Former Army JAG and Senior Defense Counsel 25+ years defending service members Courts-martial defense worldwide
Reviewed by Michael Waddington, Founding Partner Updated October 8, 2026
Michael Waddington and Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington of Gonzalez & Waddington are civilian military defense attorneys representing service members at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay — GTMO — in courts-martial, NJP actions, administrative separation boards, Boards of Inquiry, and security clearance proceedings.
The attorneys travel to GTMO and represent Sailors, Marines, Soldiers, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen, and Space Force personnel worldwide — including those assigned to Joint Task Force Guantanamo and its subordinate groups. NCIS leads most investigations at GTMO, covering sexual assault, assault, fraud, false official statements, orders violations, and operational misconduct.
GTMO is the United States’ oldest overseas installation, a 45-square-mile enclave in Cuba operating under a lease with no fixed expiry. Its isolation, rotating witnesses, joint-command evidence, and mission-sensitive records — spanning detention, counter-narcotics, port operations, and regional security — create defense challenges that differ sharply from any stateside case.
Call Gonzalez & Waddington at 1-800-921-8607 for a free, confidential consultation about your case at GTMO.
Naval Station Guantanamo Bay is one of the most unique U.S. military installations in the world. It is located at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and supports Navy operations, joint missions, regional security, logistics, port operations, detention-related missions, and other sensitive military functions.
Guantanamo Bay is not a normal overseas duty station. It is isolated, mission-sensitive, and heavily command-driven.
Service members at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay may face UCMJ investigations that begin on base, in housing, in operational workspaces, during security duties, during port activity, during deployment, during joint command assignments, or after allegations connected to off-duty conduct.
Cases may involve:
Gonzalez & Waddington defends service members stationed at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in serious UCMJ matters. The firm handles courts-martial, Article 15/NJP actions, GOMOR rebuttals, letters of reprimand, administrative separation boards, Boards of Inquiry, and security clearance matters.
An allegation at Guantanamo Bay can threaten a career quickly. This is especially true for personnel in security, detention-support, medical, logistics, legal, command, intelligence, transportation, port, or clearance-sensitive roles.
Guantanamo Bay cases are different from ordinary stateside cases. They may involve an isolated overseas environment, rotational witnesses, operational records, joint command oversight, limited access to evidence, restricted movement, classified or sensitive mission concerns, and fast command decisions.
If you are accused of a UCMJ offense at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, do not wait for the command’s theory to harden. This includes Article 120 sexual assault, abusive sexual contact, domestic violence, assault, drug misconduct, fraud, larceny, false official statement, orders violations, harassment, stalking, threats, child exploitation, online misconduct, security violations, and operational misconduct.
Call Gonzalez & Waddington at 1-800-921-8607 or text 954-799-4019 to request a confidential consultation with civilian military defense lawyers who defend service members worldwide.
Service members stationed at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay remain subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That authority follows the service member regardless of location.
A Guantanamo Bay case may involve the military justice system, the command, military investigators, joint command records, operational witnesses, security personnel, medical personnel, and digital evidence.
The mission environment is high stakes. Guantanamo Bay supports naval operations, regional logistics, joint task force missions, security operations, and detention-related functions.
That environment affects how cases are handled. Commands may act quickly when allegations involve violence, sexual misconduct, operational integrity, detainee-related duties, security rules, command climate, or public visibility.
Early defense action can help preserve favorable evidence. It can also protect the service member before statements are made to investigators, command representatives, security personnel, or legal advisors.
Naval Station Guantanamo Bay is isolated. It is also mission-sensitive. That changes the way investigations unfold.
Evidence may be controlled by different commands. Witnesses may rotate out. Access may be limited. Command decisions may move fast.
A Guantanamo Bay UCMJ case may involve:
The defense must move fast. Overseas evidence can disappear. Witnesses can rotate. Phone data may be lost. Command assumptions can harden before the defense has access to the full record.
Naval Station Guantanamo Bay is a U.S. Navy installation in Cuba. It supports naval operations, logistics, port functions, regional security, joint missions, and other specialized military activities.
The installation is physically separated from most normal stateside resources. That isolation matters in a defense case.
Witnesses may be assigned temporarily. Records may be held by different commands. Investigators may move quickly because the command wants to resolve the matter before personnel rotate.
Guantanamo Bay cases may involve Sailors, Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen, Guardians, civilian employees, contractors, medical personnel, security personnel, and joint task force personnel.
For service members, the consequences can be severe. A UCMJ case may affect liberty, rank, clearance, assignment, deployment status, reenlistment, promotion, retirement, and future civilian employment.
Naval Station Guantanamo Bay supports multiple mission areas. The mission area often shapes the evidence in a UCMJ case.
The mission area matters. A security case is different from an Article 120 case. A detention-support allegation is different from a fraud case. A false statement allegation may turn on the exact wording of an interview, report, email, or official form.
The following examples are hypothetical. They are not claims about any actual case, command, unit, person, employee, contractor, witness, or detainee. They show how location-specific facts can matter when a service member at Guantanamo Bay is accused of misconduct.
