Kobe Bryant had his signature fadeaway. Patrick Mahomes has his no look pass. The team here at Bilecki has its witness cross examination and it, like the other signature moves discussed, is a site to behold. Hell, if military courts would allow us we’d crack open a beer and chug it Stone Cold Steve Austin style after we just destroyed the prosecution’s witness on the stand. That’s how good we feel about what we do and make no apologies for it. That’s because the prosecution came to the courtroom trying to destroy our client with some bullshit charge and we are not having any of it. You cannot allow the prosecution to dictate the tempo of operations via their witnesses and you must turn and assault into the ambush they have tried to lay for you. In today’s writing we are going to cover witness examination and it is truly one of the greater joys of our job.
Preparing Military Witnesses For Cross Examination
There are really two sides to witness examination and first is to prepare your own witnesses for what the prosecution is going to try to throw their way. Because we excel at cross-examination ourselves, there is little that we can’t anticipate from a military prosecutor.
It starts with organizing our client’s testimony into a clear and logical sequence of events. One event led to the other and we lay this out in a manner in which it is easy for the panel to remember. The prosecution is going to come in and try to break up that sequence of events in order to make the witness seem less credible.
We already know where we want to take the panel as we begin with the end in mind. We’re just building the foundation and the narrative that leads them to this inevitable conclusion. Every exhibit we plan to use our witnesses have already seen. We’ve covered how to handle lapses in memory and we know how to get our witness back on track when that happens using appropriate M.R.E.
Practice with the Best and Rise above the Rest
Perhaps the greatest strategic advantage we offer our witnesses is the fact that we are pit bulls when it comes to cross examination ourselves. We’ve rehearsed this time and time again with our client and we’ve used our own aggressive cross examination techniques to prep them. It’s kind of like when you’re an NFL defense that does up against Patrick Mahomes every day in practice, you’re not worried when you Zach Wilson on game day.
We can probably count on one hand the amount of times over 20 years that a military prosecutor surprised us during cross examination with an aggressive line of questioning that we didn’t see coming. That’s because when you have an offensively minded game plan and a no holds barred attack mentality, you’re already analyzing every avenue of approach.
We ask ourselves how we would attack this witness and then prepare that witness as if they were going against namesake and founder Tim Bilecki himself. If you can survive Bilecki, you can survive your average military prosecutor who never wanted this thing to go to trial to begin with. We’ve embarrassed more than one military prosecutor in our day by preparing our witnesses to the point they look like a helpless school boy begging the witness to please help them out and throw them a bone.
Military Court Martial Witness Cross Examination is Where the Fun Begins
What is clear to us is that military prosecutors do not spend as much time preparing their witnesses as we do our own. That’s because in many cases, destroying the witnesses credibility and narrative was just too easy. We came ready for combat and the witness folded at the first sign of aggression.
In some cases we might feel bad for the witness for what we have to do to them, but then again, we remember what is at stake for our client. It is the prosecution who is trying to destroy our client and rob them of their career, retirement, and freedom. With that in mind, we drop any hint of remorse and go in for the kill.
Using leading questions and a logical progression, we walk the witness right into the kill zone of the ambush and then we strike with everything we have in our arsenal. Their credibility is the first to go and before you know it, they are questioning themselves if they ever thought any of this was true. We’re bullies in the courtroom and we know it. As General Mattis famously said, we are always polite, always professional, but we have a plan to kill anyone we meet.
The True Nature of the Military Justice System
From time to time, we’ll run into a client who questions whether or not we have to be as aggressive as we are in the courtroom. Often that is because the client genuinely loves the military and military discipline has characterized their career. What they fail to understand is that you cannot coexist with a military justice system that is out to destroy you.
The military justice system does not exist for the purpose of pursuing truth and achieving justice. Rather, it exists to preserve military order and discipline they have to make a public example out of someone. The more they destroy you in a public fashion the better example you make. To them, an innocent life destroyed works just as well as a guilty one when it comes to scaring the rest of the troops into compliance.
The Military Justice System in the Era of SHARP
Perhaps the greatest injustice we see in the military today is what is known as the Sexual Harassment Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) campaign. This is the military’s campaign to root out sexual assault from the ranks. While we largely applaud the intent behind this campaign, the execution has been nothing less than disastrous.
Allegations are being treated as objective fact and even a mere rumor is enough to end a career. If they don’t have enough evidence to take you to trial commands will still try to end your career through administrative measures. To make matters worse, service members have learned to weaponize SHARP by making false allegations in order to escape their own trouble with the UCMJ.
This is where cross examination plays a key role in uncovering the truth because the allegation was bullshit from the start. We know the accuser made the accusation because he/she wanted to be transferred to a more favorable installation. We show that during cross examination. We know they made the allegation because they were a lover scorned. We show that during the cross examination.
In the era of SHARP, you have to fight back. Commands are under so much pressure to show that they are being tough on this issue from the Pentagon and elected officials that they are screwing over innocent men and women left and right. It’s not right and it sure as hell is not justice.
Fight Back Against the Military Justice System
If you are under investigation or facing court martial right now, your only option is to fight back. Fight like hell and get experienced counsel by your side. If you play the game by their rules you will lose. Military prosecutors boast a 90% conviction rate for a reason. The game is rigged in their favor.
You have to fight back and this is true even if you did mess up and make a bad decision. You don’t have to accept the worst deal they can throw at you. There is still time to secure for yourself the best possible outcome. Don’t admit guilt and do not let them take everything from you.
If this is what you are facing, reach out to us. We’ll shoot you straight on exactly what you are facing and as long as you are willing to fight like hell, so are we. We’ll take the fight to the heart of the prosecution and we will absolutely destroy whatever witness they put on the stand against you. If you are facing charges, you have a fight coming your way whether you want one or not. We say stand up and fight back. Most importantly, get us into that fight.
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