Fort Carson: The Mountain Post Under Pikes Peak
South of Colorado Springs under the front range of the Rockies, Fort Carson is the Mountain Post, the home of the 4th Infantry Division, the Ivy Division, along with the Green Berets of the 10th Special Forces Group, the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, and the bomb-disposal Soldiers of the 71st EOD. Some twenty-five thousand Soldiers are stationed here in one of the most militarized corners of the country, with the Air Force Academy, NORAD inside Cheyenne Mountain, and the Space Force at Peterson and Schriever all close by. Off duty is Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs, and the Front Range outdoor and craft-beer culture at six thousand feet, with Denver about seventy minutes north. A command with the pride of the Ivy Division and a special operations group has every reason to make an example of a Soldier who steps wrong.
At the Mountain Post the easy move is to hire whoever is nearest the gate. For a serious court martial that is the wrong call, because a contested case is decided by the lawyer's record at trial, not by how close he is to Colorado Springs. Military defense is all Bilecki Law Group does, and Soldiers and Green Berets bring us in from our office in Tampa for that record. Proximity has never won a trial.
The Wounded Soldier Who Would Not Quit
The 4th Infantry Division took the measure of a man in the Hürtgen Forest, where the standard was set by Staff Sergeant Marcario García. On November 27, 1944, near Grosshau, his company was pinned by fire from two German machine gun nests. García was already badly wounded, and he refused evacuation. Alone, he crawled forward and knocked out the first emplacement, then went after the second and destroyed it too, killing six of the enemy and taking four prisoners before he would let anyone treat him. He was the first Mexican immigrant to receive the Medal of Honor, a man not yet a citizen of the country he was bleeding for. He was hurt, and he would not quit while his unit was pinned. That refusal to quit is the standard we bring to a case at Carson.
Why Soldiers at Carson Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and Soldiers fly us in from all over the country because of our trial record. The military justice system is not built to find the truth; it exists to preserve good order and discipline, and a command with the pride of the Ivy Division and a special operations group will make an example of a Soldier to keep the standard sharp. A serious case is investigated by Army CID, and for sexual assault and other covered offenses the decision to refer charges to a court martial no longer belongs to your command but goes to an independent Special Trial Counsel. Your Trial Defense Service counsel may be capable but carries a heavy caseload inside the same system, which is why Soldiers serious about winning bring in their own counsel.
UCMJ Charges We Defend at Fort Carson
This is not the whole list of what we do at Fort Carson. We take every kind of court martial, and these are simply the charges that come up most.
Sexual Assault and Sex Offenses (UCMJ Article 120 / Article 134). These allegations route to an independent Special Trial Counsel now, and the command treats a report as established before the investigation is finished, all the more so in a tight unit where word of an allegation travels fast and the command wants to look decisive. These cases demand counsel who will run an independent investigation and contest the case rather than let the allegation stand in for proof, because a conviction can mean confinement and a federal record, with registration required for a covered sex offense under the applicable federal and state law.
Domestic Violence and Assault (UCMJ Articles 128b and 128). Domestic violence under Article 128b is charged as aggressively as any offense in the UCMJ since the Office of Special Trial Counsel took these cases over. It covers a spouse, an intimate partner, or a family member, and it treats strangulation or suffocation as its own charge that the government can bring even with no visible injury. A qualifying conviction also triggers the federal Lautenberg firearms bar, which can end an Army career because a Soldier has to be able to carry a weapon. We also defend assault under Article 128, the usual charge when a night out in Colorado Springs ends in a fight, where self defense is a recognized defense.
Larceny and Government Property (UCMJ Articles 121 and 108). A heavy division with a special forces group and an aviation brigade is issued an enormous amount of sensitive equipment, from weapons and optics to night vision and communications gear, and accountability is unforgiving. The government treats missing gear, an item that cannot be reconciled, or property that walked off as larceny under Article 121 or wrongful disposition of military property under Article 108, but a shortage on a hand receipt is not the same as theft, and the government still has to prove the state of mind required by the charged offense: intent for larceny or fraud, or negligence where Article 108 permits it, not just that something cannot be found.
