By waddingtonweb
/ August 3, 2021 August 30, 2021 / Lawyers / 1 minute of reading
Military Defense Lawyer Answers Commonly Military Law Questions
Don’t let the police search your phone (without a warrant)!
In this video criminal defense attorney Michael Waddington discusses how to avoid a criminal conviction. The easiest way to avoid a criminal conviction is to not commit any crimes. However, even if you’re innocent, don’t speak to the police or give them your cell phone. Call 1-800-921-8607 to speak with a criminal defense attorney today.
Don’t let the police search your phone (without a warrant)!
Suppose you’re facing a potential court-martial trial and you aren’t exactly sure what it is and how it can affect your life. In general, any person associated with the U.S. military could potentially face a court-martial from the Uniform Code of Military Justice for committing offenses against U.S. military law. If an accused party is found guilty, the punishment usually depends on the crimes and can include reduction in grade, confinement, a punitive discharge, and even prison.
Any member of the armed forces can be accused and end up facing a trial due to unfortunate circumstances. For that reason, if you ever find yourself accused of misconduct and face a court-martial, it’s best to hire an experienced court-martial attorney to steer you through the process.
When facing a court-martial, you can presume that the process will be long and arduous. Most investigations can drag on for multiple months before a final decision is made. In brief, as soon as the investigation is concluded, a high-ranking military official will decide whether you’ll face court-martial charges or not. The entire process from being initially charged to trial can take between eight weeks and eight months to process.
Facing a Court-Martial
At this early stage, the accused party facing a court-martial will be invited to the commander’s office, usually in full-service uniform. The accused is anticipated to stand in attention in the commander’s presence and other high-ranking military officials. These military officials are likely to include a First Sergeant, supervisor, and members from the prosecution’s legal office. A complete script detailing the accusation will be read to the accused, who’s foreseen to remain silent during the process.
The Discovery Phase
The whole process starts with “discovery” being demanded by the uniformed member’s defense lawyer. This allows attorneys to receive documents from the prosecution which inform the defense about all evidence. During the discovery phase, gathering additional exculpatory declarations or documents could heavily influence the case’s outcome.
Final Preparations
Besides motions, which are requests to the judge in the form of written legal documents which might limit or completely prohibit a particular piece of evidence from being used in the trial, the final preparations before the trial include witness interviews, prepping clients, and deciding upon trial strategies and tactics.
Types Of Court-Martial
There are three different types of court-martial that a military member may encounter:
Summary Court-Martial
When a military member gets convicted of a summary court-martial, depending on their rank, the maximum sentence they may face is 30 days of confinement, reduction to E-1, 45 days of unconfined hard labor, and a reduced monthly salary to one third. These types of court-martial can’t result in a discharge of the military, and the process doesn’t involve a judge or jury.
Special Court-Martial
This type of court-martial involves a judge and a panel. The punishments handed out from these are harsher than those from summary court-martial and less severe than the third type of court-martial. The max sentences include one year of confinement, reduced wages to one-third for six months, reduced E-1, hard labor, and restriction.
General Court-Martial
The max sentence in a general court-martial is dependent on the offense committed. If there’s a probable cause, this can be determined by a neutral military lawyer, called a preliminary hearing officer, after an Article 32 hearing. Like special court-martial, a two-thirds majority is demanded from the panel for a conviction. This proportion may be increased to three-quarters if the sentence exceeds ten years of confinement.
Court-Martial Sentencing
If found guilty, the next phase of the court-martial procedure is sentencing. First, the evidence is presented to the court by the government before the defense attorney has the opportunity to respond. The response is a real chance to present any mitigating evidence that may reduce the final sentence.
This can involve any evidence that speaks to the defendant’s character or previous actions that suggest that the defendant deserves a less severe sentence. After this phase of the process, the panel must make up their minds and agree on the verdict. If the sentence comprises confinement, the guilty party or parties will be taken into custody upon the ending of the trial.
Final Thoughts
So, now that you know what to expect from it if you’re facing a court-martial proceeding, try to stay as calm as possible during the process and prepare a winning strategy to keep yourself out of trouble. For that reason, you should consider seeking the assistance of an experienced court-martial attorney to represent you during the case to ensure that you’ll get the most favorable outcome out of it.
