Cossio v. Air Force

527 F. App'x 932
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedJuly 10, 2013
Docket2012-1662
StatusUnpublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 527 F. App'x 932 (Cossio v. Air Force) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cossio v. Air Force, 527 F. App'x 932 (Fed. Cir. 2013).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

I

Jose Antonio Cossio, Jr., appeals the dismissal of his claim for reinstatement *934 into the Air Force — or, alternatively, an honorable discharge — back pay, and other relief pursuant to the Little Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(2). In 2004 Mr. Cossio was tried by court-martial and convicted of larceny, communicating a threat, computer fraud, and identity fraud; he was acquitted of an additional threat charge. The charges stemmed from a series of incidents in which Mr. Cossio diverted a fellow airman’s salary to a charity in Russia, illegally obtained that airman’s social security number by using his government computer, and threatened to “beat [the airman] into a coma.”

During sentencing in the court-martial proceedings, the court admitted records of disciplinary actions against Mr. Cossio during his career, including two letters of reprimand, a demotion under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for violating a no-contact order, and an Enlisted Performance Report detailing his disciplinary record. Following a December 2004 hearing, the court sentenced Mr. Cos-sio to 10 months’ confinement, a fine of $750, and a bad conduct discharge. Mr. Cossio appealed to the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, which affirmed his conviction and discharge. He then appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which denied review. Later, Mr. Cossio filed two petitions for a writs of error coram nobis before the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals. Both petitions focused on the government’s alleged failure to disclose records regarding the victim’s criminal record and other evidence relating to the victim’s credibility. Both times the court rejected his arguments. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces likewise denied Mr. Cossio’s petitions for a writ of error coram nobis.

Following his release from confinement, Mr. Cossio was court-martialed a second time, for separate conduct. In that proceeding he pleaded guilty to conduct detrimental to good order and discipline. At sentencing, he was permitted to present evidence rebutting the same sentencing information that was admitted in his first court-martial. The second court-martial resulted in a sentence of time served.

After his discharge, Mr. Cossio initiated this action before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. In his complaint, he disputed the merits of his prior reprimands and Article 15 demotion, and he argued that the introduction of those disciplinary records at his court-martial sentencing constituted a denial of due process. He also alleged several other constitutional violations relating to his conviction for larceny and communication of a threat.

The district court dismissed Mr. Cossio’s complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, for two reasons. First, regarding his disciplinary record, the court held that Mr. Cossio had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies when he failed to object to the admission of the sentencing exhibits or to press the issue on appeal. Mr. Cossio argued that he had disputed the merits of his past disciplinary actions before the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records in a 2005 proceeding, but the court noted that such a challenge could not satisfy the exhaustion requirement because the Correction Board lacks the authority to overturn a court-martial conviction or prohibit a court-martial from considering particular records in passing sentence; its role in sentencing is limited to granting clemency. See Martinez v. United States, 914 F.2d 1486, 1488 (Fed.Cir.1990); 10 U.S.C. § 1552(f).

Second, the court held that Mr. Cossio’s remaining allegations, even if proved, did not amount to a denial of due process that would justify the grant of relief. His chai- *935 lenges to his conviction, the court explained, all received “full and fair consideration” by military courts. The court noted that Mr. Cossio did not challenge the underlying facts regarding his larceny charge. Because a larceny conviction carries with it a maximum sentence of dishonorable discharge and ten years of confinement, the court concluded that Mr. Cossio’s sentence was not manifestly unfair.

Mr. Cossio appeals the dismissal of his claim to this court.

II

Our review of court-martial decisions is sharply constrained. Mr. Cossio does not dispute that the court-martial had jurisdiction to try him. Under those circumstances, “judgments by courts-martial, although not subject to direct review by federal civil courts, may nevertheless be subject to narrow collateral attacks in such courts on constitutional grounds.” Bowling v. United States, 713 F.2d 1558, 1561 (Fed.Cir.1983). The grounds for collaterally attacking a court-martial must be “serious” and “demonstrate convincingly that in the court-martial proceedings there has been such a deprivation of fundamental fairness as to impair due process.” Id.

A

Mr. Cossio argues that he had no opportunity to dispute the admission of his disciplinary record in the sentencing phase of his court-martial. Under the Military Rules of Evidence, he argues, he could challenge sentencing exhibits only for their completeness, relevance, or similar defects. Therefore, he asserts, his action to correct his military records before the Correction Board was his first opportunity to challenge the admission of his disciplinary records, and he should not be deemed to have waived his challenge to those records by not raising that challenge in the court-martial proceeding and subsequent review by the military courts.

That argument is foreclosed by this court’s precedent. A petitioner may “waive[ ] his constitutional claims by failing to raise them at all in the military justice system.” Martinez, 914 F.2d at 1488, quoting Cooper v. Marsh, 807 F.2d 988, 992 (Fed.Cir.1986). Raising such claims before the Correction Board is insufficient because the Board “has no authority to void court-martial convictions.” Id.; see 10 U.S.C. § 1552(f).

Mr. Cossio responds by characterizing his suit as a challenge to the disciplinary records themselves and the role they played in his discharge, not to the court-martial conviction itself. In the alternative, he argues that any objection to the admission of the exhibits would have been futile, because he would not have been allowed to challenge the facts underlying the disciplinary actions in the court-martial sentencing proceeding.

Even if we agreed with Mr. Cossio’s characterization of his claim, his proposed distinction is unavailing. The reasoning of Martinez

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527 F. App'x 932, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cossio-v-air-force-cafc-2013.