A senior Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Marine officer accused of sexual assault and abuse of a child will appear at trial next week, more than seven months after he was remanded to the brig to await his day in court.
Col. Daniel Wilson, 55, is accused of multiple counts each of sexual assault, sexual assault and sexual abuse of a child, and assault consummated by battery on a child under the age of 16. Wilson was originally removed from his post as operations officer for II Marine Expeditionary Force and criminally charged in November 2016; but some of his charges, and an additional charge of absent without leave, were added in January due to new information turned up in a Naval Criminal Investigative Service probe.
Little has been made public about the origins of the accusations, but a source has told Military.com that some of the charges concern a child who was six years old at the time.
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Wilson had originally been permitted to remain free while awaiting trial, but he was ordered to the brig when the new allegations surfaced in January.
Wilson's civilian attorney, Phillip Stackhouse, announced in February that Wilson would plead not guilty, and complained that II MEF Commander Maj. Gen. Walter Lee Miller's decision to remand Wilson to the brig, and that of the officer who reviewed and confirmed the order, represented an "abuse of discretion and decision."
The trial is set to begin Aug. 29 and is expected to last nearly two weeks, with a planned conclusion date of Sept. 9.
"Wilson is presumed innocent of any alleged offenses and will be afforded the opportunity to defend himself against all charges," Maj. Michael Armistead, a spokesman for II MEF, said in a statement.
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
![](http://images04.military.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_large/public/2024-11/1time%20cher%20uss%20missouri%201200.jpg?itok=qi9yyMAM "Cher's more formal look in her 1989 music video, "If I Could Turn Back Time," filmed aboard the battleship USS Missouri. (Criteron Studios)")
