Morón Air Base: American Airpower in Andalusia
In the rolling campiña of Andalusia, near the old flamenco town of Morón de la Frontera and about an hour southeast of Seville, Morón Air Base is a Spanish air base that supports U.S. air operations, deployments, and contingency missions. The U.S. Air Force’s 496th Air Base Squadron provides the American base support. Morón has also hosted Marine crisis response forces for Africa, and the U.S. response arrangements have evolved over time, including an Army-led response force. Service members here work far from home, with Seville, its tapas bars, and the heat of the Andalusian summer in their off duty world.
A serious charge against a Marine on a short rotation, an ocean from home and a step from a Spanish courtroom, is no time to settle for the nearest available lawyer. Court martial defense is everything Bilecki Law Group does, and the firm has tried its cases across Europe from its office in Tampa. We fly in and try the case, because what carries a contested court martial is the trial experience of the lawyer standing up in it, not a short drive to the gate.
The Marine Who Held the Legation Wall Alone
Spain has no American battlefield in its past, but the standard this kind of duty demands was set by Marines like Daniel Daly, and it fits the mission at Morón exactly. In Peking in the summer of 1900, with the foreign legations under siege and a section of the wall about to fall, Daly took a bastion on the Tartar Wall alone, single handed, and held it through the night under fire against hundreds of attackers until relief arrived in the morning. He would earn a second Medal of Honor in Haiti years later, one of a handful of Marines ever to do so. He held the wall of a legation alone so the people behind it would live, which is the same reason the Marines at Morón exist. That refusal to give up the position is the standard we bring to a case here.
Why Marines at Morón Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and service members fly us in from all over the world 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 running an alert force will make an example of a service member to keep the rest sharp and ready. A serious case is investigated by the appropriate military criminal investigative organization, such as NCIS for a Marine or Sailor or AFOSI for an Airman, 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 detailed defense counsel may be capable but carries a heavy caseload inside the same system, which is why service members serious about winning bring in their own counsel.
UCMJ Charges We Defend at Morón Air Base
We are not limited to the charges below. They are the most common at Morón Air Base, and we defend the full range of UCMJ allegations.
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 rotational unit on alert, where word of an allegation travels fast and the command wants it dealt with before the next crisis call. 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 means confinement, a federal record, and a place on a sex offender registry.
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 a Marine career because a Marine has to be able to carry a weapon. We also defend assault under Article 128, the usual charge when a liberty night ends in a fight, where self defense is a recognized defense.
Larceny and Government Property (UCMJ Articles 121 and 108). An expeditionary task force is issued a great deal of weapons, optics, and gear it has to be ready to move on no notice, 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 in the churn of a rotation 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. A Marine is subject to the UCMJ off duty, so a night out in Seville or an incident off base comes back to the command. Spain also sets a lower legal blood alcohol limit than most American states, and a serious off base matter can be taken up by the Spanish police and prosecuted in a Spanish court, on a separate track from your command, so get counsel involved before you talk to anyone.
A Career and a Reputation Worth Defending
We do not pretend that every Marine who calls us from Spain is innocent. What matters is how serious the case is, not your rank. If a matter is genuinely minor, your detailed defense 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 the applicable sentencing parameters tie a confinement range to the offense, two and a half to ten years for sexual assault and ten to twenty for rape, that a judge can depart from only by stating specific facts in writing, on top of any required or adjudged punitive discharge and, for 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 Morón, 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.
FAQ
NCIS wants to interview me at Morón. Do I have to talk to them?
No. You are not required to sit for an NCIS 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. NCIS 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.
I'm here on a rotation at Morón. If I'm charged, does my case stay in Spain or follow me home?
It follows your command. The rotational task force answers to a parent command, and a serious case is convened and tried through that command, which usually means it follows the unit rather than being tried on the ground in Spain. What happens here is the investigation, and the investigation is where these cases are shaped, so the most valuable thing you can do is get your own counsel involved while you are still in country and the record is being built.
Something happened off base near Seville. Could the Spanish authorities get involved too?
They can. Under the agreement that governs U.S. forces in Spain, the Spanish authorities can claim jurisdiction over off base conduct, so a serious matter can be investigated by the Spanish police and prosecuted in a Spanish court on a separate track from the UCMJ case your command is pursuing. Investigations in the two systems may overlap, and what you say to one can affect the other, so do not give a statement to anyone until you have talked to a defense lawyer. The SOFA allocates primary jurisdiction and limits a second trial for the same offense; overlapping investigations do not mean that both countries may freely try the same charge.