summary court marshall and military rights

[vixen162]

Please help if anyone knows where to turn. My fiance is a Lcpl. in the Marines. He was charged with UA for being 35 minutes late to work, but he called and told his CO in advance the circumstances of the tardy. He was found guilty of UA and got 30 days in the brig, loss of pay for 30 days and demotion to PFC with demotion to Private suspended for 6 months. He is thinking about appealing. If anyone has any ideas, Please let me know as soon as possible. He is in the brig now.

 

[Unhappy-maximus]

You must be at Camp LeJeune. How soon is it until he gets out of the service. Go to legal on base and get him represented. My best advice (because my husband has "been there and done that" is get the best deal you can get, do your time, take your demotion and get the #@*& out of the Marines as soon as you are allowed. My husband was a Staff Sgt. and left a private, but with an honorable discharge. I hate to hear this because it brings back many gut wrenching moments for me. We were so glad to get out, the truck was packed and we drove it to base the day of discharge. Never, never, was I so glad to leave that God forsaken place.

 

[Colt]

Vixen162,
I suspect that your fiance has some other problems that you are unaware of. No self respecting SJA would ok a summary court for someone who was 1/2 hour late for work. These thinks are usually handled under UCMJ Article 15. The only time an infraction is ordinarily handled by summary court is when the offender has a sunstantial history of minor misconduct. 99% of the time his "shirt" would handle it with a short "power counseling session" His company commander would likely have given him substantially the same punishment with out the conviction record of a court martial if he didn't have a record.

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