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Timothy James Bilecki's Legal Cases (543)

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Military law

Bilecki Closes Multi-Spec Domestic Violence GCM on AF MSgt at Aviano with Most Specifications Dismissed

Feb 27, 2026

OUTCOME: Plea. Most domestic-violence specifications dismissed. Time served. No punitive discharge.

An Air Force Master Sergeant at Aviano was charged in a broad domestic-violence court-martial built from family allegations spanning several years. After a later no-contact-order allegation, he was pla ... ced in pretrial confinement. The case ended with most domestic-violence specifications dismissed, time served, and no punitive discharge. The case was bigger than any single charged event. It involved a senior NCO with multiple combat deployments, serious alcohol problems, PTSD-related issues, repeated conflict inside the home, and years of family dysfunction. The allegations also included substance-abuse issues tied to the same downward spiral. By the time Tim Bilecki took the case, the government had years of accusations and a charging posture that put prison time and a punitive discharge squarely on the table. The defense objective was straightforward: keep a punitive discharge off the table and get him out of confinement. We traveled to Europe multiple times to investigate the case, litigate motions, and meet with the client while he was in pretrial confinement. The defense team included Patrick Eller of Metadata Forensics as the digital forensic examiner and Dr. Gabriel Holguin as the forensic psychologist. This was not a case the government was going to discount on its own. The plea discussions moved only after the defense developed the case, litigated it, and changed the leverage. That work changed the result. For a client who ended up in pretrial confinement on a broad domestic-violence court-martial, that mattered.

Military law

Bilecki Closes Article 120b and 134 GCM at 14 Years After Judge Cited Over 100 Years

Feb 13, 2026

OUTCOME: Plea Agreement at general court martial; numerous specifications dismissed after arraignment; 14 years confinement, reduction to E-1, Dishonorable Discharge; military judge stated on the record that consecutive sentences would have run over 100 years.

This was an Air Force Airman at Ramstein Air Base facing a referred general court martial across five Charges and twenty nine specifications spanning Article 120b sexual abuse of a child, Article 134 p ... ossession, viewing, and production of child pornography, and Article 131b obstruction of justice. Maximum exposure on the unsentenced charge sheet at general court martial run consecutively across the twenty nine specifications: well over a century of confinement, mandatory Dishonorable Discharge, federal felony record, and Tier III lifetime federal sex offender registration. Our client retained Bilecki at the AFOSI investigation stage. The math drove the negotiation. A general court martial that ran the twenty nine specifications consecutively would have produced a confinement total no service member walks back from. The Plea Agreement under R.C.M. 705 / Article 53a UCMJ structured the case differently. The agreement narrowed the plea to negotiated specifications, dismissed numerous specifications after arraignment, and set caps that ran the principal Article 120b lewd act specifications and the Article 134 child pornography specifications as a concurrent group rather than consecutively. The Plea Agreement was signed in late January 2026. After sentence announcement, the military judge stated on the record that without the Plea Agreement in place he would have run the sentences consecutively, which would have produced over 100 years of confinement. The 14 years adjudged was the floor the Plea Agreement bought.

Military law

CSAM Charge Dismissed in III MEF Band Hidden Camera Case

Feb 06, 2026

OUTCOME: Plea to three Article 120c specifications. CSAM, obstruction, false official statement, and attempted recording dismissed. 30 months confinement concurrent. Reduction to E-1. Total forfeitures. Dishonorable Discharge.

