Questions about US Marine court martials, prisoner clothing and height and weight of $3,000,000

[fringedweller]

I'm writing an NCIS LA fanfic, and I have to place an undercover agent posing as a member of the Marines into a prisoner transport. Her intended target has been found guilty of a number of crimes and is being incarcerated, and the agent has to extract vital information from her before she gets to the detention centre. The easiest way to do that is

Comments

[emiliglia]

If you want to withdraw a lot of cash from the bank, a "strap" is 100 of the same bill, and a "bundle" (or "brick") is 1,000 bills (so 10 straps).

I think $1 mil in $100 bills is supposed to weigh 10 kg/22 lbs, so every 10,000 bills is going to weigh that much. The weight of the money your character is moving will then depend on the denomination of bills.

[fringedweller]

Thank you!

[geminilove_ca]

I can ask my father (he did 25 years in the Marines), but generally, if you break a law (local or UCMJ) while in the military, you would only be in the local jail until your CO or the MPs picked you up to transport back to your ship/base/etc. At that point, you would be held per UCMJ code

[fringedweller]

The character would be in the brig on base when the fic starts, not in a local jail. Thank you very much for offering to speak to your father, I do appreciate it.

At the moment, character A is guilty of desertion, theft and not stopping someone else murder two other Marines. I know she'd be in serious trouble for this, I just need to know what she'd wear during her court-martial and while being transported.
Character B is the undercover agent, and she needs a cover where she's committed a crime serious enough to be detained rather than given another, lesser punishemnt,

[surgicalsteel]

The 'not stopping someone else from committing murder' makes her an accessory, and in the eyes of the UCMJ, that makes her just as guilty of the murder as the person who actually did the killing. Depending on the circumstances surrounding it, that's punishable by life in prison or by death. If the murder was committed while deserting, they prosecution would likely go for the death penalty

[fringedweller]

Thank you very much, that's unbelievably helpful.

[tisiphone]

Dollar bills weigh about one gram each (and presumably $100s weigh the same), so if your $3 million is all in hundreds it'll weigh around 66 pounds (30 kilos). It will, however, be extremely bulky. For how bulky it might be, check out a million dollars around the house. (Actually $10,000 but the same number of bills if those singles were hundreds.)

[green_grrl]

That is just awesomely cool. I can just picture it: "Hi, I'd like to withdraw $10,000. For science!" :D

[randomstasis]

Too much fun. but really, a little disappointing.

[fringedweller]

Thank you! It looks like I'm going to have to have them steal more cash...

[lovechilde]

If you want to really go into very detailed detail, try this: http://www.jag.navy.mil/documents/mcm2008.pdf

It's the 2008 edition of the Manual For Courts-Martial, and contains all the procedures, standard sentences for common offences, and all the rest.

I'm not sure about the US Marines, but in my country appear to a court martial in their dress uniform, at least to the sentencing part. From what I remember of the show JAG, it should be the same in the US.

Also, love NCIS:LA, I'll look up that fic when you're done with it.

[fringedweller]

Thank you! It should be my het_bigbang entry, which will be available to read at the very end of September but it'll be posted to the NCIS LA comms too.

[theatricmisery]

I talked to my formerly infantry husband, so his knowledge is army-based (not marines) but they are both subject to UCMJ.
1 - He said that physically assaulting a superior officer could lead to being imprisoned. It's somewhat circumstantial. Requiring hospitalization, you most likely would be sent to the brig until they decided what to do with you. Things to consider would be how badly was the officer hurt, was there provocation, who threw the first punch, and the history of the marine. He also mentioned that you would most likely be under guard and then sent to the brig. If you want examples, let me know. He had a lot of stories.
2 - They would wear their dress uniform to the court martial proceedings.
3 - http://www.hqmc.usmc.mil/PP&O/PS/psl/corrections/Policies/MCO1640.5B.pdf Gotta love the military for having everything written out in EXTREME detail.

[fringedweller]

Thank you (and your husband!) very much.