William Cassara 
The power granted to the individual service Courts of Criminal Appeals is one of the ways in which military criminal justice is unique. Article 66 of the UCMJ has historically established the service-level appellate courts and charged them with affirming only the findings and sentence that they find correct in law and fact. This is … Read more
In early 2023, the Army Court of Criminal Appeals issued its decision in United States v. Strong, which was discussed here. SSG Strong was the driver of a military vehicle transporting several USMA cadets to a land navigation course. The vehicle went over an embankment, injuring several cadets and killing one. The Soldier riding with … Read more
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces recently issued an opinion in United States v. Swisher. Lance Corporal Swisher was court-martialed for several offenses resulting from the sexual assault of a young woman. Both LCpl Swisher and a civilian male were alleged to have assaulted the victim together. The civilian defendant pled guilty to … Read more
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces recently issued its decision in United States v. Grijalva. Petty Officer Grijalva was a member of the Coast Guard in 2019 when he guessed the Snapchat password of a female civilian, B.C.. B.C. had several photographs stored in her Snapchat account, including some nude pictures of herself. … Read more
From 1951 until 2013, Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice criminalized consensual sodomy between adults. The military pursued incidents of consensual same-sex sexual activity under this provision for decades. In 2003, the US Supreme Court issued an opinion in Lawrence v. Texas that struck down statutes criminalizing consensual sodomy between adults. The … Read more
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces recently released its opinion in the case of United States v. Cole. Airman First Class Cole pled guilty to committing three different assault offenses against a fellow airman. He pled guilty to assault via strangulation on multiple occasions, to simple assault with an unloaded firearm, and to … Read more
In March 2024, the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals decided the case of United States v. Colletti. The Court set aside the guilty plea to wire fraud in a case where the accused had used images of women to encourage other women he met online to send him intimate photos of themselves. The Navy-Marine … Read more
Assisted Army E-6 with more than 10 years of service with Medical Evaluation Board rebuttal that led to the addition of an unfitting condition, resulting in a 60% DOD medical retirement.
Obtained local GOMOR filing for Army Reserve O-5 with more than 20 years of service after CID investigation.
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces recently issued a decision in United States v. Keago. Midshipman Keago was charged with attempted sexual assault, sexual assault, burglary, and obstruction of justice related to the alleged sexual assaults of three other midshipmen from the US Naval Academy. He was found guilty of these offenses and … Read more