Camp Lejeune Court-Martial Defense

Camp Lejeune: The Home of Expeditionary Forces in Readiness

On the New River in coastal North Carolina, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is the home of the II Marine Expeditionary Force and the 2nd Marine Division, the largest Marine Corps installation on the East Coast and one of the busiest court martial jurisdictions in the Corps. Tens of thousands of Marines are stationed here, most of them young, most of them in the infantry and ground combat units that deploy out of Lejeune and Camp Geiger and come home to Jacksonville, the Marine town built around the front gate. North Marine Boulevard runs on the tattoo parlors, bars, pawn shops, and used car lots that live off a young and high turnover force, and a command this size, with the whole division watching, has every reason to make an example of a Marine who steps wrong.

What decides a contested court martial is the trial record of the lawyer who tries it, not how close his office sits to the gate. Military defense is all Bilecki Law Group does, and Marines fly us to Lejeune from our office in Tampa because of that record. When your career and your freedom are both on the line, hire for the courtroom. We are the firm service members fly in from around the world, to Okinawa, Germany, and Korea, and while we are not across the street from Lejeune, we are close, a short flight from our Tampa office.

The Marine Who Kept Going Back for His Own

The 2nd Marine Division's standard was set on a strip of coral at Tarawa, where Staff Sergeant William J. Bordelon came ashore as an assault engineer on November 20, 1943. His landing craft was torn apart at the reef and most of his team was killed in the water, but he made it to the beach, built his own demolition charges, and went at the Japanese pillboxes one after another, knocking them out by hand under point blank fire. He was hit, and he kept going. Twice he turned back into the fire to pull wounded Marines off the seawall and out of the surf, and he was reloading to take another emplacement when he was killed. He would not leave his Marines pinned down while he could still move. That refusal to leave your own behind is the standard we bring to a case at Lejeune.

Why Marines at Lejeune Bring Us In

We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and Marines 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 the size of Lejeune will make an example of a Marine to keep the rest in line. A serious case is investigated by NCIS, 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 Marines serious about winning bring in their own counsel.

UCMJ Charges We Defend at Camp Lejeune

Below are the most common charges at Camp Lejeune. Treat them as a starting point, not a complete list, of the UCMJ cases we defend.

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 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 night out in Jacksonville ends in a fight, where self defense is a recognized defense.

Larceny and Government Property (UCMJ Articles 121 and 108). An infantry division is issued a great deal of weapons, optics, night vision, and field gear, and accountability is taken seriously. 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. A Marine is subject to the UCMJ off duty, so a night out in Jacksonville, a weekend down in Wilmington, or an incident off base comes back to the command. An off base matter can also be charged by the civilian authorities, so the same night can become both a court martial and an Onslow County case at once, which is one more reason to 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 Lejeune 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 military sentencing parameters set a confinement range the judge has to work within, two and a half to ten years for sexual assault and ten to twenty for rape, with a departure requiring specific facts in writing, plus 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 Camp Lejeune, 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.

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Cases Connected to Camp Lejeune

These cases include trials, hearings, investigations, and administrative matters. A connection to this location does not necessarily mean that the trial occurred here.

FAQ

NCIS wants to interview me at Lejeune. 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. When a statement is taken in violation of your rights, or evidence is seized in an unlawful search, it can be suppressed, which is how we have had charges at Lejeune withdrawn after winning a suppression motion. Decline, ask for counsel, and call a defense lawyer before you give any statement.

I'm under an Article 120 investigation. Can it really be beaten, and will I have to register as a sex offender?
Yes, it can be fought, and it has to be, because a court martial conviction for a covered Article 120 offense triggers registration duties under the applicable federal and state law, with requirements and duration determined by the covered conviction and jurisdiction. The fight is to defeat the charge outright or strip it down to something that carries no registration. We have done exactly that at Lejeune, getting Article 120 charges dismissed and the case resolved without sex offender registration. The earlier we are in, the more we can do, so get your own counsel involved before you ever sit down with NCIS.

Something happened off base in Jacksonville. Can the county and the Marine Corps both come after me for it?
Yes. The State of North Carolina and the military are separate sovereigns, so the same incident can be prosecuted by the Onslow County District Attorney and by a court martial, and double jeopardy does not bar one after the other. The command does not have to wait for the county, and a county dismissal or even an acquittal does not end the UCMJ exposure. The two run on separate tracks, and a statement to one can be used by the other, which is why you do not talk to the Jacksonville police, the sheriff, or NCIS until you have a defense lawyer.

My unit is about to deploy and I have a case pending. What happens to it?
A serious pending case usually puts you on a legal hold, so you stay at Lejeune while the unit deploys and the matter is handled here, not in the field. That is its own blow to a career, and it does not slow the government down, because the investigation keeps moving whether your battalion is home or gone. Waiting and hoping the case goes away before the float is the worst move. The time to build your defense is now, while the witnesses are still here and before a deployment scatters the unit.

Camp Lejeune Court Martial Defense: Defending the Marines of II MEF and the 2nd Marine Division