Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Veteran information query

A friend of mine is soon to go to court against a real scoundrel, a man who has a history of intimidating and battering women. We recently found out from a third party, (his ex-wife) that he has been lying about his status as a veteran of the Navy. He has told everybody that he was granted a "general discharge" when in reality, he was given a "dishonorable discharge" for beating up his wife, who was also in the Navy at the time they were married. Is his "discharge status" public information or is that not available to the public. My friend would like to bring this up in her extension of a "no contact order" at her court date in January.

I would imagine a background check would tell you.

I don't think it's public information - unless the DD214 is recorded in the county. Some veterans used to do that to show proof of service. However, someone with a less than honorable discharge would likely not.

EDIT:
I just looked at the county where my DD214 is recorded and this is what came up:


Military Discharges
Copies of Honorable Discharges form DD-214 that have been filed with the Bergen County Clerk are available upon request to Veterans of their immediate family.

Yes. You can do a FOIA request for certain records, which apparently includes transcripts of courts-martial (if there was one).
https://www.archives.gov/personnel-records-center/foia-info

Caveat - if there was no court-martial, the records won't show why he received a dishonorable discharge, so it might not be useful in court other than to show character, and that depends on the judge's opinion of the military.

Edit to add:
Unfortunately, any records you get from the archives will most likely arrive FAR too late for a court date in January (or June) but it might be good information to have for later use.
Good luck!

Surely if it’s for a personal safety issue, the judge show allow or request it.
I’m assuming as you need to ask that isn’t using a lawyer?
Quite often, over here we can get the services of a solicitor (lawyer) free for 1/2hr. Is there anything like that she could tap into?
If she is ex-Navy, don’t the VA have people she can get advice from?

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Thanks for the info, fella's. Probably not gonna be time to do the footwork I would need to do anyway.

Find out what city or county the wife battering happened in, it might have happened off base. There would be a civil record of arrest or disposition.