Colorado Springs is one of the densest military regions in the country and it’s an active climate for court-martial. Peterson, Carson, Schriever, and the Air Force Academy are always busy investigating and prosecuting allegations of sex offenses, domestic violence, and other serious UCMJ crimes, while the Academy has an additional disciplinary system for cadet misconduct.
Fort Carson is in the desert just south of the city, against the Rockies. Peterson Space Force Base is east of downtown by the airport. Schriever is another twenty miles east out on the open prairie. The Air Force Academy is twenty miles north along the foothills. Add F.E. Warren up in Wyoming, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex southwest of the city, and Buckley outside of Denver, and you have a broad, robust military presence ripe for UCMJ prosecution.
Peterson handles space operations, missile warning, and national defense communications. Space Operations Command is headquartered there. NORAD and USNORTHCOM keep their headquarters in Colorado Springs. Schriever handles satellite command and control. The Air Force Academy has its own system for handling cadet misconduct, but the installation sees its share of Article 120 cases and other serious prosecutions OSTC takes. Fort Carson is 4th Infantry Division country, plus parts of 10th Special Forces Group. The 4th ID is a heavy mechanized division. Carson soldiers did multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan during the GWOT. 10th Group covers high-altitude operations in Europe, the Balkans, and Central Asia.
Colorado Springs is the second-largest city in the state, with a population of 500,000. The economy runs on defense contracts, tourism, and military members blowing their base pay at bars. Soldiers and airmen drink in the Springs and head up to Denver on weekends. Military sexual assault cases come from throughout the region.
Fort Carson in particular has been in the news for serious criminal cases. Recent cases include a Special Forces soldier who was arrested in an ICAC sting; another was arrested after allegations he assaulted a woman and pointed a gun at her during an argument at a local hotel; in August 2022, a soldier was arrested on CSAM charges after Tumblr reported apparent CSAM uploaded from his place in Fountain, just south of Carson. These are a sample of what the Office of Special Trial Counsel thrives on here: domestic violence with weapons, child sexual exploitation, CSAM distribution, Article 120.
Peterson, Schriever, and USAFA have been seeing an increasing number of significant court-martial, too, including domestic violence, CSAM, and Article 120.
Our Experience With UCMJ Cases in Colorado Springs
We’ve been defending cases across these installations since the 2000s. Most of our work in the region is defending against allegations under Article 120, Article 120b, CSAM, Article 112a, and Article 133. A few representative cases give a sense of how we work.
Air Force Academy: Senior Acquitted of Rape and Unlawful Entry
We represented a senior at the Air Force academy, weeks from graduation and his commission. A prior attorney had counseled him to resign, which would have ended his career even though he had a winnable case. We litigated a significant pretrial motion in his favor, then dismantled the witness on cross, exposing the lies in her story. Our client was acquitted of rape and acquitted of unlawful entry. The underage drinking charge was resolved through nonjudicial punishment. He graduated on time, received his commission, and has enjoyed a career as an active duty pilot.
Schriever SFB: Spc4 No Sex Offense, No Registration on Retrial
In a previous prosecution, a Space Force client had pleaded guilty to multiple Article 120 offenses involving three complainants. Despite overwhelming evidence and little mitigation, we negotiated a pretrial agreement that capped confinement and secured a bad conduct discharge instead of a dishonorable. It was discovered later that during the sentencing hearing, the courtroom recording equipment had failed and no verbatim record of the proceeding existed. The government asked us to help reconstruct the hearing but we declined. With no record to review, the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals set aside the conviction. We immediately notified state law enforcement and got our client removed from the sex offender registry.
OSTC spent months proposing time-served deals that would have preserved the sex offense convictions and the registry requirement. We turned each offer down, insisting we were ready to take the case to trial this time. We told OSTC the only resolution we’d accept was to keep our client safe from registration, and we encouraged the prosecutors to talk to the complainants, who we believed would prefer finality over a second trial. While negotiations dragged on, our client was recalled to active duty and drew full pay and allowances. The case finally resolved on a plea to simple assault and a minor BAH fraud charge. He was sentenced to time served. No sex offense conviction. No registration.
Schriever SFB: Article 112a Acquittal in Under Thirty Minutes
At Schriever, our client was accused of using illegal drugs with a group of friends. The government’s entire case rested on testimony from four witnesses who claimed to have used drugs with him. We took each of them apart on cross-examination. The panel came back with an acquittal in under thirty minutes.
Fort Carson: NCO Retirement Saved by Urinalysis Acquittal
A Fort Carson retirement-eligible NCO with twenty years of service was accused of cocaine use based on a positive urine test. At the court-martial we cross-examined the government’s scientific expert thoroughly to create reasonable doubt about our client’s knowledge of any cocaine use, overcoming the “permissive inference” argument made by the prosecution. The military judge acquitted in less than an hour.
The approach in this sample of cases is the one we use everywhere: we intervene as soon as we’re hired, we refuse easy resolutions that aren’t in our client’s interests, and we maintain the flexibility to adapt our tactics regardless of whether our client is in a panel or judge alone court-martial.
FAQs about Military Cases in Colorado Springs
Do JAGs swap counsel between bases in Colorado Springs?
Among the Air Force bases there it’s common. Peterson and Schriever swap counsel freely. The Peterson ADC office covers Peterson, Schriever, and Cheyenne Mountain. The Academy will sometimes send a Special Victims Counsel to a case at Schriever or Peterson. OSTC comes up from Randolph AFB. Fort Carson is Army and operates on its own JAG structure and OSTC office, so there’s no swapping between Carson and the USAF installations.
Which Colorado Springs OSTC office is busiest?
Peterson handles the highest OSTC volume on the Air Force side. The OSTC office at Fort Carson is always busy. Peterson sees a lot of sex offense prosecutions. The Carson docket carries a steady flow of Article 120, Article 120b, child offenses, and significant violent crimes. We’re in regular contact with both offices.
What kinds of cases do you see most often in Colorado Springs?
The cases run the whole range of OSTC’s “covered offenses,” but the Army sees much more violent crime, the kind that leads the evening news. Peterson and Schriever are Space Force and the case mix is what you’d expect from a population doing electronics work and raised on personal devices: sexual harassment, Article 120, CSAM, sextortion, and the Article 117a and 120c offenses. The Academy carries its own Article 120 and other OSTC caseload separate from the cadet disciplinary system.
What’s the case timeline at Peterson and Carson right now?
Slow. OSTC is overloaded at both installations. Investigators are too. Any case involving electronics will take a particularly long time to resolve because the forensics labs that do the analyses have a massive backlog. A serious case can take twelve to eighteen months from the first call to OSI or CID to a charging decision. But the delay gives the defense more time to intervene with OSTC and advocate for deferral. Unfortunately, it also means the client lives under the weight of the investigation for months without resolution (and without counsel if it’s an Army case).
Gagne, Scherer & Associates: Experienced Military Lawyers in Colorado Springs
We’ve been doing UCMJ cases in Colorado Springs since the 2000s. Cases out of these installations land in the local press often, and part of our approach is designed to keep our clients’ names out of the headlines.
If you’re a soldier at Fort Carson, an airman or guardian at Peterson or Schriever, or a cadet at the Air Force Academy and you’re under investigation or facing charges, call us at (224) 935-6172. You’ll speak with an experienced military lawyer directly.