Service members at Guantanamo Bay may face UCMJ allegations tied to housing, operational duties, security roles, detention-support missions, digital communications, command investigations, or off-duty conduct.
Once a case enters the court-martial system, the stakes increase. The result can affect liberty, rank, retirement, clearance, future assignments, civilian employment, and reputation.
Your rights in an military investigators interview. Article 31(b) of the UCMJ gives you the right to know what you are suspected of and to remain silent, and you may ask for a lawyer before any questioning by military investigators (CID, OSI, NCIS or CGIS). Declining to answer is not an admission. At Guantanamo, as anywhere, the safest first step is to say you want to speak with counsel and then stop talking.
Titling can follow you. military investigators can title you as the subject of an investigation, which indexes your name in the Defense Central Index of Investigations, on a low "credible information" standard. Titling is not a finding of guilt, but the record can surface in later background and security clearance checks even if no charges are ever brought.
Who decides whether you are charged. For covered offenses, including sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, kidnapping, murder, child pornography and, since 2025, sexual harassment, the decision to prefer and refer charges belongs to an independent special trial counsel rather than your commander at Guantanamo. For other offenses the command still decides. Which track a case is on shapes the defense from the first day.
Family and relationship allegations. Domestic violence is charged under Article 128b, and strangulation or suffocation can be charged as aggravated assault whether or not there is a mark. The hidden cost is the Lautenberg Amendment: a qualifying conviction bars possession of firearms and ammunition, which few military careers survive.
Drug and off-duty allegations overseas. Article 112a of the UCMJ applies to service members in Cuba whatever local law allows, and host-nation authorities may also have jurisdiction under the Status of Forces Agreement. A positive urinalysis can still be challenged on chain of custody, testing and innocent ingestion.
BAH and allowance cases. An overpayment is a debt, not a crime. To convict under Article 121 (larceny) or Article 124 (frauds against the United States), the government must prove intent, and that is where many BAH cases fall apart once the paperwork history is reconstructed.
If you are under investigation at Guantanamo, talk to a military defense lawyer before you make any statement. Call Gonzalez & Waddington at 1-800-921-8607.
Many Guantanamo Bay military justice cases begin with a complaint, command notification, rights advisement, command-directed inquiry, security report, or request for an interview.
A typical case may involve:
Investigators often seek statements early. Those statements can shape the government’s theory. A service member should not assume an interview is harmless because charges have not yet been filed.
Guantanamo Bay cases can move quickly. Many involve operational records, restricted access, rotational witnesses, digital evidence, security concerns, and command pressure.
Evidence can disappear or become difficult to obtain. Logs, access records, video, phone data, emails, photos, housing records, and witness memories may not remain available for long.
Witness movement is also a major issue. Service members may PCS, rotate, deploy, redeploy, or leave the island before the defense has a chance to interview them.
Early defense action can help preserve favorable evidence. It can also identify gaps, inconsistencies, and unsupported assumptions before the command’s view becomes fixed.
This is especially important in cases involving Article 120 allegations, operational records, false statements, digital evidence, drug allegations, security issues, contradictory witness accounts, or clearance concerns.
Article 120 cases may involve housing, barracks rooms, social events, alcohol, dating apps, delayed reports, text messages, app messages, social media, phone extractions, and witnesses who may later rotate off island.
These cases often turn on consent, credibility, intoxication, timing, digital evidence, witness contamination, and command assumptions.
Domestic violence and assault cases may involve military police reports, emergency calls, medical records, photographs, protective orders, Family Advocacy records, text messages, and command no-contact orders.
Even if the matter is reduced or resolved informally, the command may still pursue Article 15, adverse paperwork, separation, Board of Inquiry, or clearance-related action.
Guantanamo Bay cases may involve security duties, guard procedures, access rules, operational logs, official reports, use-of-force allegations, detention-support duties, or allegations about judgment and professionalism.
The defense must determine whether the allegation is criminal, administrative, operational, security-related, or based on incomplete information.
These cases may involve travel cards, official claims, housing records, TDY, leave forms, official reports, emails, text messages, receipts, duty logs, or command-directed inquiries.
The defense must evaluate whether the government can prove intent. It must also determine whether records are complete and whether administrative mistakes are being treated as crimes.
A positive urinalysis, prescription issue, alcohol-related incident, or property search can lead to adverse paperwork, Article 15, separation processing, or clearance concerns.
For service members in security, detention-support, medical, intelligence, command, or clearance-sensitive roles, administrative consequences may move faster than the criminal process.
Military criminal cases in isolated overseas locations are not routine administrative matters. A serious allegation can threaten confinement, punitive discharge, rank, pay, clearance, reputation, and long-term career prospects.
A civilian military defense lawyer provides independent trial-focused representation. The goal is to protect the client early and prepare the case as if it may be litigated in court.
A service member facing court-martial generally has the right to detailed military defense counsel. Civilian military defense counsel does not replace detailed military counsel. Civilian counsel can work alongside the detailed military lawyer.
Civilian counsel can bring independent investigation, family communication, digital evidence review, witness preparation, cross-examination strategy, and continuity outside the command structure.