By waddingtonweb
/ February 24, 2018 September 16, 2021 / Lawyers / 3 minutes of reading
U.S. v. Army E-6 – Fort Polk, LA/JRTC
Don’t dump the prosecutor’s paralegal… or, you’ll be charged with rape!
Allegations: DOUBLE RAPE, 2 VICTIMS Max Punishment: 2 LIFE SENTENCES Result: NOT GUILTY OF ALL CHARGES Discharge: NONE Location: Fort Polk, LA & Kandahar, Afghanistan Branch/Rank: Army/E-6
Summary: Our client, a Combat Engineer, was accused of raping two women (a US Army soldier/JAG Paralegal and one British citizen). Later, the prosecution claimed that he sexually assaulted two additional people, for a total of four alleged victims. He faced 14 different allegations, over 100 years in prison, and sex offender registration. Mr. Waddington and CPT Brian Greco defended this case.
Our theory:
The two primary victims were scorned ex-lovers out for revenge.
This trial was like an episode of Dr. Phil mixed with Jerry Springer. In and out of court, there was crying, lying, and a lot of drama. We had a local stripper in the audience, a bunch of British witnesses that hated each other, and the British victim kept accusing the defense of intimidation because we were laughing with our client outside of court at the smoke pit, which was completely authorized. She peeped out the window and was offended by us laughing. The prosecutor then scolded us for laughing in public and asked us to stay hidden. Our response was to laugh even louder.
The two alleged rape victims took 3-4 hours EACH to tell their stories. It was painfully boring. The prosecutor kept asking, “How did you feel?” about every minor detail of the case. While how they “felt” was not relevant, the defense intentionally did not object. Instead, we let them blab on and on to the point where the jury stopped listening. 90 minutes into their testimony, the jury stopped paying attention and some jurors were falling asleep. Few people can pay attention to 4 hours of fake sobbing. After the first box of tissues, the jury tuned her out.
On cross-examination, these witnesses were quickly cut to shreds when confronted with lie after lie. After impeaching her with numerous blatant lies, one victim’s neck (the JAG paralegal) started to twitch. It would have been amusing, but for the fact that our client sat falsely accused of heinous crimes.
During Mr. Waddington’s closing argument, the paralegal “victim” brought her husband into the court to watch. When Mr. Waddington talked about all of her lying and cheating, she ran out of the courtroom in tears, in the middle of the closing. Apparently, she never told her husband about her love affair with my client or the fact that she was bragging about my client’s sexual prowess to fellow soldiers, while she was with her husband.
The jury deliberated for about 60 minutes. The defense witnesses went out to party and Mr. Waddington went to his hotel to rest for his next case the following Monday in Norfolk, VA.
By waddingtonweb
/ February 23, 2018 January 11, 2022 / Lawyers / 2 minutes of reading
U.S. v. Navy E-5 – NSA Naples, Italy
Allegations: Article 120 UCMJ, Sexual assault, 2 “victims” Max Punishment: 65 years in prison, DD, and sex offender registration Result: NOT GUILTY OF ALL CHARGES Discharge: NONE Location/Branch/Rank: NSA Naples, Italy/Navy/E-5
Summary: Our client was accused of three specifications of sexual assault against two alleged victims. He faced 60+ years in prison, a DD, and sex offender registration. Mr. Waddington and LT Bryan Barletto fought the charges in front of an enlisted jury. The Navy brought in two experienced prosecutors, including a Senior Special Victim Prosecutor, known for being an extremely aggressive lawyer.
Trying to wear us down, they yelled “objection” to most of the questions posed by the defense. They objected throughout the opening statement, the cross-examinations, and the direct examinations. Mr. Waddington has encountered this cheap tactic many times and he flipped it, like a dagger, and stuck it straight into the heart of the prosecution’s case.
By the end of the trial, it looked like the prosecution was hiding evidence and misleading the jury. In his closing argument, Mr. Waddington called out the prosecution’s weak case and dirty tactics… apparently, the jury agreed.
