Whether a Navy case goes to trial depends mostly on what the charge is. In the current era, the trial question often focuses on whether the Office of Special Trial Counsel will “go forward” to a General Court-Martial or “defer” the case to the command and Staff Judge Advocate for trial or some softer outcome. OSTC has exclusive go-forward authority over certain UCMJ crimes known as “covered offenses.” OSTC will almost always take child sex offenses and CSAM cases to a GCM. They’ll defer he-said/she-said sexual assault allegations, or classic alcohol-related 120s. But it’s not as if they won’t prosecute sexual assault. OSTC often goes forward on Article 120 cases that have strong corroboration and aggravating facts. Domestic violence allegations from an ex will probably be deferred. Non-contact sex offenses might be deferred as well. When cases go to trial at any level, many of them occur at the bigger installations like Norfolk and San Diego, with Mayport, Jacksonville, Bremerton, Pearl Harbor, and Great Lakes also seeing a modest volume. When you’re under investigation, the Navy won’t give you a free defense attorney. If you get court-martial charges, your Navy defense attorney might be a year out of law school and learning on the job. More than the other services, the Navy goes out of its way to make things difficult for a member accused of misconduct.
What the Navy’s 2026 UCMJ Case Docket Shows
The information below is from the public Navy-Marine Corps trial and Article 32 dockets as of May 2026, plus Gagne, Scherer & Associates’ Navy casework and conversations with OSTC and defense counsel. The patterns we comment on here are broad observations and shouldn’t be used as a prediction of how yours will go.
Deferral rates on covered offenses vary across the services. From what we hear from defense counsel and prosecutors across the services, the Marines defer roughly 90% of covered offenses. The Army defers even more than that at training bases, where the covered “sex” offenses are commonly just stupid horseplay: ass grabs and nut taps, misconduct that meets the legal definition but that prosecutors don’t feel belongs at a GCM. The Air Force defers less than the Marines but still defers a majority of its cases. The Navy might defer less aggressively than any of them.
Across every service, crimes against children and adult sexual assault cases with corroborating evidence like DNA, injury, strangulation, or confessions will go to a GCM.
How Navy OSTC Goes Forward or Defers a Case
| Article | Allegation | Likely Navy OSTC Action |
|---|---|---|
| 117a | Revenge porn | Likely deferred |
| 120 | Alcohol-related sexual assault | Likely deferred |
| 120 | He/She-said sexual assault | Likely deferred |
| 120c | Voyeurism, unsolicited “pics” | Could go either way |
| 128b | Domestic violence | GCM if corroboration |
| 120 | Adult sexual assault | GCM if corroboration |
| 119b | Child endangerment | GCM |
| 120b | Child sexual assault | GCM |
| 134 | CSAM | GCM |
The Navy and the Marines handle adult Article 120 cases the same way: drunken hook-ups and he-said/she-said sexual assault allegations get dumped off to the base legal office. The Article 120 cases that go forward to trial are the ones with corroborating evidence: DNA, injury, strangulation, confessions.
OSTC across all services looks for a way to defer domestic violence cases, particularly when the allegations arise during or after a divorce.
When the victim of a covered offense is a child, the case almost always goes to GCM.
Where Navy Covered-Offense Cases Occur Most Often
- Norfolk and San Diego have the biggest presence on the court-martial docket.
- Bremerton and Pearl Harbor are next, then Great Lakes, Mayport, and Jacksonville.
- Yokosuka, Naples, Sigonella, and other bases also see some action.
- Recent Article 120 trial activity has been heaviest at Norfolk.
- The CSAM cases are typically spread out across the Navy.
FAQs About Navy Courts-Martial
Why does OSTC defer so many sexual assault cases?
OSTC was created to make the acquittal rate in sexual assault cases go down. No matter what changes were made to the rules and the law, the acquittal rates remained high. There was also, according to the advocates, a sense that commands enabled rape by creating a culture that made it happen and by looking the other way when it did. The idea was that by creating an office of elite prosecutors and by taking discretion away from commanders, the convictions would soar. It hasn’t happened. OSTC is focused on its conviction percentage, so it gets rid of the cases it might lose, which happens to be most of them because a high percentage of these complaints are demonstrably false or questionable. OSTC is understandably making sure it doesn’t take the blame.
What happens when OSTC defers a case?
The command decides what to do with the case, leaning heavily on the Staff Judge Advocate’s office for advice. A case might still go to trial, usually a Special Court-Martial but sometimes a General Court-Martial. It could be sent to Mast or addressed with some form of written reprimand. Adsep is a common result after deferral, typically with a General Under Other Than Honorable service characterization for Sailors who don’t have enough time in service to qualify for a separation board.
Is there ever a good reason to waive Article 32?
No.
Some defense counsel claim there are four supposedly “smart” reasons to waive. Three are foolish, one is an AI hallucination.
- “We don’t want to preview our defense for trial.” Waiving doesn’t keep your secret. There are only so many moves for the defense to make, and OSTC prosecutors have experience on the defense side. There are no real secrets, there’s only quality of execution. If you have a winning defense, use it at the Article 32 hearing to get the case deferred or dropped.
