Full Sexual Assault Acquittal for NCO at Hurlburt Field
Our client, a SSgt (E-5) was accused of sexual assault by an Army NCO. Our client was accused of sexually assaulting this NCO while he was on duty as a Security Forces member. OSI and the prosecution went at our guy with full strength and seemed confident they would win.
Trial Details
Our client demanded a jury of officers and enlisted members.
It was clear this was going to be a difficult trial. The alleged victim seemed very credible in the way she spoke and told her story. She did not have an obvious motive to fabricate the allegations. She also had no prior history with our client to justify why she would want him to suffer this court-martial if she was lying.
Just before trial, the prosecution made frantic efforts to paint our client in a negative light. They tried to surprise us with allegations of misconduct from a bitter ex-wife, and they tried to paint our client as a bad person for things he said in private text messages. Our advocacy led to the judge prohibiting these last minute antics.
The alleged victim was discredited on the stand for inconsistencies in her testimony compared to earlier statements, her lack of accurate memory due to alcohol, and demonstrable biased demeanor. Perhaps the most devastating was the inconsistencies we developed between her story and the story of her close friends.
Our client decided not to testify, and the members did not hold it against him. We did use a technology expert to establish certain information from our client’s cell phone helped establish his innocence.
Just prior to trial, many believed this would be a winning case for the prosecution. We were told that her story just seemed very believable. It was only due to the hard work of our firm and the help from our area defense counsel, that we systematically annihilated the credibility of the allegations in this case.
In the end, the jury acquitted our client very quickly. After the trial, two of the jury members expressed their confusion over how this trial even made it through preliminary hearings. This sentiment was a great compliment because it was evidence that our firm had taken a case the prosecutors thought they would win and we knocked it out of the park.
