Maximum Sentence:
- DD
- 35 years confinement
- Total forfeiture
- Reduction to E-1
- Federal felony conviction
- Sex offender registration
A Marine Lance Corporal stationed at Camp Foster, Okinawa was charged with taking photographs of his minor girlfriend and sending those pictures via the Internet and SMS to others.
Military defense lawyer for UCMJ Article 134 child pornography charges, Tim Bilecki, was retained to represent this Marine nearly six months before charges were preferred. During those six months, Bilecki Law Group conducted an exhaustive investigation of the facts and consulted with our own digital forensic experts.
Bilecki built a case based on a sloppy law-enforcement investigation, an incomplete and inaccurate computer forensic investigation, and a reasonable mistake of fact regarding the age of the Marine’s girlfriend. When the case was set for an Article 32 hearing, court martial lawyer Tim Bilecki traveled to Okinawa and treated the Article 32 hearing as a mini-trial, grilling the law enforcement agents and computer forensic investigators on the stand over their lackluster investigation and confirmation bias. We put on a defense of mistake of fact as to age and substantiated that be showing that our client’s girlfriend held herself out to be 18 years old on social media, in her texts to our client and to other Marines. The Article 32 hearing officer concurred with the defense position and made a finding that no probable cause existed and recommended dismissing the charges.
After the completion of the Article 32 hearing, the government dismissed all charges against our client, who continued to serve in the United States Marine Corps
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