFC in the middle of a bar full of Soldiers, no one at the bar saw the incident.
At trial, the defense highlighted the fact that, of the 30-plus known Soldiers at the bar, the only witnesses were the three females, all of whom were in improper relationships with each other. In addition, the defense also showed that the bar was extremely crowded that evening, and the accused got bumped into by one of the two Soldiers alleging assault and responded by pushing off to clear the space and may have made inadvertent contact with one of the alleged victims. The allegations by the accused grew from that point.
Bilecki had the defendant take the stand in his own defense and he was fully acquitted by the jury.
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