A Marine Sergeant assigned to the III MEF Band at Camp Foster was caught after a female Marine found a hidden camera under a toilet seat in the female head. Military police responded, CID was notified, ... NCIS took over, the camera was seized, the bathroom was photographed, and female Marines from the unit were interviewed. The next day, the Sergeant came forward to command and admitted he had placed the camera, but his explanation made the situation worse. He claimed he had placed cameras in the female head to identify security vulnerabilities and "red team" the bathroom so nobody else could do the same thing. He said he had read about a similar hidden-camera incident on a ship and wanted to see whether the III MEF Band female head had the same vulnerability. NCIS had him walk through the female head and explain how he supposedly conducted the vulnerability assessment. They video recorded him showing where the camera had been placed, how the area could be accessed, and how his "red team" plan supposedly worked. The explanation did not hold. After NCIS pushed him on it, he confessed. He was placed into pretrial confinement, and the later search of his devices made the case worse. NCIS reviewed phones, SD cards, a computer tower, cloud data, and other digital evidence. Investigators recovered hours of hidden camera footage, deleted files, edited clips, recovered videos, file names tied to the recordings, and evidence that cameras had been placed in multiple locations inside the female head, including the changing area, the handicap toilet area, and under a toilet seat. The footage was not just sitting there untouched. He had taken hours of recordings and made compilations from them. The device search also led to an Article 134 CSAM possession charge. The Sergeant admitted the core Article 120c conduct. He placed cameras inside the female head and recorded female Marines in private areas without their consent. By then, the Government had the discovered camera, the command admission, the recorded walkthrough, the confession, multiple camera placements, hours of recordings, edited compilation videos, deleted and recovered files, pretrial confinement, victim impact evidence, and the CSAM charge. Tim Bilecki traveled to MCB Camp Foster, Okinawa for the guilty plea and sentencing hearing. OSTC wanted five years, and the negotiation was difficult. Bilecki personally met with OSTC and negotiated an agreement that kept the final conviction record limited to the Article 120c conduct, dismissed the CSAM charge, dismissed the obstruction, false official statement, and attempted recording charges, and controlled the confinement across the three indecent recording specifications. The Sergeant pleaded guilty to three Article 120c indecent recording specifications. In exchange, the Government dismissed the CSAM charge, the attempted indecent recording specifications, the obstruction charge, and the false official statement charge. OSTC wanted five years. The final sentence was 30 months confinement. The CSAM charge, obstruction charge, false official statement charge, and attempted recording charges were dismissed.

Military law

Bilecki Wins Full Acquittal on Army SFC at Camp Humphreys in Article 120 Abusive Sexual Contact Court Martial

Jan 16, 2026

OUTCOME: Full acquittal after fully contested members trial. Not guilty of all charges and specifications.

Every senior NCO at Humphreys should understand how fast a night in the Ville can turn into a career-ending allegation when the wrong people decide to lie. This was not a case involving two unrelate ... d alleged victims who just happened to tell similar stories. They were close friends. They came to Korea together, moved in the same social circle, were in the same group chat, "literally hang out all the time," and were even listed as each other's emergency contacts. After the report, one of them gave a lieutenant witness a heads-up that CID would be calling, said she needed the lieutenant to speak on her behalf, and previewed what she had told CID. The second alleged victim did not even make her own allegation until CID brought her in as a witness on the first one's complaint. That is not a detail. That is the case. The first alleged victim was flirting with our client at O-Lounge, and there was another guy in the picture that night. A lieutenant witness told CID she came out of O-Lounge with the guy she was "talking to," and that same male Soldier was there during the confrontation outside. The second alleged victim confirmed she was outside with that guy when she came down. CID knew about him. CID knew he mattered. CID still never identified him, never interviewed him, and never collected the outside camera footage that could have shown what happened during the missing stretch between the inside video and the punch outside. Once the flirting got seen, the night got hot, and the only way around that problem was to flip the script, claim sexual assault, and make our client the villain. The first alleged victim then punched him in the face multiple times after he denied putting his hand up her skirt. Everyone agreed on the punch. CID knew about it. CID knew it was corroborated. CID still did not open a separate assault investigation, did not refer it out, and did not even document how it handled that admitted assault under SHARP Safe to Report. It just kept building a case against our client. While the government kept him flagged and on legal hold for more than a year, we flew to Korea multiple times, personally went to O-Lounge, worked the scene, talked to witnesses, and built the case the right way. Then Bilecki did what this case required: he tore it apart in cross-examination. We exposed how close the two alleged victims were, how their stories shifted, how the jealousy motive made sense, how CID ignored the male Soldier who mattered, how the punch was never seriously investigated, how the June allegation was never corroborated, and how the government spent more than a year treating a senior NCO as guilty before it ever proved a thing. After a full week contested members trial at Camp Humphreys, we won. Our client was acquitted of all charges and specifications. He was fully exonerated. The two lying Soldiers never got charged. They were never prosecuted. They did not even get so much as a counseling statement. But our client walked out of that courtroom not guilty after OSTC and CID spent more than a year trying to bury him. In Korea, in the SHARP climate, that matters.

