Joint Base San Antonio, Texas–Being investigated by Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) is not the way most soldiers want to spend their career. But even for those who stay on the right side of the law, simple consensual interactions can result in your life being turned upside down and inside out.
What makes life harder for U.S. soldiers facing allegations of sexual assault is that Army Trial Defense Services (TDS) does not generally provide services to someone “simply” facing an investigation, and even if the local TDS does help, the level of experience and strategic lawyering is often lacking.
Veritas Military Law jumped in to help a young soldier in his time of need.
In this case, two young soldiers in a budding relationship did what young people do, but then, BOOM– enter Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Prevention (SHARP).
Mr. Tolin obtained and reviewed digital evidence, conducted interviews, and kept pushing the case forward. As CID was wrapping up its investigation, we provided exculpatory evidence to the investigators and the prosecutors. When CID pushed back about the authenticity of the evidence, Veritas Military Law provided even more digital evidence to counteract the CID investigator’s knee-jerk reaction to exculpatory evidence provided by defense counsel.
The lead prosecutor for the case from the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel (OSTC) responded differently to Veritas Military Law than CID: he thanked Mr. Tolin for not sitting on the exculpatory evidence like some other lawyers do. (Sadly, some lawyers in the field–former JAGs even–focus on business decisions instead of strategic decisions for the client in hopes of getting a fully-litigated court-martial to pay the bills instead of an OSTC deferral early in the case.)
Providing that exculpatory evidence led OSTC to defer the sexual assault allegation. (Following the major changes to the UCMJ, a “deferral” by OSTC is a binding decision that means the military is not charging the alleged offender for that allegation.) That deferral allows the prosecutors to focus on real criminals and the mission to move forward, focussed on what matters.