Naval Station Norfolk Court-Martial Defense

Naval Station Norfolk: The Largest Naval Base in the World

On Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic, Naval Station Norfolk is the largest naval base in the world, the headquarters and home port of U.S. Fleet Forces Command and the deepwater home of the Atlantic Fleet, with carriers, destroyers, cruisers, amphibious ships, and submarines tied up along its piers and naval aircraft flying out of Chambers Field. It anchors all of Hampton Roads, the Navy region that runs from Norfolk and Virginia Beach across the water to Portsmouth and Newport News, where the whole economy moves on the fleet and the daily commute runs through the bridge tunnels that knot the region together. It is also a major Navy military justice jurisdiction, and with this many young Sailors and this many ships cycling in and out, a command here has every reason to make an example of one to keep the rest in line.

In a Navy town this size there is no shortage of lawyers, and most will lead with how well they know Norfolk. For a contested court martial that is the wrong measure. The one that counts is the trial record of whoever stands up to try the case, and that is all Bilecki Law Group does. Sailors fly us in from our office in Tampa because of what we have done in the courtroom.

The Captain Who Would Not Give Up His Ship

The surface Navy's standard was set at Pearl Harbor by Commander Cassin Young, the captain of the repair ship USS Vestal, moored alongside the battleship Arizona on the morning of December 7, 1941. When the Arizona blew up, the blast threw Young over the side and into the burning, oil covered water. His crew thought he was gone, and the order went out to abandon ship. Young swam back through the fire to his own vessel, countermanded the order, and conned the Vestal away from the inferno and onto a sandbar where she could be saved. He would not give up his ship while there was a ship to save. He was killed a year later fighting his cruiser at Guadalcanal. That refusal to abandon what is yours is the standard we bring to a case at Norfolk.

Why Sailors at Norfolk Bring Us In

We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and Sailors 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 running the world's largest fleet concentration will make an example of a Sailor to keep order across the piers. 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 counsel from the Defense Service Office may be capable but carries a heavy caseload inside the same system, which is why Sailors serious about winning bring in their own counsel.

UCMJ Charges We Defend at Naval Station Norfolk

The charges below are the ones we see most often at Naval Station Norfolk, not the only ones we defend. If you are facing a different UCMJ allegation, we handle that too.

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 fleet community 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. How the case was investigated often decides it, because a statement taken in violation of your rights, or evidence from an unlawful search, can be suppressed, and a case can collapse without it.

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 Navy career because a Sailor has to be able to carry a weapon. We also defend assault under Article 128, the usual charge when a liberty night ashore ends in a fight, where self defense is a recognized defense.

Larceny and Government Property (UCMJ Articles 121 and 108). An enormous surface and submarine fleet requires tight accountability for parts, tools, and sensitive gear, and that is where property cases here are born. 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 in the churn of a working waterfront 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. Off the ship, the car lots and payday lenders that ring the Hampton Boulevard gate put real financial pressure on young Sailors, and that pressure is often the backstory when gear goes missing and a larceny or wrongful disposition charge follows.

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 Sailor is subject to the UCMJ off duty, so a night out on Granby Street, a weekend at the Virginia Beach oceanfront, 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 a city 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 Sailor who calls us from Norfolk 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 Naval Station Norfolk, 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 Naval Station Norfolk

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 Norfolk. 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. It also matters how that evidence is gathered, because a statement taken in violation of your rights, or evidence from an unlawful search, can be suppressed. We have done exactly that here: at Naval Station Norfolk an NCIS interrogation was suppressed in full, the Government's appeal was denied at the Navy and Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, and all the Article 120b charges were dismissed. Tim Bilecki travels to Naval Station Norfolk to defend these cases. 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, and the best chance to do it comes early, by attacking how the case was investigated and what the government can actually prove. The Norfolk case above, where the central interrogation was suppressed and the charges were dismissed, is what that can look like. Get your own counsel involved before you ever sit down with NCIS.

My ship is getting underway and I have a case pending. What happens to me?
A serious pending case usually means the command places you on legal hold, which keeps you from transferring, separating, or deploying, so you stay back in Norfolk, often with the rear detachment or a shore command, while the case is handled here rather than at sea. That is its own hit to a career, and it does not slow the government down, because the investigation keeps moving whether your ship is on the pier or on deployment. The worst move is to do nothing and hope the case goes away before the ship deploys. The time to build your defense is now, while the witnesses are still in Norfolk and before a deployment scatters them across the fleet.

If I'm arrested by civilian police off base in Norfolk or Virginia Beach, can the Navy court martial me for it too?
Yes. Virginia and the military are separate sovereigns, so the same incident can be prosecuted by the city's Commonwealth's Attorney and by a court martial, and double jeopardy does not bar one after the other. Hampton Roads is a patchwork of independent cities, so which prosecutor it is depends on where it happened, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, or Portsmouth, but in every one of them the command does not have to wait for the civilians, and a city dismissal or even an acquittal does not end the UCMJ exposure. A statement to one system can be used by the other, so do not talk to the local police or NCIS until you have a defense lawyer.

Naval Station Norfolk Court Martial Defense: Defending the Sailors of the Atlantic Fleet