U.S. v. W01
September 30, 2020
Fort Rucker, AL
September 2020. Our client was accused of domestic violence, sexual assault, and indecent recording. When we first reviewed the evidence, we realized almost immediately that the Accuser was originally suspected of sexual assault for having sexual relations with our client’s wife from the same night in question. The Accuser was also a Warrant Officer and her father was a major in the U.S. Army.
When she found out that she was suspected of sexual assault, she immediately called her father for advice from the military police office. After speaking with her father, she changed her story and stated that our client sexually assaulted her. The Army Criminal Investigation Command obtained video evidence from the night in question. The video evidence showed the Accuser begging my client to have sex with her. We initially pled with the prosecutor’s office to drop the case. We argued that the video evidence clearly showed that the Accuser consented to both sex and the recording. Despite the video evidence, the case was not dropped. There was too much pressure on my client’s command to move forward with the case because it was a sexual assault case.
Over the next 14 months, we fought hard in court and out of court to convince the Government to drop the allegations. We argued that the Accuser had a clear motive to fabricate: she committed adultery and was initially under investigation for sexual assault. She falsely accused our client to take the pressure off her and save her own career. Trial was set for October, and we were all very confident that we were going to finally vindicate our client. A few days before trial, the Government informed us that the Accuser no longer wished to testify against our client. After 16 months, two motions hearings, and dozens of witness interviews the case was finally dropped.
