Fort Meade, 2024–2026: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 12 Cases
The Army records show 12 courts-martial at Fort Meade from 2024 to 2026. The median confinement was 1.7 years, compared with 6 months in the rest of the Army. 80% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 73% Army-wide.
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Trends › By Installation › Fort Meade › 2024–2026
Short answer: The Army records show 12 courts-martial at Fort Meade from 2024 to 2026. The median confinement was 1.7 years, compared with 6 months in the rest of the Army. 80% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 73% Army-wide.
Long Confinement Terms
Confinement was part of 64% of the 11 convictions at Fort Meade. The median term was 1.7 years. In the rest of the Army, the median was 6 months.
These are adjudged sentences. They are the terms the court imposed at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each one covers every charge in its case.
Punitive Discharges
A punitive discharge followed 80% of enlisted convictions: 5 bad-conduct discharges and 3 dishonorable discharges. Across the Army, the rate was 73%.
1 convicted officer appears here and was not dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Charges Listed in the Records
Every record lists charges. Article 134, the general article, and Article 128 (assault) each appear in 3 cases (25%). The Army shares were 21% and 20%.
Article 120b (rape and sexual assault of a child) and Article 107 (false official statements) each appear in 2 cases (17%), compared with 8% and 5% across the Army. Article 128b (domestic violence) also appears in 2 (17%), lower than the 25% Army share. Article 90, Article 92, and Article 119 (manslaughter) each appear in 1 case. One case can count under several articles.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Army as a whole |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 134 General article | 3 | 25% | 21% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 3 | 25% | 20% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 2 | 17% | 8% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 2 | 17% | 25% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 2 | 17% | 5% |
| Art. 90 Willfully disobeying superior officer | 1 | 8% | 6% |
| Art. 119 Manslaughter | 1 | 8% | 0% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 1 | 8% | 10% |
Guilty Pleas and Judge-Alone Trials
10 accused pleaded guilty and 2 contested at least one charge. The contested share was 17%, compared with 21% across the Army. 1 of the 2 contested cases ended in a full acquittal.
All 10 guilty pleas are recorded with a plea agreement. Army records show that an agreement existed but not its terms. A military judge alone decided all 12 cases, and no panel of members heard a case.
Rank and Court Level
4 accused were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4), 7 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 1 was an officer. That mix is more senior than the rest of the Army, where 53% were junior enlisted.
Fort Meade had 7 general and 5 special courts-martial. The general share of 58% is lower than the 69% in the rest of the Army. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
Fort Meade Beside Fort Leavenworth and Fort Sam Houston
Fort Leavenworth tried 20 cases and Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston tried 21 in the same years. Fort Leavenworth had a median confinement of 1.2 years and a punitive discharge rate of 81%. Fort Sam Houston had a median of 4 months and a rate of 41%.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Meade | 12 | 17% | 1 of 2 | 1.7 years | 80% |
| Fort Leavenworth | 20 | 35% | 1 of 7 | 1.2 years | 81% |
| Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston | 21 | 5% | 0 of 1 | 4 months | 41% |
Dates and Limits
The trials ran from February 2024 to August 2026: 3 in 2024, 6 in 2025, and 3 so far in 2026. They are 1% of the 1,252 Army courts-martial in those years.
Special trial counsel have decided whether to prosecute covered offenses since December 28, 2023, and judges set sentences when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023. The records give trial dates, not offense dates, so they cannot show which rules applied. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, the evidence, and plea terms are not in these records.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial in the data tried at Fort Meade with a trial date in 2024–2026 (12 cases), compared with all 1,252 Army trials in those years. Dates are trial dates.
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
- Army Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- Fort Gordon, 2024–2026: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 12 Cases (same years, similar size)
- Fort McNair Courts-Martial, 2024–2026: What 14 Cases Show (same years, similar size)
- Camp Humphreys, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 69 Cases
- Fort Bliss, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 102 Cases
- Fort Bragg Courts-Martial, 2020–2023: What 143 Cases Show
- Fort Carson, 2024–2026: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 45 Cases
- Fort Drum, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 72 Cases
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Fort Meade, 2024–2026
Names and links only. Each judge's record of pleas, findings, and sentences is on their Know Your Judge page, part of the Court-Martial Characters membership.
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.