Paper Example on Appeal of UCMJ Punishment for Lack of Evidence, Inappropriate Procedure, Drastic Retribution

I appeal the decision for punishment under UCMJ by my battalion commander due to lack of enough evidence, inappropriate consideration of procedures, and exceedingly drastic retribution.

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The battalion commander received my case because it was considered domestic violence, cases of which are dealt with at the battalion level. Upon reaching the Article 15 hearing, the case was dismissed on the grounds of insufficient corroboration. However, the Family Advocacy Program provided enough evidence of me being an actual victim of domestic violence. They would have done well while doing their investigation if they would have consulted the Family Advocacy Program to help them understand the necessary details concerning my case. Despite me not being the aggressor, they found the means of building their Article 15 packet in association with domestic violence.

They proved me guilty for failure to follow a lawful order. The military protection order covered me based on my leadership. The MPO ceased to be valid before the day of events reached and I have written clear evidence about it. My leadership’s claim that a verbal order was put in place lacks proper evidence for the assertion. No oral order was in effect on the day of the events because the new order allegedly claimed to have been in place was placed on that same day. The previous order was not in effect by the day of the events and the new order, which is in question, was implemented later on after the events occurred. Therefore, it is clear that the claim of the existence of the oral order lacks proper grounds because they cannot prove that it existed. But if they have to push for the alleged presence of an oral order, I am confident to disapprove such claims with tangible evidence that the claimed order had been rendered invalid well before the day of the events.

Moreover, they transferred my residence to the barracks in addition to the military protection order. According to them, it was prohibited for me to live with my friend in Wheeler Army AirField. Instead, their strict restriction required me to stay within the confines of the Helemano Military Reservation. My home where my wife resides was only a walking distance from my working areas and she was also a walking distance from the areas where I was working.

My Article 15 hearing was high profile, being conducted from section sergeant and above, even my team chief was not allowed to grace the session. However, when my team chief got the permission to contribute to the case, later on, his exchange with the battalion commander revealed his stand in challenging the decision that had been made against me. His arguments suggested that it would have been fairer if a different course of action would have been taken against me. He sought clarification on the effectiveness of the protection order within walking distance from the working areas and my room in the barracks. His other worry was why I had not been put to work in some other areas where the protection order would be effective. The commander agreed with my team chief’s observations when he affirmed that those suggestions would have been done as had been done before. However, he claimed that suppose it was done then he thought it could have been seen as a punishment. My team chief has been at Schofield Barracks, working, for six months. Some soldiers are working at a replacement company for one year. There are also soldiers doing various tasks away from HMR who could enforce the protection order, which I could have happily taken. In addition to that, there are also soldiers in Schofield Barracks, in case they wanted to put me in the barracks. In that matter, it would have been a wiser decision for them to put me in the Schofield Barracks suppose what they wanted to do was only to separate me from my wife.

Conclusion

Furthermore, they are punishing me under the limitations of a Field Grade Article 15 because they accuse me of committing an offense under a company-grade Article 15, which is not fair for my case. Since they claim that I have disobeyed a lawful order, they decided to reduce me in rank. In addition to that, they also imposed 45 days of extra duty as an additional punishment for committing what they claimed to be a lawful order. From the turn of events, it is very clear that they created their allegations and rushed through the hearing process to fabricate consequences against me intentionally even though they are fully aware that all such allegations are false. They just made up their minds to bring such afflictions on me without a proper cause. Therefore, they are trying to cover up their malicious act by claiming that the decision for that order has been made as a way of protecting me from another possible incident. It is also clear that they fabricated false evidence of their own by implementing an order later when the day of the events had passed.