- “We don’t want the government to perfect its case.” What does this even mean? The evidence is what it is. If the evidence is bad, OSTC can’t fix that just because the PHO pointed it out. And they’re going to keep working on their case in preparation for trial. If their case is weak, attack it when there’s no risk of losing. Always create reasonable doubt as early as possible.
- “The charges aren’t written in the proper form and we don’t want the PHO to alert the prosecution.” Your waiver alerts the prosecution to take a closer look. R.C.M. 603 lets the prosecution amend charges freely before referral, fix scriveners’ errors with a flick of the pen, or, worst-case, withdraw and re-prefer to cure major defects. You’ve traded all the benefits of the 32 and your strongest opportunity to derail or defer the case for a move that almost never works.
- “When MRE 412 or 513 issues would surface in a way that damages the trial posture.” That doesn’t make any damn sense. It’s AI slop. The tell: “surface” as a verb is what AI writes when a human would say “come up” or “be raised.” If a lawyer’s blog uses “surface” as a verb, a robot’s doing the writing.
Waiving is almost always a blunder. It only makes sense if the benefit you get from waiving is guaranteed (in writing) and greater than what you’re giving up. Remember that if you waive, there’s nothing standing in the way of referral. Your case will go to trial.
The Article 32’s Role in the Deferral Decision
A GCM requires an Article 32 preliminary hearing to establish probable cause first, unless the defense waives the hearing and effectively concedes referral. Deferral can happen before the 32 or after it. In many cases, OSTC pushes the case to an Article 32 even when it wants to defer the case, both for optics and to get a PHO recommendation that gives them top-cover for getting rid of it. Gagne, Scherer & Associates offers practical advice on how to see your preliminary hearing as an opportunity and why you should get a second opinion if DSO or a civilian attorney tells you to waive Article 32.
Special Courts-Martial
Special Courts-Martial are a lower form of court-martial, and the maximum jail time is capped at twelve months. But they’re still serious. The civilian federal system will classify a SPCM conviction as a misdemeanor, but in reality they pack a much harder punch than that. A SPCM conviction will destroy a career, send a Sailor to confinement, get you the lifelong stigma of a Bad Conduct Discharge, and might require sex offender registration. Sailors can’t afford to take a Special Court-Martial in stride just because a General Court-Martial is worse.
SPCMs are common, just over half of the current Navy-Marine trial docket. The UCMJ articles charged range from orders violations and assault to positive urinalyses and false official statements, and roughly a third of the SPCM docket includes at least one covered-offense article like 120, 120c, or 128b, the result of OSTC deferring the case.
How the Navy Makes Life Hard for an Accused
The following observations come from Gagne, Scherer & Associates’ direct experience and our frequent conversations with senior DSO and OSTC personnel.
- The Navy will assign defense counsel through the Defense Services Office when charges are preferred, not during the investigation. The investigative period can last months (or over a year in CSAM cases) before a Sailor has access to a free JAG counsel.
- Navy DSO assignments can include first-tour Lieutenants. A Sailor facing serious charges might be assigned a defense JAG fresh out of the JAG school. Marine, Army, and Air Force defense assignments require more court-martial experience before counsel is detailed to a serious case.
Some Navy commands and investigators actively obstruct civilian counsel. In our experience defending Sailors at NAS Jacksonville, Naval Station Mayport, and NAS Pensacola, Legal Officers might refuse to take calls. They interfere when counsel arranges to speak with a client on urgent matters during duty hours. NCIS and JAG typically refuse to send the Report of Investigation to defense counsel, a practice known internally as blacklisting. This what-happens-in-the-woods attitude is similar to what Sailors see at a DRB, where seniors berate the Sailor into confessions. The specific patterns of obstruction we’ve documented are on our NAS Jacksonville, Naval Station Mayport, and NAS Pensacola pages. If there’s an upside to being court-martialed, it’s that you finally have real rights at that point and the Navy can’t get away with stunts like these.
How a Proactive Civilian Military Attorney Can Help
The complainant’s allegation and the NCIS’s cherry-picked evidence are in place before a charge sheet is drafted. The opportunity for a proactive defense counsel is in how the evidence is explained to OSTC, what evidence they can get to OSTC that might create reasonable doubt, and how the defense orchestrates the Article 32 hearing. Getting counsel involved early, ideally before preferral, is often the difference between a case that goes to GCM and a case that gets deferred. And the 32 has to be fought, not waived. Young DSO counsel often aren’t even involved until preferral, don’t know what to do with a 32 by the time they get detailed to the case, and then waive the hearing mistakenly thinking it’s a waste of time. (Will your case go to trial? One way to make sure it does: waive your 32.)
Gagne, Scherer & Associates: Navy Court-Martial Defense Lawyers
Gagne, Scherer & Associates has defended Sailors at Norfolk, San Diego, Mayport, Jacksonville, Pensacola, Bremerton, Great Lakes, and OCONUS bases for over twenty years. Send us a confidential note or call (224) 935-6172. You’ll speak with an experienced military lawyer directly.