Sexual Assault – Military Sexual Assault – NOT GUILTY (U.S. Army v. E-3 – Vicenza, Italy)

U.S. Army v. E-3 (Paratrooper)(Article 120) Sexual Assault

Vicenza, Italy

Client is a young paratrooper stationed at Caserma Ederle, in Vicenza Italy. He was found not guilty of sexually assaulting a female Sergeant (E-5).

The result in this case came from conducting a thorough investigation of the alleged victim and going to the scene of the alleged crime. First, we learned that the alleged victim had a pattern of escalating complaints against other male Soldiers that had no merit. Each complaint she made was thoroughly investigated. The majority of her claims had little to no merit, thus no action was taken. Her final complaint was sexual assault in this case. We also learned that she hated being stationed in Italy. As soon as she made her complaint against our client, she was sent back to the United States to a duty location of her choosing. Next, we learned that the place where she was allegedly sexually assaulted was the lobby of the main barracks building on Caserma Ederle. The lobby is huge, with very large glass windows that make up the entry way. Anyone can see into the building as they pass by.

Lastly, her story just did not make sense. Here are some of the highlights. She talked about not knowing what to do. She had a CQ runner who she sent to bed as her shift began. She didn’t call him. She described getting away from our Client by sitting on the pool table with her legs dangling due to how short she was. She described sitting on the pool table, playing with the pool balls and playing with the pool stick trying to figure out what to do. She described sitting on the pool table which was in the middle of the CQ area as a safe place to be. Once our client left the CQ area, the first people she called were two past boyfriends whom she outranked. She alleges that the assaults occurred over roughly a 2 hour period of time. She never called anyone that could help her which called to question the veracity of her claims. We successfully exposed her logical inconsistencies in her reporting by effectively testing her story thru the crucible of cross examination.

In the end, the case came down to her escalating behavior, the location, and the fact that she was an NCO (E-5) and our client was a PFC (E-3). The case also came down to the fact that our client had talked to her that evening about her sex life with various individuals in the unit. Apparently she was oblivious to the fact that other individuals knew about her comings and goings with males. She mined our client for information. Upset and angry that a PFC would have the audacity to talk to her about these things, and then ask her out, she alleged sexual assault.


Article 120 is the military statute which defines rape, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated sexual contact, and abusive sexual contact.  These offenses include different types of unlawful, forced sexual activities on another person.  Charges related to sexual misconduct involving a minor fall under Article 120b.

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