Military law

Bilecki Wins Suppression Ruling on Marine SGT at Camp Lejeune; Burglary Charges Withdrawn; Plea on Reduced Specifications

Dec 05, 2025

OUTCOME: Referred general court-martial resolved by plea. Burglary charges withdrawn and dismissed. Sentenced to 18 months confinement, bad-conduct discharge, and reduction to E-1.

A Marine Sergeant stole a rifle off a ship, hid it under a 7-ton, moved it off base, and then helped stage a fake break-in at a Camp Lejeune motor pool to cover missing gear before more military proper ... ty started disappearing. By the time the government was done building the case, ATF, FBI, and NCIS had all touched it, the discovery ran roughly 9,000 pages, and the matter was sitting at a referred general court-martial. That is the case the government thought it was taking to trial. The first part started aboard ship. After taking the rifle from the JMIC, it was hidden under the frame of a 7-ton until the unit got off the ship. From there, it was moved to a car trunk, then driven off base and brought to a hotel in Jacksonville. The second part was different but just as bad. After a field exercise, gear was missing and a group of Marines decided to make it look like an outside break-in instead of answering for the missing property. A key was used to get into the motor pool, the fence was cut to create the appearance of forced entry, and gear was removed so the story would match the scene. The next morning, the "break-in" got reported. This was not a small property case that was ever going to disappear quietly. It was a referred general court-martial with burglary charges, larceny charges, Article 108 charges, multiple agencies, a massive file, and enough evidence to make the government think it had all the leverage. Statements. Digital evidence. Recovered property. The kind of case where the prosecution usually expects the defense to come in asking for mercy. Tim Bilecki did not handle it that way. We built the team the case required. Bilecki brought in Dr. Gabriel Holguin as the defense forensic psychologist and Patrick Eller as the digital forensic examiner. Dr. Holguin testified at the suppression hearing, and that testimony was integral to getting key evidence suppressed. Eller helped the defense work through the digital forensic evidence the government thought it understood. In a case like this, with that many agencies and that much digital evidence, you do not win by showing up alone and hoping for the best. The motion hearing became the turning point. We challenged the interrogation and the related phone evidence hard. This was not a filler motion. It was a real suppression fight in a serious case, and it mattered. The military judge granted the motion in part and suppressed portions of the phone data the government needed. That changed everything. Bilecki traveled to Camp Lejeune, litigated the motion, and then handled negotiations in person all the way up through the O-6 Staff Judge Advocate level. The government went from holding a referred burglary case with a mountain of discovery to dealing with a case that suddenly carried real trial risk. Before the suppression hearing, the government had very little reason to move. After the hearing, it did. The burglary charges came off the table. The case resolved by plea to two larceny specifications and four Article 108 specifications involving the sale and disposition of military property. For a case that started with burglary charges, multiple agencies, and serious confinement exposure, that was a very different ending than the one the government had in mind when it referred charges. This is what serious motion practice is supposed to do. Sometimes the most important negotiation in the case does not happen because the government suddenly gets reasonable. It happens because the defense wins something first.

Military law

Bilecki Closes Court Martial Investigation on Army SFC Deployed to Jordan with No Preferral, No NJP, No GOMOR

Nov 07, 2025

OUTCOME: Court-martial investigation ended with no preferral, no NJP, and no GOMOR.

