At a Glance: Maxwell AFB
- Installation: Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama, with Gunter Annex across town.
- Major commands: Air University and the 42nd Air Base Wing.
- Investigators: Air Force OSI. Off base, Montgomery police and the Montgomery County sheriff.
- Free defense counsel: the Area Defense Counsel (ADC). Not the base legal office.
- Who decides on charges: covered offenses, including sexual assault, stalking and domestic violence, go to the Department of the Air Force Office of Special Trial Counsel; other charges stay with the command.
- Civilian courts: Alabama courts and courts martial are separate systems, so one off-base incident can lead to a case in each.
- Where we fit: civilian defense counsel under Article 38(b) of the UCMJ, working alongside your ADC. Tim Bilecki has taken more than 250 courts martial to verdict.
Maxwell Air Force Base: The Air Force's Schoolhouse for Officers
Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery is where much of the Air Force goes to school. Air University runs Officer Training School, Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College and Air War College here, along with the Air Force's Judge Advocate General's School, and the 42nd Air Base Wing supports it all, with Gunter Annex across town. On any given day the base holds officer trainees working toward a commission, captains and majors in residence for professional military education, senior officers at the war college, faculty, international officers, and the Airmen who keep the base running. A base built on educating leaders holds officers to the standard it teaches, and an allegation against a student or a trainee here can end a career within a single course.
Military defense is all Bilecki Law Group does. Our office is in Tampa, and officers and Airmen at Maxwell retain us for trial experience; we come to Montgomery when the case goes to court.
For how Alabama law and the UCMJ work together, and for every other stateside installation we cover, see our page for court martial defense in the United States. We also defend service members at nearby Fort Rucker, Fort Benning and Columbus Air Force Base.
The Pilot Who Turned Away From the Children
Maxwell Field carries the name of Second Lieutenant William C. Maxwell, born in Natchez, Alabama, and assigned to the 3rd Aero Squadron in the Philippines. On August 12, 1920, near Manila, engine trouble forced his DH-4 down toward a sugarcane field where children were playing. Maxwell steered away from them, and the turn carried his plane into a flagpole hidden in the tall cane; he was killed instantly. Two years later the War Department renamed the Montgomery depot Maxwell Field in his honor. An Airman who used his last seconds to protect people who never knew he was there is the standard we bring to a case at Maxwell.
Why Officers and Airmen at Maxwell Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Officer trainees, students in professional military education, faculty and Airmen at Maxwell look to us for trial experience, and we travel to Montgomery for the case. The system they face is built for discipline, not truth, and a command whose mission is teaching leadership will hold an officer to that standard in public. For an officer the court martial is only one front: the same facts can bring a reprimand, removal from a course, an Article 15, and a show cause action that sends the officer to a Board of Inquiry, which decides separation on a lower standard than a conviction requires. Serious cases at Maxwell are investigated by OSI, and for sexual assault and the other covered offenses the referral decision sits with the Department of the Air Force Office of Special Trial Counsel instead of Air University. The Area Defense Counsel can be a skilled advocate but works a heavy docket inside the same system, so officers who intend to protect a commission retain their own counsel as well.
The Maxwell Legal Office, the ADC and a Lawyer of Your Own
The 42nd Air Base Wing legal office advises the commanders at Maxwell and Gunter and prosecutes their cases, on the same base as the school where the Air Force trains its own judge advocates. The Area Defense Counsel defends Airmen free of charge and works outside that chain.
An officer trainee facing disenrollment, or a student told to answer a reprimand before returning to a home unit, should talk to the ADC first, because what is written at Maxwell goes back with you. For a court martial, Article 38(b) of the UCMJ allows civilian counsel alongside the ADC.
UCMJ Charges We Defend at Maxwell Air Force Base
These are the allegations we see most often at Maxwell. We defend officers, trainees and Airmen here against the full range of UCMJ offenses, listed or not.
Sexual Assault and Sex Offenses (UCMJ Article 120 / Article 134). Allegations at Maxwell go to an independent Special Trial Counsel, and in a school where classmates live, study and socialize together for weeks or months, the command can treat a report as proof before OSI is finished. We build our own investigation from the start and contest the allegation before it is referred. See our Article 120 sexual assault defense page.
Conduct Unbecoming and False Official Statements (UCMJ Articles 133 and 107). Every officer at Maxwell is subject to Article 133, conduct unbecoming an officer, and it is often paired with a false official statement charge under Article 107 when the government says an officer was not truthful in an inquiry, on a form or in a course. An honest mistake, a misunderstanding or a statement taken out of context is not a lie, and the government has to prove both that the statement was false and that it was made with intent to deceive.
Travel and Allowance Fraud (UCMJ Articles 121, 124 and 107). Students arrive at Maxwell on temporary duty or a permanent change of station, and the travel vouchers, lodging claims and housing allowances that come with those moves are where fraud cases start. The government can charge a disputed claim as larceny under Article 121, as a fraud against the United States under Article 124 and as a false official statement under Article 107, but a confusing entitlement, bad finance guidance or a family's real living arrangement is not a scheme, and intent still has to be proven.
Domestic Violence and Assault (UCMJ Articles 128b and 128). Domestic violence from Montgomery homes and base housing is a Special Trial Counsel prosecution, and the government can bring a strangulation charge without a visible injury. A qualifying conviction also brings the federal firearms bar. See our Article 128b domestic violence defense page.
DUI and Drug Offenses (UCMJ Articles 113 and 112a). A night in downtown Montgomery that ends in a traffic stop can bring an Alabama DUI case and an Article 113 charge or command action at once, and for a student it can end a course. Alabama has not legalized recreational marijuana, and even where a state allows it, use remains an Article 112a offense. A drug case here turns on how the sample was collected and kept and on proof that any use was knowing and wrongful. See our Article 112a drug defense page.
A Career and a Reputation Worth Defending
We do not pretend that every client is innocent. If a matter is genuinely minor, your detailed military counsel can handle it, and we will tell you so. When the case is serious, your career, your retirement, your name and your freedom are on the line at once. A court martial conviction is a federal criminal conviction. Where the sentencing parameters apply, the judge sentences within a confinement range set by the offense, two and a half to ten years for sexual assault and ten to twenty for rape, and must state specific facts in writing to go outside it. A conviction can also bring a punitive discharge and, on a covered sex offense, sex offender registration. That is why you fight.
If you are facing an investigation or court martial at Maxwell Air Force Base, reach out for a free, confidential strategy session. We will tell you what you are facing and how we would defend it.
FAQ
I am at Maxwell for Squadron Officer School or Air Command and Staff College. Will an investigation follow me back to my home unit?
It can. A case that starts during a course may be handled by commanders at Maxwell, by your home unit or by both, and a reprimand or a report written here can go into your record at your next assignment. Talk to a defense lawyer before you respond to anything, and do not assume that leaving Maxwell ends the matter.
OSI wants to talk to me about a travel voucher from my time at Maxwell. Should I meet with them?
Not without a lawyer. Under Article 31(b) of the UCMJ, an investigator who suspects you of an offense must tell you the nature of the accusation and that you have the right to remain silent, and you may decline the interview. Voucher cases are built from documents, so let a defense lawyer review the paperwork with you before any statement is made.
I am an officer. Can I lose my commission even if there is no court martial?
Yes. An officer can be required to show cause for retention and sent to a Board of Inquiry, which decides separation and characterization of service on a preponderance of the evidence, a far lower standard than a court martial requires. The board can follow a reprimand or an Article 15 or stand on its own, so it has to be prepared with the same care as a trial. We defend officers at Boards of Inquiry as well as at courts martial.