Court Martial Lawyers – Alexandra González – Waddington & Michael Waddington Attorneys at Law
RESULT: NOT GUILTY OF ALL CHARGES.
Instead of his client going to prison, Mr. Waddington, his client, and his client’s family traveled to the island of Capri for a day of sightseeing, boating, and eating Italian ice cream (gelato).
By waddingtonweb
/ September 30, 2015 October 14, 2021 / Lawyers / 5 minutes of reading
Selecting the Best Military Defense Attorneys
In this post, I am going to talk to you about how to choose the military attorney that’s going to handle your case. Now, if you have been charged in the military, the odds are stacked against you. There is a very good chance that you are going to jail. The government is going to do everything they can to make sure that you go to jail and that you are kicked out of the military.
Court Martial Lawyers – Alexandra González – Waddington & Michael Waddington Attorneys at Law
Put together the best defense team
What you have to do…? And the only thing you can do is put together the best defense team that you can possible. If you don’t do that than your chances are very slim. Well, how do you go about putting together the best defense team possible or choosing a civilian or military defense attorney? You have to do homework. And I can’t stress how important it is that you do your homework.
I will give you an analogy. Let’s say your son or daughter is facing serious medical conditions… a brain tumor or something of that nature. And they have an 80 to 90% chance of not surviving this tumor. There is a procedure out there that you can have brain surgery done and there is a chance that you may survive. So, you have a 10-20% chance. That’s kind of what your chances are in many court martial situations.
You are not going to just go with any doctor, especially not a doctor that the army or some government agency gives to you for free. You get to try to find out if that doctor is qualified. And if you talk to that doctor and you learn from that doctor that who is going to operate on your son or daughter that the doctor has never done a surgery before or has a 100% failure rate at saving the lives of his other patients, you are probably not going to go with that doctor.
Diligence when picking your military lawyer
You need to use the same diligence when picking your military lawyer. A lot of military defense lawyers have a lot of self confidence and they will tell you how they will take care of you. They are the right attorney for the job. They are confident that they can get you a good result. You know, the confidence doesn’t win trials, experience does. Experience and skill!
There are few questions that you have to ask, either your military lawyer or any perspective civilian lawyer before you hire that attorney or you choose to go to court with that attorney. One of the basic questions that you should ask an attorney is about the success rate. You should ask them, “What are the results of the last 10 jury trials that you have did… that you did?”
The Best Court Martial Lawyers Have a Winning Track Record
If they haven’t done 10, then figure out what the last results were of any jury trials they did. If they have never done a jury trial then that’s a red flag that that attorney probably doesn’t have the experience to take your case to trial and get an excellent result.
When were these cases done?
Another thing you would want to ask that attorney, “When were these cases done? Where they have done it in front of an illicit panel or jury or an outside panel, where they are in front of the judge…”
You want an attorney that has at least tried… at least tried at a minimum 10 to 15 jury trials in the military system. Now, not every military attorney has done 10 to 15 trials. Lot of civilians haven’t done even 2 to 3 trials and gotten good results. But, you want to try to gauge how experienced that attorney is. But, a good starting point is 10 to 15 jury trials at a minimum.
Real Costs of a COURT MARTIAL Conviction and Discharge
The next thing you should ask the attorney is, “Of those… Of the last 10 clients you had, how many of those clients were retained? How many were retained and how many were kicked out of the military?” You know, one of the big things that’s going to affect you for the rest of your life is whether or not you get a discharge. A military defense attorney that is 0 for 10 in getting his clients retained is probably not the attorney for you. If you want to be retained, in much…Most people want to be retained.
“How Many Court Martial Case Have You Won?”
Now the other thing you want to ask the attorney is, “One in all the last 10 cases, how many those cases were acquittals, either partial acquittals or full acquittals. And then weigh and balance their experience against other attorneys that you talk to.
And other thing you want to ask the attorney is, “Of those past 10 clients that you had, how many of those clients were sent to jail? And of those 10 clients, what were their charges? And of those 10 clients what was their jail time?”
