Have you or someone your love been charged with military desertion, AWOL, or failure to go? Or, are you considering leaving the military without authorization?

Desertion is a serious military offense. If you are declared a deserter by the military, the government issues a federal warrant for your arrest. If you are stopped by the police for any reason, you will be arrested as a deserter. You will be locked up in the county jail as you wait to be hauled back into the military system. As you spend up to a month in the county jail, you will likely be kept with convicted criminals. You will go long periods without soap, shampoo, or toothpaste. You won’t be able to use your cell phone, and getting a call through to your family may be extremely difficult. Perhaps worst of all, you won’t be given any information about when you’ll be released from the jail and sent back to the military.

When you get back into the military system, you may be locked up again as you wait for your case to come around. When that day comes, you face charges that include the likelihood of confinement and a federal felony conviction that will stay on your record. It is critical that you have an experienced attorney fighting for you at every stage.

AWOL and failure to go are also serious charges. Just like desertion, these charges can lead to jail time and the loss of a career, especially if you committed any other offenses – like doing illegal drugs – while you were away.

If you face military desertion, AWOL, or failure to go charges or are still away from your military unit, contact Gagne, Scherer and Langemo. We have the experience you need on your side. We handle many cases just like yours. Click here for a consultation.

How we work.

Military members who have been on an unauthorized absence don’t know where to go, what to say, how to report – they want to get it all behind them, but they don’t know what to do. We help our clients get through the entire process with the maximum amount of protection. Often, our clients are back on the street, out of the military, within a few weeks of reporting back to military authorities, without having suffered prosecution, conviction, jail, and a punitive discharge.

In many instances , there will be a lot of confusion about how this kind of case should be handled. It’s not unusual for service members to be charged with desertion when they should be charged with AWOL, or AWOL when they should be charged with failure to go. We understand the differences between these charges. We also know how to make the military listen to your side of the story, without exposing you to an interrogation by military authorities. By getting our clients’ story out to the right people in the right way, we help make sure our clients are treated fairly.

With methods like these, Greg Gagne and Keith Scherer have helped our clients receive acquittals or reduced sentences – saving their freedom, careers, future earnings and good name.