At Golden Law, our success is our client’s success. Nothing thrills us more than delivering a good result in every client’s case. Because we focus on achieving fantastic outcomes for each of our clients, those that work with us often want to know how we are doing. Not a day goes by where a client doesn’t ask “how’s it going out there?” or “how’d your recent trial work out?”
And so, in the spirit of celebrating everyone’s success, we thought we’d share the “Victories of 2021.” Here, we don’t want to focus on the “Not Guilty” verdicts or the cases won at trial. We have plenty of those successes every year. But our work is about more than winning in a criminal trial. We also achieve great results for clients in other ways.
Here’s what we’re celebrating in 2021:
- For a young Marine at Camp Lejeune, we vigorously investigated the sexual assault allegations against him and the character of the complaining witnesses in his case. In the military, it’s hard to see “multiple victim sexual assault cases” disappear. But we found out the truth – that the “victims” had collaborated on their allegations and were hiding their own misdeeds. Just two weeks before trial, the prosecutor saw what we had already discovered, and the charges we dismissed!
- For a senior noncommissioned officer at Hill Air Force Base, we knew the allegations against him were far-fetched. But as is common in today’s military, charges were preferred, and the case was sent to a “preliminary hearing.” These preliminary hearings are typically a “rubber stamp” for the government – just a step along the way towards a criminal trial. But not on our watch! We aggressively confronted the allegations and convinced the Preliminary Hearing Officer that the charges were nonsense! The government wasn’t happy with that result, so they sent the case to another “preliminary hearing” with a different officer. We beat the charges again! Two Article 32 hearings, two recommendations that the case be dismissed. And now this senior noncommissioned officer has successfully retired!
- In a Navy case out of Georgia, our Chief Petty Officer client was taken to an Article 32 two times. In the first hearing, we meticulously tore apart the credibility of the alleged child victim’s claim by demonstrating that her prior recorded interview with law enforcement was simply unbelievable. Apparently, that wasn’t good enough for the commanding officer who ordered a second Article 32, this time putting the alleged victim on the stand via Zoom. During the course of her cross examination, the alleged victim became hysterical as she was confronted with her own inconsistencies and lies. The second preliminary hearing report sealed the deal for our client, resulting in the full dismissal of multiple extremely serious child sexual assault allegations.
- For an officer at Cannon Air Force Base, we knew the alleged victim wouldn’t stand by her allegations. When the command offered him nonjudicial punishment for a sexual assault that completely lacked evidence, we called their bluff and demanded trial by court-martial. Then, when they dropped the court-martial charges and tried to discharge him instead, we absolutely destroyed their evidence at a Board of Inquiry. An outstanding officer retained!
- At Hurlburt Field, a noncommissioned officer brought us on when his case seemed inevitably headed to court-martial. He faced charges for engaging in inappropriate and sexual conversation with subordinates, and other noncommissioned officers that did the same thing were also looking at court-martial. In fact, another person hired a different law firm but ended up with a federal conviction! For our client, we convinced the command that this was not a case worth taking to trial. He avoided a federal conviction and scored an amazing job with a government contractor making twice what he made before.
- A junior sailor in Japan hired us to represent him at an Article 32 for sexual assault allegations. Due to COVID-19, we were forced to provide representation remotely, but we still convinced the Article 32 Preliminary Hearing officer that there was not probable cause after showing the motives of the alleged victim to fabricate and establishing the remarkable inconsistencies in her story. The case was dismissed, and our client has carried on with his career.
- For an officer client at Warner Robins, GA, we reached the end of a years-long battle to establish our client’s innocence of multiple allegations of sexual assault. Over the years, we proved the incredulity of each of the multiple allegations while the command attempted to bring our client to a General Court-Martial. Before the case ever made it to trial, the matter was fully dismissed. The outrageously aggressive prosecutors then forced the case to a Board of Inquiry and sought the administrative equivalent of a dishonorable discharge. The week-long Board allowed us to finally confront many of the accusers and demonstrate their collusion and unreliability and ended with a very favorable verdict.
- A junior airman hired us to defend him in England against allegations of aggravated assault. Our client was accused of viciously beating a foreign-national on the outskirts of London after a night at the bars. We were able to prove with video evidence that our client was not only not involved in the altercation, but we also established that the alleged victim was also the aggressor of violence. In an unprecedented outcome for Golden Law, the Chief Judge of the Air Force didn’t even allow the jury to deliberate, and instead issued a directed finding of not-guilty to ensure justice was done.
- A junior soldier at Ft. Irwin asked us to again represent him for a discharge board after we had represented him in a General Court-Martial in 2020. Our client had been acquitted of all allegations of sexual misconduct toward a child in his trial, but the prosecutors attempted to use those same allegations to justify discharging our client. We convinced the president of the discharge board to dismiss the case because of violations of the administrative double jeopardy at play. After months of debate after the president’s initial decision, the Army has finally decided to drop the case entirely and allow our client to continue with his career.
- For an Air Force officer at Tinker AFB, we were retained to defend our client in a Court-Martial after his case was overturned on appeal. Our client had been previously convicted while represented by other attorneys. The appellate court overturned a portion of his case but allowed the Government to retry him. We made sure this case never saw the inside of a courtroom as we successfully negotiated a favorable discharge for the client and ensured he received years of backpay.
- A former Navy officer hired us to try and upgrade his discharge. We looked at his case and told him the truth – that it was very rare for the Board of Corrections to upgrade a discharge characterization. But with hard work and dedication, we submitted an outstanding brief to the Board. Our client’s discharge was upgraded to Honorable! And he was able to obtain a security clearance that allows him to work on incredible projects for a government contractor and make a better living for his family.
- For a senior noncommissioned officer at Spangdahlem Air Base, we uncovered his former spouse’s motives to lie about allegations of physical and sexual assault. Not only were his court-martial charges dropped, we convinced the command to destroy ALL disciplinary paperwork related to these unfounded allegations. His record remains spotless, and he is on the path to retire!
- At Camp Humphreys, our consistent hard work paid off. After more than a year of litigation, an Army officer’s court-martial charges were dropped and a Board of Inquiry concluded that the sexual assault allegations were unsubstantiated. This all happened after the “victim” was featured in online news stories about sexual assault. Despite all the political pressure and feeling like he was “guilty until proven innocent,” we were able to save this Army officer’s career!
- For an Army officer at Fort Bliss, we persuaded a General Officer to reduce a sexual harassment-related GOMOR to a local filing so that our client could immediately PCS, retain his follow-on school assignment, and have the hold on his promotion removed.
- For a Petty Officer at Naval Hospital Bremerton, we convinced his command to take no action on sexual assault allegations after six months of investigation. Our client was immediately removed from legal hold and allowed to ETS, getting out with an Honorable discharge and retaining his benefits.
- At the Washington Navy Yard, our years-long battle for a Coast Guard Petty Officer resulted in the Coast Guard Discharge Review upgrading our client’s discharge to an Honorable after the Coast Guard attempted to give him a General discharge following dismissed court-martial charges years earlier. After his discharge was upgraded, our client was granted access to his GI Bill and is now attending college.
- For a Senior Airman at Nellis, we presented evidence of the alleged victim’s known credibility issues, resulting in our client’s Letter of Reprimand being rescinded.
These are just few examples of the successes we are celebrating this year. Our work is about more than going to trial and securing a “Not Guilty” verdict, although we do that all the time! Our work is about achieving fantastic outcomes for each of our clients.
It is critical to highlight that every case is unique and the outcome of one case can never be an indication of what will happen in a different case.
We will be celebrating that work, and our amazing clients, as we turn the calendar to 2022!