If you have an attorney who has never contested a case or in the cases that he has contested, he is 0 for 10 in getting…I should say, 10 in 10 in getting clients sent to jail for lengthy periods of time, then again weigh and bounce that attorney’s results with the other attorneys that you speak with.
Attorney’s relationship with the prosecution
Another very important factor is what is this attorney’s relationship with the prosecution, the SJA office? The SJA office is the General’s or the Convening Authority’s lawyers. Ask and find out, what their relationship is with these folks? If they go out drinking with them, if they are roommates with them, if they are best friends with them, if they plan on going to work with these individuals or they just left that same office… And now one minute through the prosecutor, now they will be your defense attorney, that is a red flag.
Each branch in the military has three defense attorneys that can be appointed to your case or if you haven’t been charged, they can advise you on how to proceed, whether to speak or not speak, whether to consent to searches or not consent.
All those types of questions both military defense attorneys on active duty and civilian military defense attorneys can answer. And they can give you peace of mind and help protect your rights.
Many people say I’m going to wait, I’m going to roll the dice, I’m going to wait to see what happens. That waiting to see what happens is generally is not a good strategy, especially if you’re facing serious felony level charges or misdemeanor charges in the military.
If you wait to see what happens, then it’s often too late. Sometimes if you get a military lawyer involved in the case whether civilian or military from the beginning where they can advise you on what to do, then you end up getting a lot better outcome. Those who wait to the very tail-end of the case, and some people wait until a week before their court martial jury trial to go out and either hire an attorney or get actively involved putting up… putting together a defense.
By that point, it’s often too late, the damage is done. What you should do, if one of the following things apply to you or a loved one, you should go out and hire an attorney or get a military attorney.
Number one, you’ve been accused by someone of a crime, or you think you may be accused. Two, the agents have called you in their office and they’re reading your rights. If you’re at that point where agents are reading your rights, then they believe that you’re guilty of a crime. That’s how it works.
When you’re called in and they tell you that you are suspected of manslaughter, rape, larceny, then those agents believe in their minds that it’s probably likely that you’re guilty.
So, they’re not advising you of your rights because they’re trying to look out for your best interest because they’re your friends, they’re advising you of your rights because they think you’re guilty and they have to advise you of the rights, of your rights before they can get your confession.
And you know what? If you sit down with these skilled investigators in the military, there’s a good chance they’re going to get either a confession, meaning you admitting to something or just an admission of guilt where you admit to parts of an offense even if you don’t realize that you’re admitting to it.
And the last thing that should trigger you wanting to get a attorney on your case is you’ve actually been given a charge sheet, whether it’s an Article 15 or NJP charge sheet or an actual court martial charge sheet.
Criminal Defense Lawyers
If you get one of those and it’s handed to you, then you need to run to the nearest defense office or get on the phone and get a defense team put together. You snooze, you lose, guys. You need to get someone on board quickly that’s competent and aggressive if you want to have the best chance of success in your case.
By waddingtonweb
/ August 20, 2015 January 10, 2022 / Lawyers / 3 minutes of reading
The full article is posted here: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/08/19/ashley-madison-using-troops-may-have-bonked-their-careers
By Steven Nelson
Americans overwhelmingly believe adultery is morally wrong, but information stolen by hackers from affair-facilitating website AshleyMadison.com – and posted online this week – may result in more than dirty looks and broken relationships for U.S. military personnel.
Court Martial Lawyers – Alexandra González – Waddington & Michael Waddington Attorneys at Law
Sexual assault in the military
That’s because cheating on your spouse is a crime if you’re a member of the military – a potentially worrying detail for operators of nearly 10,000 .mil email addresses that appear to be associated with Ashley Madison accounts.
Military law experts say it’s unlikely many of the troops would receive a court-martial or the maximum penalty of one year in prison and a dishonorable discharge, but believe a wave of lesser, though still severe, consequences is possible.
Adultery, the criminal charge, rarely is the sole basis for a criminal investigation and charges in the military, but that’s not always the case for higher-ranking officials or those dating subordinates or the spouses of colleagues, the experts say.
“When you’re talking about thousands and thousands, it’s probably going to be coming from all ranks, and the disposition may vary based on rank,” says Victor Hansen, a former military prosecutor and defense attorney.