A retirement-eligible Sergeant First Class deployed in the Middle East was being worked as a larceny case that looked like it could end in court-martial. Tim Bilecki kept it out of charges, out of NJP, ... and out of the GOMOR lane. When Bilecki took the case on, our client was serving in a senior personnel role in support of Task Force Syria in Iraq and Jordan. The allegations centered on a Philadelphia renovation project and money two Soldiers had sent toward that project. The government's theory was that she had stolen roughly $12,000 from one Soldier, another $5,000 from a junior Soldier, and used her position as a senior NCO to turn those transactions into personal gain. That was the government's version of the story. The actual facts were more complicated. The money was tied to a real estate renovation project and to a broader personal-finance and cryptocurrency discussion group that included Soldiers from different sections and ranks. The contributions were presented as at-risk capital, not guaranteed loans. The project then got hit with vandalism, theft, cost overruns, and delays. Throughout that period, updates were provided, site photos were shared, and when concerns arose, money started going back before notification of the investigation. That mattered because the government was trying to force a criminal larceny theory onto facts that did not fit. There were no completed bank subpoenas tracing the money into personal use spending. There was no forensic accounting showing the kind of diversion you would expect in a real theft case. There was no clear evidence that rank had been used to pressure anyone, promise anyone anything, or turn the relationship into some obvious abuse of authority. One of the Soldiers had already been repaid in full before notification of the investigation. Those are not small details. Those are the details that determine whether a case is really criminal or whether it is being pushed too far. Tim Bilecki got involved while the matter was still being worked as a criminal case and put it where it belonged. We pushed back on the larceny theory, the personal-gain theory, and the idea that this was some straightforward abuse-of-rank case. We showed the command what the discovery actually did and did not prove. We showed that this looked far more like a failed and delayed investment project mixed with bad judgment than a criminal theft case. We also made sure the command had the full picture of who this Soldier was: retirement eligible, a long record of honorable service, selected for positions of trust, and still deployed in the Middle East when this was unfolding. That changed the posture of the case. What started as a court-martial investigation did not turn into charges. It did not result in NJP. It did not result in a GOMOR. For a retirement-eligible senior NCO being looked at through a criminal lens while deployed in the Middle East, that mattered.

Military law

Bilecki Closes AR 15-6 Off-Duty Social Media Investigation on Army CPT at Fort Lee with Verbal Counseling Only

Sep 05, 2025

OUTCOME: Verbal counseling only. No adverse action taken.

An Army Captain made several off-duty Facebook posts after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and within a day strangers on the internet were trying to end his career. That was the case. The post ... s went up from home, off duty, on a private social media account. They were not directed at subordinates, not made on government equipment, and not posted as part of any official role. Then someone inside his private audience pushed screenshots outside the account, and the whole thing blew up. Once that happened, the internet did what it does. The posts spread far beyond the intended audience. His military affiliation got exposed. Personal information about him and his family started moving online. Threatening messages followed. Senior leaders were briefed, and an AR 15-6 was opened looking at regulatory and punitive exposure. This was never just about a few harsh political posts. It was about whether private, off-duty speech on a private account was going to become a career-ending event for an Army officer once strangers online got hold of it. Once a command starts looking at an officer through that lens, the risk is real. Reprimand. Relief. Permanent damage to the file. All because someone took private speech and dragged it into public view. Tim Bilecki got involved and put the case where it belonged. Bilecki Law Group did not deny the posts. We dealt with the facts head-on. The account was private. The posts were made off duty, from home, without government equipment. He did not threaten anyone. He did not call for violence. He did not target anyone in his unit. He did not try to present his personal political views as the Army's views. We also made sure the command had the context the internet never cared about. This officer had an established service record, had kept his professional life separate from partisan commentary, and once the posts escaped the private setting he thought he had, he took them down and moved to protect his family. That changed the posture of the case. What started as an AR 15-6 with real command attention and real career risk ended with verbal counseling only. No reprimand. No adverse action. No career-ending mark over private off-duty posts that someone else pulled into public view.

Military law

Bilecki Closes Article 128b Domestic Violence Across Air Force, Family Advocacy, and Florida Family-Court Tracks for AFSOC SMSgt

Aug 22, 2025

OUTCOME: OSTC deferred charging; FAP closed unfounded; Florida emergency custody motion denied; no court martial, NJP, LOR, LOA, GOMOR, or adverse administrative action.

This was an Air Force Senior Master Sergeant on a one-year short tour at Kadena AB whose Article 128b domestic-violence allegation routed simultaneously through Air Force Security Forces, the Family Ad ... vocacy Program, an OSTC review, and a Florida family-court Emergency Motion for Temporary Custody, and closed in every forum. The substantive allegation was reported in March 2025 by the daughter's school therapist in Fort Worth. The Government alleged that in September or October 2024 at the family residence in Fort Worth, our client had grabbed his then-12-year-old daughter by the arm (incidentally grabbing hair) to pull her in from a shared second-story balcony, where the daughter had walked out in bra and underwear to wash dog urine. Multiple parallel tracks were active through the summer of 2025. The biological father of the daughter, our client's estranged ex-spouse, used the Security Forces investigation materials to file an Emergency Motion for Temporary Custody in Florida family court in July 2025. Temporary custody was granted pending hearing. The daughter was interviewed in late July 2025 by law enforcement (not by a Child Forensic Interviewer). In late July 2025, the Florida court denied the Emergency Motion. The daughter returned to Okinawa. The Office of Special Trial Counsel deferred charging. When an Article 128b domestic-violence-on-a-child allegation runs simultaneously across Air Force Security Forces, Family Advocacy, OSTC, and a Florida family-court emergency-custody track, the defense fight is keeping every forum from carrying the case forward. The FAP unfounded result, the Florida court's denial of the emergency motion, and the OSTC deferral all came in within the same window, each closure making the next one more likely. The combined result is that no track converted to an adverse outcome.

