Orders Violation Charges at Camp Pendleton, California, 2019–2023: Pleas, Verdicts, and Sentences

Trends › By Installation › Camp Pendleton, California › Article 92, 2019–2023

Based on 53 cases · 2019–2023 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Every Case Ended in a Conviction

Article 92 covers failing to obey a lawful order or regulation and dereliction of duty. At Camp Pendleton, all 53 cases that charged it in 2019–2023 ended in a conviction on at least one charge. Those cases were 18% of the 291 courts-martial tried there in the same years.

A conviction on at least one charge does not always mean a conviction on the Article 92 charge itself. A case can include several articles.

How Much Confinement?

44 of the 53 sentences included confinement (83%). The median confinement was 5 months, shorter than the 6 months in Navy and Marine Corps-wide Article 92 cases. A quarter of the sentences were 11 months or longer.

Terms under 6 months were more common here, at 47% of convictions compared with 38%. 17% of convictions carried no confinement, compared with 24%. Sentences longer than one year came about as often as elsewhere: 9 of 53 convictions (17%), compared with 16%. The longer ranges were about the same as the service. Terms of 6 months to 1 year made up 19% here, compared with 22%. Terms of more than 1 year but under 5 years made up 13% in both groups. Terms of 5 years or more made up 4%, compared with 3%.

These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each covers every charge in its case.

Most Cases Were Special Courts-Martial

Only 15 of the 53 cases were general courts-martial (28%), compared with 33% in the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole. The other 38 were special courts-martial.

The median confinement was 1.3 years at general courts-martial and 3 months at special courts-martial. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence. The court level sets the maximum possible sentence in a case.

Article 92 Was Rarely the Only Charge

Only 7 of the 53 cases charged Article 92 alone. In the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps, 52 of 344 Article 92 cases did. The most common other charges here were Article 128 (assault) in 15 cases, Article 134 (the general article) in 11, Article 112a (drug offenses) in 11, Article 90 (disobeying an officer) in 7, and Article 131b (obstruction) in 6.

A sentence covers every charge in the case. The confinement and discharge figures therefore include punishment for these other offenses as well as the orders violation.

Punitive Discharges

Among 51 enlisted members convicted, 30 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (59%). That is about the same as in Navy and Marine Corps-wide Article 92 cases (58%). 6 of those were dishonorable, the more severe form, which only a general court-martial can impose. The rest were bad-conduct discharges, which either court level can impose. No officers were charged, so no dismissals appear. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation, and these records do not include those separations.

Pleas Listed in 28 Records

Only 28 of the 53 records list the plea. Of those, 21 were guilty pleas and 7 were contested, meaning the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share of 25% compares with 35% in the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole.

Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so these counts describe only the cases that list one.

Rank of the Accused

The accused were 36 junior enlisted members, 15 NCOs, and 0 officers. That group is more junior than in all Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 cases in 2019–2023.

Cases by Year

The cases were tried from February 2019 through September 2023: 17 in 2019, 7 in 2020, 11 in 2021, 8 in 2022, and 10 in 2023. 2019 had the most cases. The records cannot show why the yearly counts changed.

What the Records Do Not Show

The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the order involved, the evidence, or plea terms. Orders violations handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation do not reach a courtroom and are not counted.

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.