Hansen says he helped quietly resolve adultery investigations against officers about a decade ago and says “the Army’s response typically was to reprimand the officer and quietly retire them, usually at a reduced rank,” resulting in a smaller pension.
Hansen, who now teaches at the New England School of Law, says that probably remains the approach.
The military has little interest in seeing the sex lives of officers on the front page of newspapers, he says, and without congressional pressure it’s unlikely military prosecutors “are going to go out and troll the waters of these websites proactively.”
Hansen notes “a lot of this is going to center around proof” and says officers who zealously oppose adultery are likely to be warned off recommending charges against low-level troops on the basis of minimal evidence by their military law advisers.
“That tends to have a particularly dampening effect on a commander who might have a crusade for a particular type of crime,” he says.
Hansen says lower-level members of the military can still get letters of reprimand in their military files. The military generally is an “up or out” organization, and troops unable to be promoted due to misconduct would have few options but to leave.
Richard Rosen, a former commandant of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School, says adultery often was used as an add-on charge for alleged crimes such as rape, but also stemmed from improper officer-subordinate relationships.
“If you have a four-star general who’s on this site, people might feel differently,” he says.
A decision to bring adultery charges under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice “really depends upon whether the government can show discredit upon the armed forces or that it’s prejudicial to good order and discipline,” he says.
Real Costs of a COURT MARTIAL Conviction and Discharge
“They would have to prove one of those two things,” says Rosen, now a professor at the Texas Tech University School of Law. “So if you have a low-ranking enlisted person, the chances are you aren’t going to get an adultery court martial, but it may be different for a general officer.”
Still, Rosen says ordinary members of the military could tattle on their peers outside the chain of command, kicking off a probe that could result in a letter of reprimand, ending career prospects.
By waddingtonweb
/ August 17, 2015 January 9, 2022 / Lawyers / 2 minutes of reading
Military Defense Counsel and Conflicts of Interest
Choosing the Best Military Lawyers for Your Case
Sometimes, service members accused of crimes in the military will call and say that they are not really sure about their military lawyer, the lawyer that they were appointed in their case. And one of the things that they, that they are unsure about is that they see this lawyer hanging out with, socializing with, sometimes out drinking with, hanging out with, partying with the prosecution or their Commander.\
Whether or not you want to stick with that lawyer is a personal choice. Often in the JAG Corps, the defense is forced to socialize at certain events with the prosecutors in the JAG Corps. There is nothing wrong with that. The problem comes in when, when it goes beyond socializing at a military function as a military ball, I mean, everybody has to go to that and socialize.
Military sex crime attorneys
But, if you see your military defense counsel out at a bar with the prosecutor, your Commander, drinking and it looks like he’s friends with that person, you might wanna confront him about that because there could be a potential conflict of interest. You don’t really want to have an attorney who’s drinking buddies with the same person who’s trying to throw you in jail. That’s generally not a good idea.
What are Collateral Consequences of SEX OFFENDER Registration?
By waddingtonweb
/ August 13, 2015 January 11, 2022 / Lawyers / 2 minutes of reading
The Wright case moves towards trial
by Zachary D Spilman
This blog is reposted from caaflog.com/2015/08/13/the-wright-case-moves-towards-trial/
What are Collateral Consequences of SEX OFFENDER Registration?
The Wright case is an Air Force sexual assault prosecution that was dismissed last year by Air Force Lieutenant General Craig Franklin. After General Franklin dismissed the charges, authority over the case was transferred to Air Force District of Washington in Maryland, new charges were preferred, a second Article 32 pretrial investigation was conducted, and the charges were referred to trial. Litigation of defense claims of unlawful command influence followed, and the trial judge eventually abated the proceedings after the Government asserted an attorney-client privilege over documents sought by the defense in connection with those claims. The Government appealed that abatement and the AFCCA reversed, finding that the military judge’s findings were incomplete.
I discussed the AFCCA’s decision in this post. I summarized our past coverage in this post.