Military law

Bilecki Holds Article 120 Abusive Sexual Contact Disposition at GOMOR for Newly Commissioned Army CPT

Aug 15, 2025

OUTCOME: GOMOR permanently filed in AMHRR; no Show Cause Board / Officer Elimination; no NJP; no court martial.

This was an Army Medical Service Corps Captain, direct-commissioned in October 2024 with twelve-plus years of civilian outpatient orthopedic-PT experience and a Doctor of Physical Therapy, issued a GOM ... OR citing Article 120 abusive sexual contact during AMEDD Basic Officer Leader Course field training at Camp Bullis. The GOMOR alleged two incidents. The Government alleged a March 2025 butt-slap of a Captain during a food inspection in a male barracks tent at approximately 0737 in front of 20 to 25 service members in gear awaiting formation; and a separate March 2025 butt-slap of a different Captain at outdoor picnic benches at approximately 1800. The defense GOMOR Rebuttal went in August 2025. When a newly direct-commissioned Captain is hit with an AMHRR-filed GOMOR citing Article 120 abusive sexual contact, the next move is the Show Cause Board. The disposition fight on the back end of the GOMOR is keeping that Show Cause from being initiated. The disposition authority's decision to file the GOMOR but not initiate Show Cause / Officer Elimination preserved the commission. The AMHRR filing remains the disciplinary record; the path forward to retention is on the merits at promotion boards, not at a Show Cause Board.

Military law

Bilecki Wins Commandant of the Marine Corps Decline-to-Separate on AdSep Board OTH Recommendation for MSgt at NSA Bahrain

Jul 25, 2025

OUTCOME: AdSep Board found basis and recommended OTH; defense Letter of Deficiency submitted; CMC declined to separate; Master Sergeant retained on active duty.

This was a Marine Master Sergeant in the Command Element of 5th MEB at NSA Bahrain whose administrative separation board found a basis and recommended Other Than Honorable characterization. The Command ... ant of the Marine Corps declined to separate. The factual basis cited UCMJ Article 120 abusive sexual contact. The Government alleged that in late September 2024 at or near Galali, Bahrain, our client had touched the buttocks, inner thigh, groin, or vulva of a Staff Sergeant with his hand, with intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, or degrade and/or to arouse or gratify, without consent; and that he caused her to touch his penis with her hand without consent. The NCIS investigation had begun in late September 2024. NCIS interviewed the alleged victim in early October 2024. A pretext text-message conversation in early October 2024 stopped when our client attempted to call. A No Contact Order issued. Surveillance footage from the Hanging Gardens of Dilmunia building was obtained. Notification of administrative separation went out in April 2025 with recommended characterization Other Than Honorable. The Administrative Separation Board convened in July 2025 at NSA Bahrain. The defense team was Tim Bilecki, Benjamin Gold (civilian counsel), and Marine Corps Defense Services Organization counsel from MCAS New River / MCB Camp Lejeune. The Board found a basis and recommended Other Than Honorable characterization. The defense submitted a Letter of Deficiency challenging the Board record. The Commandant of the Marine Corps (MMSR-3), as the final separation authority for E-7-and-above misconduct separations under MCO 1900.16 (MARCORSEPMAN), declined to separate. The Master Sergeant was retained on active duty. When an AdSep board finds a basis on an Article 120 abusive sexual contact theory and recommends Other Than Honorable characterization on a Marine Master Sergeant, the conventional outcome is a CMC-approved separation that strips the Marine of rank and benefits on the way out the door. The Letter of Deficiency record put in front of the CMC after the Board finding is the document that determines whether the MMSR-3 separation authority approves the recommendation or declines. In this case, the CMC declined. The Marine stayed in.