Legal Question in Military Law in Colorado

I have a friend who will hit 20yrs active duty in the Army next month. He has been on 5 or 6 tours overseas and has received medals and honors and given his life to the Army. He returned from his last deployment in Sept of 2009 and even I could tell something wasn't right with him. He then received orders for a new duty station in West VA. All of his belongings got moved the first week of Jan 2010. Somewhere within a week or two after that his orders were cancelled and he was already cleared from his other unit. He received

no new orders and unfortunately he shut down a mentally from all the stress. He is prideful and wont admit he was struggling. Since then, he has attempted regularly to inquire about

getting a position back on post and has talked with and seen guys from his old unit weekly around post. He recently got a facebook message from someone higher up asking him to come in for a sit down. He was there the next morning thinking it was about a job he was

hoping to apply for. It was not about a job. It was him being told they had just realized that his clearing paperwork, from the old unit to go to West VA, never got properly processed. They realized this a year and some months later when that unit deployed again and for the first time in over a yr his name came up on their books. Accusations started flying with words like "evading". This is not the case. My friend was in a very bad place when he returned from Iraq and the orders being cancelled made it worse and because he was around and seeing people daily, he didn't think they expected him back since no new

orders were issued nor old ones re-instated. Now, he will have to admit that he took advantage of the freedom but it was well known to the higher ups on base that he was

actively trying to obtain a position back on post. So he was not in violation of any orders due to the fact that there were no orders. He was, however, getting paid. they threatened

him with jail, forced retirement, refusal of retirement, monetary pay back, deployment etc. He was threatened with all of this and not read his rights until 3 days later. Would he be better off with a military lawyer or a civilian law firm?


Asked on 7/27/11, 8:18 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
William J. Holmes Attorney at Military Law

Clearly, he needs to consult with an attorney. It sounds like he did not do anything wrong and they are trying to blame him for their mistakes. He should be carefull about speaking with anyone because they will try to get him to admit that he did something wrong or to say something which they could try to twist around and use against him. He has the right to refuse to speak with them and to speak with an attorney and have an attorney present anytime he is questioned about this and he should do that rather than waiving his rights and talking to them by himself. That is exactly what they want him to do so they can try to get him to admit to something.to use against him. They could potentially take him to a court-martial on criminal charges or try to kick him out, so he needs to protect himself and be very careful about what he says and does. He needs to be sure that he is speaking with an attorney who will be completely on his side and working for his best interest. This could be either a military or civilian attorney, it just depends on who he is comfortable with and who he believes is best able to protect his interests. Some military attorneys are very good and some just go through the motions. Often a military attorney will not even speak with you or give you any advice until they have been appointed to represent someone after charges have been brought or a decision is made to discharge a servicemember. That is probably far too late for your friend. He needs to speak with someone now to try to avoid being put in such a situation.

I hope this has helped. If you have any additional questions, you or your friend can contact me directly at [email protected] or (757) 420-9321.

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Answered on 7/27/11, 11:02 am


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