US Army v. 1LT

Fort Liberty (Fort Bragg), North Carolina – 82^nd Airborne Division

Client was accused of sexual assault by a fellow 2LT as a result of a sexual encounter occurring at a wedding. Years prior, Client and alleged victim had attended sister universities in Washington D.C. and were a part of the same ROTC program. Client graduated two years ahead of the alleged victim and went on to serve in the 82^nd Airborne after IBOLIC, Airborne and Ranger School. Client also deployed. A few years later, a mutual friend of the Client and the alleged victim invited them both to a wedding occurring in the northeast. Client and alleged victim were Facebook friends, but rarely if ever communicated. Neither knew that the other would be attending the wedding. Client and alleged victim eventually meet at the wedding for the first time in years, catch up and end up bar hopping together. Prior to bar hopping, the alleged victim made it known that she lacked a place to stay and was thinking of leaving. Client offered her a roll away bed in his hotel room. Before doing so, he made sure his hotel roommate was ok with this arrangement. The evening progresses and they go bar hopping until the wedding party eventually disperses for the evening. The hotel roommate returns to the room with a girl he met at the wedding. Client and the alleged victim end up going on a long walk through the city and along the river where the wedding was located. During this walk they conversed and held hands in spite of the fact that Client had informed the alleged victim that he was in a long term, long distance relationship. Client and the alleged victim returned back to the hotel room where the room was locked from the inside. They went for another walk, returned to the room where the girl from inside had just existed leaving the original hotel roommate alone. Client and the alleged victim enter the room where they each freshen up, and go to their prospective beds and go to sleep. Sometime in the early morning, both the client and the alleged victim awaken at roughly the same time (or maybe the alleged victim never fell asleep). The alleged victim beckons our client over to her bed where they proceed to make out. She then removes her underwear indicating that she wished to engage in sexual intercourse. Once they were finished, they both cleaned up, freshened up and Client returned to his bed for the evening rather than return to the cot with the alleged victim. He did not invite her to his bed. The roommate was asleep the whole time during this encounter. The next morning the Client wakes up and realizes the roommate will miss his flight if he does not wake up quickly. Client rouses the roommate. The alleged victim was also wake at this time. Client and her help pack the befuddled roommate to get him on his way. Then the alleged victim leaves to go to a family event. Client blocks her on Facebook due to his one night stand indiscretion against his girlfriend. The alleged victim then proceeds to claim rape. The problem with this case had to do with text message exchanges with the Client and the alleged victim that appeared to show that the client was admitting to accusations. The Defense team effectively prepared our client for testimony and provided a long line of witnesses to attest to his character for truthfulness. Additionally the alleged victim told a number of inconsistent stories over the course of the investigation as well as at trial. The biggest lie told was her accounting of why she was sexually assaulted. Her claim was that she had awakened to our client inside of her. She stated she WAS NOT drunk. However, she explained that she was extremely fatigued and had went 50 plus hours without sleep claiming to have traveled from Denver on a redeye, landing two hours away from the wedding, driving to the local of the wedding, having lunch all before going to the wedding. However, the Government provided travel itinerary showed that she lied in open court about her travel plans as well as how fatigued she was. The biggest piece of evidence against the alleged victim was her state of mind immediately waking up the next morning. She texted her best friend, while still in the room, that she was doing the walk of shame hard core and that she had to tell her something that was pretty funny. Her lies and her state of mind coupled with our Client’s forthrightness earned him a finding of NOT GUILTY!!

Result: NOT GUILTY! Special Thanks to CPT Nick Allen and CPT Alex Altimas of the Fort Liberty (Fort Bragg) Trial Defense Services in helping secure a victory on behalf of this client in front of an 82^nd Airborne Panel.