If you or someone you know is facing an Article 120 sexual assault allegation in the military, you’re against a massive, coordinated campaign to get a conviction. The complainant gets an entire institutional support apparatus: advocates, individual legal counsel, expedited transfers, and command support. The accused gets an attorney, someday. Congress mandated the creation of a prosecution corps, OSTC, specifically to increase conviction rates in military sexual assault cases. The examples below come from a real visit to Cannon Air Force Base, but the sexual assault grievance industry works like this at every U.S. military installation worldwide. A great attorney can overcome all of the bias.
How the System Treats the Accused vs. the Complainant
Picture this scenario, borrowed from similar real-life cases. A female servicemember makes a sexual assault allegation against a male servicemember. Within weeks, she’s transferred to a coastal base of her choosing under the military’s expedited transfer program. She has a SARC advocate. She has a Special Victims’ Counsel, a military attorney whose only job is to protect her interests. She has command support at her new installation. She has OSTC overseeing the prosecution, with a boss closely supervising every decision. At least one base-level JAG assigned to the case, with paralegal support and input from the Staff Judge Advocate.
The accused is sitting in the Roosevelt County Detention Center in Portales, New Mexico. A rural county jail. He’s been there for months and will stay there until trial.
The trial is set for August. But the complainant has a cruise booked that week. So OSTC asks the judge to push the trial to October. Why not September? Because the prosecutor is on paternity leave the entire month. The accused stays in jail. The complainant is on a cruise and the prosecutor is home with a newborn and the accused sits in a cell in rural New Mexico, more than a thousand miles from the complainant, no threat to her, waiting for everyone else’s calendar to clear.
Complainant vs. Accused Resources in Article 120 Cases
| Complainant | Accused | |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated advocate | SARC victim advocate, assigned immediately | None |
| Legal counsel | Special Victims’ Counsel (SVC) | Appointed JAG defense (in USAF; in other services, no counsel before charges) |
| Base assignment | Expedited transfer to installation of preference | Pretrial confinement or restriction to current base |
| Command messaging | Sexual assault awareness campaign, posters, hotlines | Nothing |
| Hotline and crisis support | 24/7 SARC hotline, Safe Helpline, SANE exams | Defense JAG phone number posted outside its office |
| Career protection | Protected from retaliation by statute; no consequences for a false allegation | No compensation or recourse if falsely accused |
SARC and SAPR Propaganda at Military Installations
The attorneys of Gagne, Scherer & Associates recently visited the lobby of the Mission Support Group building at Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, New Mexico. The SARC office sits just inside the entrance, prime command real estate, not some back office in a separate building. The lobby is wall-to-wall propaganda. Pamphlet racks, a kiosk, posters, bulletin boards, a banner.
- “If Someone You Know Is Sexually Assaulted”
- “Stop Sexual Assault”
- “Sex, Communication and Respect”
- “Alcohol, Drugs & Consent”
- “15 Things Every Man Needs to Know About Date and Acquaintance Rape”
- “I’m All In — Men Standing Against Sexual Assault”
- “Understanding Drug-Induced Sexual Assault”
- Cannon AFB SAPR 24/7 Hotline card
- April Sexual Assault Awareness Month flyers and banners
- An anonymous encouragement board for unidentified victims of unverified allegations
- “End the Silence”
- “Arise Sexual Assault Services” crisis hotline information
What’s Not in That Lobby or any Lobby:
- The Area Defense Counsel’s phone number
- A pamphlet about what to do if you’re falsely accused
- Acquittal rate data
- Anything about the presumption of innocence
- Anything about confabulation or alcohol-related memory distortion
- Anything about the documented pattern of false allegations in divorce and custody disputes
The entire presentation is designed to brainwash the potential jury pool. The messaging isn’t subtle about its target audience. The pamphlets are addressed to men. The campaign is designed to shame men into believing they create the conditions for sexual assault and to trigger a protective instinct in the rest, the white knight impulse that makes every male servicemember a potential ally of the complainant before anyone’s heard the other side. There’s a reason Gagne, Scherer & Associates prefers to have women on its sex assault panels.
One pamphlet deserves special attention. The “I’m All In” brochure, says “a man may not even realize he is committing sexual assault, though he will still be liable for it.” They’re priming panel members to apply strict liability instead of following the law.
This is not unique to Cannon. Every installation in the Department of Defense runs the same program with the same materials, the same command thrust, and the same high-visibility placement. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month across the entire military, which means an entire month of messaging that presumes guilt based on accusation alone (the poster is titled, “#notjustapril”). Even the urinals on most installations have info cards at eye level pushing the same message. Every potential panel member on every base gets this programming every year.
The propaganda has congressional and legal support. Congress created the Office of Special Trial Counsel, OSTC, for one reason: the conviction rate in military sexual assault cases wasn’t high enough. OSTC exists to prosecute these cases more aggressively, with dedicated resources, outside the normal chain of command. The Special Victims’ Counsel program gives every complainant a personal attorney. The SARC and SAPR networks provide immediate advocacy and support. Expedited transfers get the complainant off the installation while the accused languishes in the county jail and waits for the chance to clear his name, which might not come for a year or more.
How a Civilian Military Lawyer Can Overcome that Bias
Even with all of this conspiring against the accused, military sexual assault cases have high acquittal rates. They’ve had high acquittal rates through every congressional campaign to bring them down, including the OSTC era. You can expect new mandates before long. What nobody stops to consider is just how high the ratio of false or unprovable accusations must be for those acquittal rates to be so stubborn. The “why would they lie” and “they wouldn’t lie” assumptions at the heart of this propaganda campaign are exactly what’s wrong with it. They would lie. They do lie. And sometimes it’s simply impossible to know what happened because memory failures and alcohol get in the way. The solution isn’t to keep undermining the presumption of innocence, but that’s what they keep striving for.
In a case like this, you need to hire an experienced military lawyer from Gagne, Scherer & Associates. A good attorney knows how to present a defense at trial. But a great one does more than that. He knows how to line up and deploy the right expert consultants. He knows how to intercede early in the case and advocate through OSTC to cast doubt on its viability before charges are ever served. Get a deferral. Get a strong recommendation from the preliminary hearing officer if the case reaches an Article 32. Trial is a last resort, and your attorney needs to be great at that too. But there are many ways to win Article 120 cases. They can also be won before they ever get charged.
That lobby at Cannon, with its posters, pamphlets, anonymous encouragement board, and SARC office, is in the same building as the ADC office. Now imagine you’re the accused. To see your attorney, you walk past all of that nonsense. Past your fellow airmen, and potential panel members, who’ve been reading the propaganda several times a day, every day. It can feel hopeless, even on your way to see your attorney. It’s not.
If you’re facing an Article 120 allegation at Cannon or anywhere else, call us. The former JAGs at Gagne, Scherer & Associates have been outmaneuvering your adversaries for over 20 years. Call (224) 935-6172 and speak directly with one of our experienced military lawyers.