Full Acquittal for SNCO at Ft. Lewis Court-Martial

Full acquittal for Ft Lewis soldier accused of sexual assault

Our client, a SFC (E-7) was facing a sexual assault allegation court-martial at Ft. Lewis from his SPC (E-4) troop. This male-on-male sexual assault allegation was particularly complicated because the alleged victim accused our client of having exerted power and control over him for almost two years. CID investigators placed a secretive phone call to our client with the alleged victim. They claimed that our client admitted to a sexual relationship.

Trial Details

Our client demanded a jury of officers and enlisted members. We picked a fantastic jury with a fair amount of racial diversity. We filed a number of pretrial motions, and the judge made several rulings that were favorable to our case.

Over a dozen witnesses were called to testify. One of our biggest successes was finding witnesses that were able to establish that the alleged victim was untruthful and manipulative. In addition, we caused the alleged victim to double-down on some dates, and we later were able to show that our client was out of town on some of the dates.

Our client wasn’t only charged with sexual assault. He was also charged with various forms of having an inappropriate relationship with the junior troop. He was also charged with making a false official statement by forging a PT Test Card.

Just prior to trial, many believed this would be a winning case for the prosecution. Even if they didn’t get a win on all of the charges, there was good evidence in their mind to get at least a partial conviction and send this 24 year Active Guard Reservist on his way without a retirement check.

There were many dramatic moments in the trial, to include the alleged victim cursing toward us during cross examination, changing his story mid-way through, and getting caught red-handed trying to intimidate another witness. Our client also testified in his defense and did a spectacular job of establishing his innocence. Our closing was dramatic and used cutting edge technology demonstrations. The use of technology really helped the jury understand the existence of an alibi.

In the end, the jury acquitted our client with approximately one-hour of deliberations. This extremely quick verdict may be evidence of a unanimous verdict. We can never know what the members were exactly thinking, but this trial, that was once thought to be a good case for the prosecution, was turned on its head, and was a run-away victory due to our hard work and dedication.