There are two types of military court martial defense attorneys in our book. Those that conduct their own thorough investigation of the facts and those who like to lose. That’s because if you rely heavily on CID or Military Police investigations then you are a sadistic son of bitch who just likes to lose, and your client pays a hell of a price for it. It makes you the Benedict Arnold of court martial defense attorneys and if we had our way, we’d kick every free JAG defense attorney out of defense for good if we caught them doing it. The final product produced by a military investigator ranks somewhere along the lines of Helen Keller’s 1st grade art assignment and an ASVAB waiver Marine’s PhD dissertation. It is just ugly and no reasonable person would conclude that such an investigation is to be trusted. If we can borrow a few minutes of your time, we’ll break down how Bilecki conducts his own investigations without completely giving away the secret sauce.
A Thorough Understanding Of Military Culture
Namesake and founder, Tim Bilecki, spent years inside the military justice system as a senior defense counsel for the Army. While that legal experience was certainly valuable, gaining a thorough understanding of military culture was priceless. There are indeed some good court martial defense attorneys who have never put on the uniform, but we couldn’t imagine conducting our own investigation without understanding the nuances at play.
We understand what a barracks party looks like with all its debauchery and glory. We know what it means to have a self-serving narcissistic CO who is far more interested in that next shiny piece of brass on his shoulder than the troops. We know that when sexual misconduct is alleged that there is almost always a second story at play. Because we leave no stone unturned, we’ve unfortunately seen what bad judgement looks like, but know how to defend it.
Most importantly, we know that many of our clients are just young kids who do some stupid things. Our thorough understanding of military culture often allows us to save them from themselves when they start lying to us and we call bs. We have a way of making our clients feel so comfortable with us that they willingly tell us the most depraved parts of their story so that we might fight for the truth. You cannot win if you do not conduct your own investigation and you cannot conduct a thorough investigation if your clients can’t trust you. It starts with trust and ends with victory because we tell it like it is from the start.
Dismantling a Military Investigation One Piece At A Time
Once we’ve got a solid and honest account from our service member, we can then get back to the case file and start looking where military investigators screwed up. They almost always screw up and from cases we’ve seen, it may very well have been Helen Keller herself conducting the search of the barracks room or squad bay. The amount of evidence they miss is astounding and our only conclusion is that it is intentional as few could be this incompetent.
That’s why, for Bilecki, the NCIS, CID or MPI files are just the starting point for his investigation. Bilecki employs its own team to track down the forensic or electronic evidence. We talk to witnesses that the prosecution wishes we never would have found. We review each step of the military investigator’s work to ensure that they followed the proper due process and broke no laws while conducting the investigation.
You have to understand that military investigators are not operating from the viewpoint that they exist to uncover the truth. Rather, they exist to feed slam dunk cases to the prosecution and when they don’t have one, they will conveniently look the other way. It’s like a bad game of Clue where if they arrest Professor Plum for bludgeoning someone to death in the Library they will ignore Colonel Mustard walking out of the shower with a bloody candlestick in his hand. It is that bad and you just dismantle every step of a military investigator’s work if you hope to win the day.
Finding The Witnesses The Prosecution Tries to Hide
Military prosecutors boast an almost unlimited array of resources which makes it curious when they don’t bother to interview certain witnesses. If a Sergeant is accused of domestic abuse, why wouldn’t you want to talk to prior girlfriends, wives and lovers? Maybe because the prosecution knows they will tell them that he has never lifted a finger against them. They just don’t go out of their way to discover the truth when they can smell an easy win within reach. It is your job as the defense to do what they are unwilling to do when it comes to witnesses.
The next step is to pull together your own list of expert witnesses. I trust prosecutors who tell me that they know a guy who knows his stuff about DNA about as much as trust a game of three card monte off the Vegas strip. It is not always easy to get your own expert witnesses onto the stand, but you better try. By the time prosecutors bring a case to trial they will have likely shopped for the expert that they believe gives them the best chance at a conviction.
Finally, you have to be willing to go nuclear on the witnesses that the prosecution brings to the stand. This is where many free JAG defense attorneys lose their nerve as they are often more worried about their own career than the clients. Bilecki will absolutely shred the prosecution’s witnesses to pieces on the stand and he doesn’t care how many stars on their shoulder when he does so. If you have conducted your own thorough investigation then you will know exactly where to attack and when to go in for the kill. We are unapologetic in the defense of our clients.
Subpoena, Motion And Fight To The Bitter End
Military history is full of gallant last stands where the hero resorted to throwing everything from rocks, beer bottles, empty ammo cans and anything that he could get his hands on before going down in the fight. You have to have the same mentality when it comes to conducting your own investigations. If you can think of it, then ask for it. Subpoena for the information that the prosecution is well aware of, but didn’t bother to bring up or disclose.
Request every text message. Request every file. Ask for the pics in duplicate and even have them blown up for closer examination if you need to do so. Fight like hell from the moment the investigation starts until the very end. Cede to the prosecution nothing and take from them everything.
Your own thorough investigation is the path to victory and Bilecki never fails to make that happen. We’ve even had service caught red handed in a sting operation and because we conducted our own investigation, we discovered that NCIS broke the law and destroyed their own case. You simply must be willing to put in the work. If you are under investigation or facing court martial, reach out to us now. The earlier in the process the better and as long as you are willing to fight like hell, so are we. From the very beginning to the bitter end. We will fight together.
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