Now Stars and Stripes report here that the case will proceed to trial despite a finding of improper influence by senior Air Force officials:
Lt. Col. Joshua Kastenberg, in a July 30 ruling in response to a defense motion to dismiss the case against Airman 1st Class Brandon T. Wright, found that Lt. Gen. Richard Harding, formerly the Air Force Judge Advocate General, had improperly influenced the case or had given the appearance of doing so.
Such transfers are almost unheard of. It happened in the Wright case, Kastenberg’s ruling says, in part because Harding was worried that “the failure to have charges preferred against SrA Wright would enable Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to gain needed votes on a pending bill to remove commanders from the court-martial process.”
Yet none of these actions affected the current case against Wright, Kastenberg said, because all parties involved in the second investigation — at the Air Force District of Washington — acted independently, with no unlawful command influence. As a result of that investigation, a convening authority sent the case to court-martial.
By waddingtonweb
/ November 22, 2014 October 1, 2021 / Lawyers / 4 minutes of reading
Innocent Men Convicted of Sexual Assault are “Collateral Damage” in the military’s “War on Sexual Assault”
What is more important?
1) Protecting military members who are falsely accused of sexual assault; or
2) Protecting alleged victims, including those making false allegations?
marine corps why not protect the innocent and abide by the US Constitution which every military member has sworn to support and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic?
Military leadership should be able to support the Constitutional Rights of service members AND protect victims. Supporting the Constitution and Due Process, above all else, would protect the accused and actual victims. It would also prevent false convictions.
Representing Guilty Clients : How do defense lawyers sleep at night?
Military defense attorneys
According to Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Bryan Battaglia, the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, protecting all alleged victims, including those making false allegations, is more important than protecting innocent men.
As one of the top enlisted in the US military, he should put as much emphasis on protecting the Constitution as he does on protecting lying “victims.”
In the current military, you are guilty once accused of sexual assault, regardless of the evidence. Your best chance of escaping a false sexual allegation is to hire the best team of civilian defense lawyers as you can afford. Even then, there are no guarantees because the military will do whatever it takes to win… regardless of your actual innocence. The military leadership wants as many convictions as possible to prove to Congress that they take sex assault seriously. If convicting innocent men helps their cause, then so be it. This is what the military calls “Collateral Damage.”
I have yet to see a military leader step forward and voice concerns about the number of innocent men put on trial.
Nobody questions why so many men are being acquitted of sexual assault at trial. It’s a no brainer – the military is putting hundreds of innocent men on trial every year. Some actually get convicted.
I have handled dozens of cases where the alleged victim is caught in outright lies, recants, admits on the stand that they are not a victim (but the SARC and JAG told them they were a victim), some change their bogus stories over and over again… and these people are still considered “victims” and receive VA benefits for life, choice of assignments, and other special treatment, such as not having to take on certain jobs. NOTE: I am talking about women that lie and make up allegations of sexual assault, not actual crime victims. It’s sad and should make any parent think twice before they take their child to the recruiter to enlist.
Here an excerpt from aDoD News interview with Sgt Maj Bryan Battaglia.
SEAC Seeks Sexual Assault Investigation Improvements
By Amaani Lyle
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2014 – The senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed today efforts to bolster the Defense Department’s investigative techniques and expertise in amassing sexual assault and sexual harassment case evidence….
“Our first and foremost priority is protecting the victim, but also allowing the alleged perpetrator their due justice because the last thing we’d want to do is place a commander in a position who has court martial or Article 15 authority to convict an innocent person,” Battaglia said.
“We make every attempt to engage everyone in helping to [stop] sexual assault and sexual harassment within the armed forces,” the sergeant major said, adding that he can personally attest to the commitment of Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in tackling the issue.
Battaglia said that in addition to honing investigative techniques, DoD officials used social media to craft a survey targeted toward the enlisted force that gauges both restricted and unrestricted reporting metrics.
With support from Congress, he added, the Defense Department will submit a report to the White House later this year as to how commanders are engaged in adjudication and the critical need for evidence.
“We will stay on it until we solve it,” the sergeant major said.
Court Martial Lawyers – Alexandra González – Waddington & Michael Waddington Attorneys at Law