Drugs and Off Duty Conduct (UCMJ Articles 112a and 134). Drug cases often turn on the chain of custody and the government's burden to prove any use was knowing and wrongful. Marijuana is the clearest example in Colorado: it is legal under Colorado law for adults off post, but it remains a controlled substance under federal law and a court martial offense under Article 112a, and being legal in the state does not make it lawful for a Soldier. The post itself is federal land where it stays illegal, Colorado Springs now licenses recreational marijuana retailers, and a positive urinalysis still comes back to the command. A positive test is evidence the government may use to argue knowing, wrongful use, not an automatic finding of guilt, so the collection, the chain of custody, and whether any use was knowing all remain the government's to prove.
A Career and a Reputation Worth Defending
We do not pretend that every Soldier who calls us from Carson is innocent. What matters is how serious the case is, not your rank. If a matter is genuinely minor, your Trial Defense Service counsel can handle it, and we will tell you so honestly. But when the case is serious, everything is on the line at once: your career, your retirement, your good name, and your freedom. A court martial conviction is a federal criminal conviction, and where the sentencing parameters apply the judge sentences within confinement ranges fixed by the offense, two and a half to ten years for sexual assault and ten to twenty for rape, with specific facts in writing required to support a departure, on top of any required or adjudged punitive discharge and, on a covered sex offense, sex offender registration. That is why you fight. The court’s jurisdiction and the convicted offense determine which sentencing rules apply; some offenses use separate sentencing criteria rather than these ranges.
If you are facing an investigation or court martial at Fort Carson, reach out for a free defense strategy session. We will tell you exactly what you are facing and how we would defend it. The government is already building its case. The only question is whether anyone is building yours.
Cases Connected to Fort Carson
These cases include trials, hearings, investigations, and administrative matters. A connection to this location does not necessarily mean that the trial occurred here.
- Case connected to this location: Fort Carson Second Lieutenant Receives GOMOR After One Off-Duty Group-Chat Text; Rebuttal Challenges AR 600-20 Hostile Work Environment Finding
- Case connected to this location: Bilecki Closes Article 120 Sexual Assault Investigation on Army Staff Sergeant at Fort Carson Pre-Preferral; No Charges, No NJP, No GOMOR, No Administrative Separation, Soldier Retained on Active Duty
FAQ
Army CID wants to interview me at Carson. Do I have to talk to them?
No. You are not required to sit for a CID interview or answer their questions. Under Article 31b of the UCMJ you have the right to remain silent and to a lawyer, and you can invoke both at any point, including before the interview begins. CID is collecting evidence, not giving you a chance to explain, and it takes very little to be titled as a subject, a label that follows you for years. Decline, ask for counsel, and call a defense lawyer before you give any statement.
Marijuana is legal in Colorado. Can I still be court martialed for it?
Yes. Marijuana is legal under Colorado law for adults, but for a Soldier it is still a controlled substance under federal law and a court martial offense under Article 112a, and Fort Carson sits on federal land where it is illegal no matter what the state allows. A positive urinalysis, an admission, or being caught with it can each bring an Article 112a charge. The defense is real, though, because a positive test is only a permissive inference and not proof: the government still has to prove the use was knowing and wrongful, so the collection, the chain of custody, and the lab work all matter. Do not assume that because it is legal in Colorado it is safe in uniform.
I'm under an Article 120 investigation at Carson. Can it be stopped before charges are preferred?
Yes. For a covered Article 120 offense an independent Special Trial Counsel, not your commander, decides whether charges are referred to a court martial, so the investigation and that charging decision are where the case can still be stopped. The work is to attack the evidence before that decision is made. We have done it at Carson, where an Article 120 investigation was closed with no charges preferred. The earlier we are in, the more we can do, so get your own counsel involved before you ever sit down with CID.
The command couldn't get a court martial, and now I'm an officer facing a GOMOR and a possible Board of Inquiry. Can it be fought?
Yes. A GOMOR is administrative, not criminal, and the command can issue it on far less than a court martial requires, but a permanent filing in your record can drive a show cause board and end a commission. The fight is the written rebuttal, and for an officer it is also the fight to keep a Board of Inquiry from ever convening. At Carson, we challenged a sexual harassment GOMOR based on one off duty group-chat text; the reprimand was permanently filed. Do not answer a GOMOR, or a show cause notice, alone.