In Guantanamo Bay cases, civilian defense counsel may need to review evidence from many sources. These may include NCIS reports, CID reports, OSI reports, CGIS reports, military police records, command emails, operational logs, duty rosters, access records, medical records, phone extractions, text messages, social media, app messages, housing records, protective order records, urinalysis documents, and adverse administrative paperwork.
Gonzalez & Waddington represents service members worldwide in serious military cases. The firm defends clients in courts-martial, Article 120 cases, Article 128 and 128b cases, CID, NCIS, OSI, and CGIS investigations, Article 15/NJP actions, Boards of Inquiry, administrative separations, GOMOR rebuttals, security clearance matters, fraud cases, violent offenses, digital evidence cases, and other serious UCMJ matters.
U.S. service members stationed at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay can face military consequences from allegations tied to operational duties, housing, security roles, detention-support missions, off-duty conduct, digital evidence, and command investigations.
A civilian military defense lawyer can work alongside detailed military defense counsel in courts-martial, Article 120 cases, Article 15/NJP matters, letters of reprimand, GOMOR rebuttals, administrative separations, Boards of Inquiry, security clearance matters, and command investigations.
Because Guantanamo Bay is an isolated, overseas, Navy, joint-service, operational, and mission-sensitive environment, defense strategy should account for restricted access, operational logs, rotational witnesses, digital evidence, command pressure, and long-term military career consequences.
I was wrongly accused under articles 120, 128b, and 130, and the legal battle was an incredibly draining experience. Throughout the two-and-a-half-year ordeal, Michael and Alexandra displayed unmatched professionalism, deep legal expertise, and genuine care for my case.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case is different.
Yes. Service members have the right to military defense counsel and may also retain civilian defense counsel. Civilian counsel can assist during investigations, Article 32 hearings, courts-martial, Article 15 proceedings, administrative separations, Boards of Inquiry, and rebuttals to adverse paperwork.
Serious UCMJ cases may include Article 120 sexual assault allegations, assault, domestic violence, drug offenses, fraud, false official statements, orders violations, operational misconduct, digital evidence cases, and other felony-level military charges.
Yes. Investigations often begin long before charges are preferred. Investigators may request interviews, collect witness statements, search devices, and review digital or official records before the service member fully understands the risk.
Yes. Guantanamo Bay cases may involve isolation, restricted access, operational records, rotational witnesses, security issues, sensitive missions, command visibility, and logistical limits on evidence collection.
Yes. A command may issue restrictions, no-contact orders, adverse paperwork, Article 15 proceedings, separation action, clearance review, or court-martial processing while the investigation is still developing.
Do not make a statement before speaking with a defense lawyer. Early statements can shape the entire case and may be difficult to fix later.
No. Article 31(b) of the UCMJ requires investigators to tell you what you are suspected of and that you have the right to remain silent, and you can ask for a lawyer before answering anything. An interview is evidence collection, and military investigators can title you as a subject on a low "credible information" standard that can follow you into background and clearance checks even if the case is dropped. Politely decline, ask for counsel, and call a military defense lawyer before you say anything.
Gonzalez & Waddington, LLC is a civilian military defense law firm representing service members worldwide. The firm focuses on military criminal defense, court-martial litigation, UCMJ investigations, administrative separation boards, Boards of Inquiry, GOMOR and letter of reprimand rebuttals, Article 15/NJP matters, sexual assault defense, violent offense defense, fraud cases, digital evidence cases, and other high-stakes military legal matters.
Michael Waddington is a former Army officer and former Army JAG. He has served as an Army Trial Defense Counsel, Senior Defense Counsel, Army prosecutor, Special Assistant United States Attorney, and Chief of Military Justice. He has more than 25 years of military defense experience and is admitted to all U.S. military trial courts worldwide.
Alexandra González-Waddington is a founding partner, former public defender, and experienced military defense lawyer. She is admitted to all U.S. military trial courts worldwide and has defended service members in sexual assault, violent crime, war crimes, murder, classified-information, domestic violence, and white-collar cases.
For service members at Guantanamo Bay, that background matters. Cases at this installation may involve operational records, restricted access, security issues, overseas witnesses, command pressure, digital evidence, Article 120 allegations, and serious UCMJ consequences.
If you are stationed at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay and are under investigation, do not wait. Get legal guidance before making statements or submitting paperwork that may be used against you later.
Gonzalez & Waddington can work alongside detailed military defense counsel. The firm can help review the evidence, preserve favorable information, prepare for command decisions, and build a defense strategy that accounts for both the military case and the Guantanamo Bay operational environment.
Call Gonzalez & Waddington at 1-800-921-8607 or text 954-799-4019 to request a confidential consultation. No attorney can guarantee a result. The goal is to intervene early, protect your rights, and help you make informed decisions before the command or prosecution theory hardens.
This video explains what your rights are and how experienced criminal defense lawyers can make a difference.
Facing a military investigation, UCMJ allegation, or serious criminal charge? Gonzalez & Waddington provides trial-focused defense for high-stakes cases. Call 1-800-921-8607 or text 954-799-4019 for a confidential, no-cost consultation.
