Witness Interviews
Sexual assault cases are often about the credibility of an allegation and
any supporting evidence to support or refute the accusation. In our most
recent sexual assault case, MJI contacted witnesses on behalf of our client
as soon as we learned about the case. We conducted interviews with over
a dozen civilian and military witnesses, who were assigned everywhere
from California to Bahrain and Japan. We worked with them to create written
affidavits to record information for use during the case proceedings In
many cases, like in this case, we beat the law enforcement investigators
to those witnesses and prepared more completely for the Article 32 hearing
and trial.
Although the nature of sexual assault allegations is such that there are
generally few witnesses to the alleged conduct, there are often witnesses
who can add details of prior statements made by an alleged victim or offer
possible motives for an allegation that can be further developed. As in
this case, initial government investigations can focus on a very limited
part of the evidence and
gave give too much credence to the accusation by the alleged victim. Early
witness contact by the defense is critical