Joint Base Lewis-McChord: I Corps and the Army's Pacific Power
South of Tacoma in the evergreen country of western Washington, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, known to the Soldiers and Airmen who serve there as JBLM, is one of the largest and most varied military installations in the country, the home of I Corps, the 7th Infantry Division, the Stryker brigades of the 2nd Infantry Division, the Green Berets of the 1st Special Forces Group, and the Rangers of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, joined to McChord Field and its C-17 airlift wing. Tens of thousands of Soldiers and Airmen are stationed here, most of them packed into Lakewood and the towns just outside the gate, with Mount Rainier filling the skyline, Puget Sound an hour one way and the Cascades the other, and the gray Northwest rain over all of it. A base this large and this watched does not let a serious case sit quietly.
The easy move is to call a lawyer who is already on post. The right move, when the charge is a felony and the case is contested, is to find the lawyer with the trial record to win it. That is the whole of what we do at Bilecki Law Group, and Soldiers and Airmen fly us to JBLM from Tampa for it. A plane ticket solves distance. Nothing solves the wrong lawyer.
The Corporal Who Took Command and Took the Hill
The 7th Infantry Division's standard was set on a ridge in Korea by Corporal Einar H. Ingman, whose platoon hit a fortified hill near Maltari in February 1951 and stalled the moment the fire came down. Both squad leaders were hit, men were dropping, and the attack was about to fail when Ingman, a corporal, took it over. He combined the two shattered squads, got them moving, and then went at the machine gun nests himself. A grenade and a burst of fire tore his face and neck and put him on the ground. He got up, finished the gun crew with his rifle, and only then collapsed. He lived. He stepped into the gap when the leaders went down and carried the assault on his own. That instinct to take command of a fight no one else can hold is the standard we bring to a case at JBLM.
Why Soldiers and Airmen at Lewis-McChord Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and service members 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 I Corps will make an example of a Soldier or an Airman to keep the rest in line. A serious case is investigated by Army CID, or by the Air Force OSI for a McChord 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. The free counsel detailed to you may be capable but carries a heavy caseload inside the same system, which is why those serious about winning bring in their own counsel.
UCMJ Charges We Defend at Joint Base Lewis-McChord
The charges below are common at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, but our practice is not confined to them. We defend service members against any UCMJ offense.
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. The investigation and the charging decision are also where these cases are most often stopped, which is the strongest argument for getting your own counsel involved early.
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 career because a service member has to be able to carry a weapon. We also defend assault under Article 128, the usual charge when a night out in Tacoma ends in a fight, where self defense is a recognized defense.
Larceny and Government Property (UCMJ Articles 121 and 108). A corps with Stryker brigades, special operations units, and an airlift wing is issued an enormous amount of sensitive equipment, 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. A service member is subject to the UCMJ off duty, so a night out in Tacoma or an incident off base comes back to the command. Marijuana is one to be careful with: it is legal to buy in Washington, but it is still a federal controlled substance and a court martial offense under Article 112a, and being legal off post does not make it lawful for a service member. An off base matter can also be charged by the civilian authorities, so the same night can become both a court martial and a Pierce County case at once.
A Career and a Reputation Worth Defending
We do not pretend that every service member who calls us from Lewis-McChord is innocent. What matters is how serious the case is, not your rank. If a matter is genuinely minor, the 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 where the sentencing parameters apply the confinement range is set by the offense, two and a half to ten years for sexual assault and ten to twenty for rape, with a departure requiring specific facts in writing, on top of a possible 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 JBLM, 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 Joint Base Lewis-McChord
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: Bilecki Closes Article 134 Fraternization and Extramarital Conduct Investigation on Field Artillery 1LT at JBLM at the Investigation Stage; No Charges, No GOMOR, No Officer Elimination, No Show Cause Board
- Case connected to this location: Bilecki Closes Article 120 OSTC Investigation on Army PFC at JBLM via Deferral for Insufficient Evidence; No Charges, No NJP, No Letter of Reprimand, No GOMOR, No SORNA
- Case connected to this location: Bilecki Wins No Probable Cause Article 32 Finding and Full Dismissal of 10-Specification Article 120 OSTC GCM at JBLM; Follow-On GOMOR Withdrawn
FAQ
An investigator wants to interview me at JBLM. Do I have to talk to them?
No. Whether it is Army CID or, for a McChord airman, the Air Force OSI, you are not required to sit for the 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. They are collecting evidence, not giving you a chance to explain, and they can title you as a subject at a low threshold that follows you for years. Decline, ask for counsel, and call a defense lawyer before you give any statement.
I'm under an Article 120 investigation. Can it be stopped before it ever gets to trial, and will I have to register as a sex offender?
Yes, and the strongest place to end an Article 120 case is before trial, at the Special Trial Counsel's charging decision or the Article 32 hearing, because a conviction for a covered offense triggers registration duties under the applicable federal and state law, with requirements and duration determined by the covered conviction and jurisdiction. We have ended these cases both ways at Lewis-McChord: the Special Trial Counsel deferred a case for insufficient evidence, with no charges and no registration, and in another, an Article 32 produced a no probable cause finding and a full dismissal, with the GOMOR withdrawn as well. The investigation is where these are won, so get your own counsel involved before you ever sit down with CID.
An investigation has started but I have not been charged, and the command is already talking about a GOMOR or a board. Is it too late?
No, and earlier is far better, because the investigation stage is where many of these end before they ever become a charge or an adverse filing. The same allegation can drive a court martial, a GOMOR, and a board all at once, so the move is to fight the underlying facts hard from the start and keep the whole cascade from getting any traction. That works: we have had a Lewis-McChord investigation closed with no charges and no adverse action, and the officer continued in service. Get counsel in before you give a statement.
Something happened off base in Tacoma or Lakewood. Can the county and the military both come after me for it?
Yes. The State of Washington and the military are separate sovereigns, so the same incident can be prosecuted by the Pierce County Prosecutor and by a court martial, and double jeopardy does not bar one after the other. The command does not 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 local police, the sheriff, or an investigator until you have a defense lawyer.