What Bremerton, Washington Tried in 2019
Bremerton, Washington tried 47 courts-martial in 2019. The median confinement was 3 months, compared with 6 months across the Navy and Marine Corps. Article 112a (drug) was charged in 56% of cases, compared with 30% across the service.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Installation › Bremerton, Washington › 2019
Short answer: Bremerton, Washington tried 47 courts-martial in 2019. The median confinement was 3 months, compared with 6 months across the Navy and Marine Corps. Article 112a (drug) was charged in 56% of cases, compared with 30% across the service. 38% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 60%.
Shorter Sentences Than the Rest of the Service
Of 43 convictions in 2019, 33 included confinement (77%). The median confinement was 3 months. A quarter of the sentences were 7 months or longer. The median for the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole was 6 months.
Convictions with no confinement made up 23% here, compared with 18% across the service. Sentences longer than one year were 4 of 43 convictions (9%), compared with 24%. None reached 5 years. All of these are adjudged sentences, as set at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 10 | 23% | 18% |
| Under 6 months | 21 | 49% | 35% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 8 | 19% | 23% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 4 | 9% | 19% |
| 5 years or more | 0 | 0% | 5% |
Which Articles Were Charged?
Charges appear in 43 of the 47 records. A case with several articles counts under each one. Drug use or possession under Article 112a was charged in 24 cases (56%), compared with 30% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Conspiracy under Article 81 appeared in 12%, compared with 7%.
Assault under Article 128 was less common here, at 23% compared with 34%. Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) appeared in 7% of cases, compared with 14% across the service.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, Navy and Marine Corps-wide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 24 | 56% | 30% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 10 | 23% | 34% |
| Art. 134 General article | 5 | 12% | 12% |
| Art. 81 Conspiracy | 5 | 12% | 7% |
| Art. 86 AWOL | 4 | 9% | 5% |
| Art. 131b Obstructing justice | 4 | 9% | 7% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 3 | 7% | 7% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 3 | 7% | 14% |
Guilty Pleas and Contested Trials
The plea is listed in 46 of 47 records. Of those, 41 accused pleaded guilty and 5 contested at least one charge with a not-guilty or mixed plea. The contested share was 11%, compared with 28% in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps.
Most contested cases here ended in a full acquittal: 4 of 5. Guilty pleas differed by charge. Every case charging Article 112a with a plea listed ended in a guilty plea (23 of 23). Cases charging Article 128 ended in a guilty plea 50% of the time (5 of 10). The records do not explain why an accused pleaded guilty or contested the charges.
Drug Charges Versus Assault Charges
All 24 cases charging Article 112a ended in a conviction on that article, with a median confinement of 4 months. Article 128 ended in a conviction on that article in 6 of 10 cases (60%), with a median confinement of 2 months.
A single case can include a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another, so these rows overlap.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 24 | 24 (100%) | 4 months |
| Art. 128 Assault | 10 | 6 (60%) | 2 months |
Officers Made Up a Larger Share
Officers made up 15% of the accused in 2019. NCOs made up 36%, and junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 49%. Across the Navy and Marine Corps, junior enlisted members made up 57% of the accused.
The records list 6 convicted officers or warrant officers, and 1 of them was dismissed. Dismissal is the officer form of a punitive discharge. Among 37 convicted enlisted members, 14 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (38%), and 1 of those was dishonorable. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
General Versus Special Courts-Martial
Bremerton held 16 general and 31 special courts-martial. The general share was 34%, lower than the 43% for all Navy and Marine Corps cases. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence. A special court-martial is capped at one year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
General courts-martial were contested 25% of the time, and their median confinement was 9 months. Special courts-martial were contested 3% of the time, with a median confinement of 3 months.
Compared With 2018
Bremerton tried 28 cases in 2018 and 47 in 2019. The contested share went from 18% to 11%. The median confinement went from 6 months to 3 months. Punitive discharges for enlisted members went from 46% to 38%. Full acquittals in contested cases that reached a verdict went from 0 of 5 to 4 of 5. In groups this size a few cases can move each figure, so the changes show direction, not precise size.
Norfolk, Virginia and San Diego, California each tried 51 cases that year. Norfolk's contested share was 43%, and San Diego's was 14%. Their punitive discharge shares for enlisted members were 55% and 71%.
| 2018 | 2019 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 28 | 47 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | 18% | 11% |
| Full acquittals (decided contested) | 0 of 5 | 4 of 5 |
| Convictions with confinement | 93% | 77% |
| Median confinement | 6 months | 3 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 46% | 38% |
| General courts-martial | 29% | 34% |
The 2019 Law Change and the Records' Limits
The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It brought fixed panel sizes, written plea agreements, and judge-alone special courts-martial. Cases with offenses from before 2019 kept the old rules. The records give trial dates, not offense dates, so they cannot show which rules applied to a given case. The records also leave out the evidence, plea terms, and nonjudicial punishment.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bremerton, Washington | 47 | 11% | 4 of 5 | 3 months | 38% |
| Norfolk, Virginia | 51 | 43% | 9 of 21 | 6 months | 55% |
| San Diego, California | 51 | 14% | 4 of 7 | 7 months | 71% |
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Bremerton, Washington with a trial date in 2019 (47 cases).
Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in Military Trial Results, data updated October 24, 2026. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: how this data was built. Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.
Related Analysis
- Bremerton, Washington: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2018 (previous / next)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2020 (previous / next)
- Bremerton, Washington, 2019–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 153 Cases (the whole period)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2015
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2017
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
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.