24 Conspiracy Courts-Martial at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 2017–2018: What the Records Show

Trends › By Installation › Camp Lejeune, North Carolina › Article 81, 2017–2018

Based on 24 cases · 2017–2018 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Conspiracy Always Came With Another Charge

All 24 cases charged at least one article besides Article 81. A conspiracy is an agreement to commit some other offense. The companion charges show what the agreements were about.

Larceny was the most common companion charge: Article 121 (larceny) appeared in 13 cases. Article 92 (orders violation) appeared in 6 and Article 107 (false official statement) in 5. Article 112a (drug) and Article 130 (housebreaking) appeared in 4 each. A court-martial sentence covers every charge, so the figures below include these offenses as well as the conspiracy.

A Punitive Discharge in Almost Every Case

For enlisted members, a punitive discharge means a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. Of 24 convicted enlisted members at Camp Lejeune, 22 received one (92%), and 6 of those were dishonorable. Across the Navy and Marine Corps, the share in Article 81 cases was 84%.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. The court-martial records do not track those separations.

Across the service, most conspiracy convictions already included a punitive discharge. At Camp Lejeune in these years, almost every convicted enlisted member received one. The 92% share is higher than the 84% across the service.

Confinement Above the Service Median

All 24 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 23 of those sentences included confinement (96%). The median confinement was 11 months, longer than the 9 months in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of the sentences were 2.2 years or longer.

Sentences longer than one year were 10 of 24 convictions (42%), compared with 35% in all Navy and Marine Corps Article 81 cases for 2017–2018. Of those, 2 were 5 years or more. Sentences under 6 months were less common here (25%, compared with 32%). Sentences of 6 months to 1 year were about the same (29%, compared with 30%). Only 1 conviction had no confinement (4%, compared with 3% across the service). These are adjudged sentences, as imposed at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

Sentences by Court Level

11 cases were general courts-martial and 13 were special courts-martial. The general share was 46%. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial is capped at one year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. It can impose a bad-conduct discharge.

Sentences differed by court level. Every conviction at a general court-martial included confinement (100%), with a median of 2.2 years. At special courts-martial, 92% did, with a median of 6 months. Only a general court-martial can impose more than one year.

Rank of Those Charged

Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 79% of the accused. NCOs (E-5 to E-9) made up 21%, and officers made up 0%. In the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps, 77% of Article 81 accused were junior enlisted. The rank mix here was about the same as across the service. The differences in this group are in discharges and confinement, not rank.

Timing of the Cases

The trials took place from May 2017 to October 2018: 10 in 2017 and 14 in 2018. Conspiracy charges were part of 17% of the 140 courts-martial at Camp Lejeune in 2017–2018.

The records give trial dates only. They do not record when the alleged agreement or the underlying offense took place. A case listed under 2018 may concern events from an earlier year.

Rules in Effect

These trials took place before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. That law introduced fixed panel sizes, judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and written plea agreements. None of those changes applied to the cases here.

What the Records Do Not Show

Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea. This group has no plea breakdown, so it cannot show how many accused contested the charges. The records also do not describe the evidence or plea terms. Only cases that reached a courtroom appear here. The records omit conspiracies handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: 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.