Army Orders Violation Cases Against NCOs (E-5 to E-9): Outcomes and Sentences

Trends › By Offense › Article 92 › NCOs (E-5 to E-9)

Based on 165 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

More NCOs Contested the Charges

Of the 165 cases, 69 involved a not-guilty or mixed plea and 96 a guilty plea. The contested share was 42%, compared with 32% across all Army Article 92 cases.

Plea agreements are recorded for 82 of the 96 guilty pleas, and 14 have no entry. Army records state whether an agreement existed, not what it contained.

How Contested Cases Were Decided

Of 69 contested cases that reached a verdict, 20 ended in a full acquittal (29%). Across all Army Article 92 cases the rate was 25%. Another 39 contested cases ended in a partial acquittal: the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification and convicted of another. Army results list findings charge by charge, so partial acquittals are common in Army records.

Results differed by who decided guilt. Members acquitted the accused of all charges in 11 of 34 contested cases (32%). A military judge alone did so in 7 of 33 (21%). These 67 cases are the decided contested cases with the forum listed. The accused usually picks the forum, so the cases in each forum are not alike.

Punitive Discharges Were Less Common

A punitive discharge followed 36% of enlisted convictions in this group: 34 bad-conduct and 18 dishonorable. Across all Army Article 92 cases the share was 55%. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out an administrative separation later.

Sentences to Confinement

Confinement was part of 73% of the 145 convictions. The median confinement was 4 months, the same as across all Army Article 92 cases. A quarter were 11 months or longer, and 1 was a life sentence.

27% of convictions included no confinement, compared with 21% across all Army Article 92 cases. Sentences longer than one year were about as common: 23 of 145 (16%), compared with 18%. All are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and they cover every charge in the case.

Results by Court Level

General courts-martial, which can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge, made up 59% of the 162 cases with a court level listed (95 of 162). A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot adjudge a dishonorable discharge. 67 cases were tried at that level. The court level is not listed for 3 cases.

The median confinement was 6 months at general courts-martial and 3 months at special courts-martial. The contested share was 49% at general courts-martial and 33% at special courts-martial.

Panels Heard Half of the Contested Cases

Of the cases with the forum listed, 128 were tried by a military judge alone, 34 by an enlisted panel, and 1 by an officer panel. Members heard 21% of all cases and 34 of 67 contested cases (51%). Most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas, so the split mostly follows how many cases were contested.

Other Charges Tried With Article 92

Article 92 was the only charge in 24 of 165 cases. Article 128 (assault) and Article 134 (general article) each appeared in 44, Article 120 (sexual assault) in 32, Article 93 (maltreatment) in 21, and Article 107 (false official statement) in 20. A sentence covers every charge in the case, so these other offenses are part of the confinement and discharge figures.

Cases by Year and Installation

These 165 cases were tried from January 2021 through November 2025: 49 in 2021, 51 in 2022, 22 in 2023, 25 in 2024, and 18 in 2025. All of the accused were NCOs, while junior enlisted made up 41% of all Army Article 92 cases. Army records in this data are sparse before 2021.

Fort Knox and Fort Hood had 18 cases each, Fort Bragg 16, Joint Base Lewis-McChord 10, and Fort Sill 7. Together they account for 42% of the 165. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a high count does not on its own point to a problem at a base.

Law Changes and What Stays Hidden

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault and domestic violence. Military judges sentence under new parameters when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023. The records give trial dates only, so trials from 2024 on mix old-rule and new-rule cases, and the records cannot show whether either change affected these numbers.

Cases resolved by nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action are not in these records. The records do not describe the evidence or the plea terms.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 92 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.