United States v. Bridges

24 M.J. 915
CourtU S Air Force Court of Military Review
DecidedAugust 19, 1987
DocketACM 25941
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 24 M.J. 915 (United States v. Bridges) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U S Air Force Court of Military Review primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Bridges, 24 M.J. 915 (usafctmilrev 1987).

Opinion

DECISION

HODGSON, Chief Judge:

On the evening of 25 February 1986, Arturo Sealy, the appellant’s brother-in-law, was admitted to the University of Califomia-Davis Medical Hospital with multiple knife wounds to the chest, thigh and hand. This appeal centers upon the admissibility of pretrial statements by him and the appellant’s wife, Camille Bridges, made pursuant to the residual hearsay exception of Mil.R.Evid. 803(24) and 804(b)(5) identifying the appellant as the attacker. For the reasons stated in this opinion we hold the statements were properly admitted.

The record established that around midnight of 25 February, a crying and excited woman who identified herself as Camille Bridges called the security police and told the desk sergeant “her husband had stabbed her brother.” A Department of Defense police officer who was patrolling the housing area was sent to the scene. There he saw the victim, Sealy, and met Mrs. Bridges who was crying. She related, “My husband cut him.” She indicated that she and the appellant were involved in an argument over who was going to use the car. He grabbed her from the rear and her brother, Arturo, came to her aid. The two men struggled but the appellant broke away, ran to the bedroom, took a knife from a gym bag and attacked her brother in the carport driveway. The appellant hid the knife under a neighbor’s car, the neighbor found it and eventually turned it over to the authorities. While the police officer was at the house, the appellant walked up and said, “I must be the one you are looking for.”

A little after midnight, Office of Special Investigations (OSI) investigators arrived and Mrs. Bridges told them what happened which was essentially the same story she told the police man who was first on the scene. When asked to provide a written statement of the incident, she sat down at the dining table and wrote it out in narrative form. There was no interrogation as that term is commonly used.

While Sealy was being treated that night for his injuries, he told the attending physician it was not an accident as “[he] was attacked.” About 1400 hours the next afternoon, OSI agents arrived at the hospital to interview Sealy. He described what occurred — his account coincided with that of Mrs. Bridges — and was asked to put it in writing. He agreed and asked that one of the agents act as his amanuensis in this regard. Mrs. Bridges was also at the hospital visiting her brother and was asked by the OSI investigators to sign a typed copy of the statement she had earlier written, which she did. Mrs. Bridges indicated she was under a “lot of pressure” from the appellant’s family not “to report the incident.” As she appeared to be emotionally troubled over the situation, the investigators referred her to the chaplain’s office.

The morning following the incident the appellant's squadron section commander went to his residence to get some clothing and toilet articles. Mrs. Bridges again related that she and the appellant had an argument during which her brother interceded and in the course of the struggle that followed, her husband broke loose, [917]*917took a knife from a gym bag and stabbed her brother.

During her testimony at trial, Mrs. Bridges admitted that she and the appellant had an argument over the use of their car and her brother, Arturo, came to her defense. She denied, however, that her husband attacked her brother. She stated she was the one holding the knife and when the appellant tried to take it from her, Arturo Sealy was accidently stabbed as she swung her arm. She acknowledged telling the desk sergeant and the police officer that her husband stabbed her brother, but those statements were not truthful as she “was crazy” and not thinking.

In rebuttal by the prosecution, a forensic pathologist testified that it was unlikely that the three wounds suffered by the victim could have been inflicted in a single sweeping motion.

The trial judge ruled that the out-of-court statements by Mrs. Bridges and her brother, Arturo Sealy, possessed a sufficiently high degree of trustworthiness as to be admissible as residual hearsay under Mil.R.Evid. 803(24) and 804(b)(5). The confrontation issue that the Court of Military Appeals stressed so vigorously in United States v. Hines, 23 M.J. 125 (C.M.A.1986) and United States v. Barror, 23 M.J. 370 (C.M.A.1987), does not apply to Mrs. Bridges because she testified at trial. United States v. Whalen, 15 M.J. 872 (A.C.M.R.1983). Therefore, the primary issue regarding her pretrial statement is its trustworthiness, not confrontation of her by the appellant. Because Mrs. Bridges’ statement as well as that of Arturo Sealy were obtained by police investigators, the prosecution must establish that the circumstances contained in the statements were not the product of subtle biases introduced by the interviewers or the questioning techniques they employed. United Spates v. Hines and United States v. Barror, supra.

In Barror, the Court of Military Appeals held that the trial judge erred in admitting the out-of-court statement of a 14 year old boy as:

[T]he record reveals virtually nothing of the dynamics of the interview/interrogation process itself or the state of mind of the declarant. In short, there is no meaningful basis for assessing the candor of the declarant or the accuracy of the statement. (Emphasis added.)

At page 372.

We sense a concern, and one we share, in both Barror and Hines, that the statements of young children and adolescents have the potential to be influenced by the setting of the interview and the questioning methods used. Hence, the dynamics of the interview is a major factor in determining the trustworthiness of an out-of-court statement. Here, the declarant is a mature 35 year old woman and the setting for the interview was her own dining room not a police station. There was no questioning as such, but a request to write out, in her own words, what had happened. The statement she gave was made within minutes after the incident. Her candor and the accuracy of the statement is buttressed by her frantic assertion to the security police desk sergeant that her husband had stabbed her brother. She repeated this claim moments later while still in an excited state, when a police officer arrived on the scene. Mil.R.Evid. 803(2) recognizes that statements made under the stress of excitement possess inherent reliability. The underlying reason for this conclusion is that the declaration is impulsive and that the declarant lacks time for reflective thought. United States v. Whitney, 18 M.J. 700 (A.F.C.M.R.1984).

When Mrs. Bridges was asked the next morning to execute a typed copy of her handwritten statement, she readily agreed although she indicated she was under family pressure to say nothing. Again the setting was non-confrontational and took place in a hospital waiting room. The record is clear that Mrs. Bridges was not hectored into making a statement, and when it became apparent she was emotionally distressed over the incident and her part in it, she was referred to an agency which could provide professional counseling.

The background to Arturo Sealy’s statement is much the same as Mrs. Bridges’. He also is a mature adult. While being [918]*918treated for his wounds, he told the doctor he was “attacked,” disclaiming any suggestion that his injuries were accidental. Again the interview was not in a custodial setting, but in a hospital.

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Bluebook (online)
24 M.J. 915, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-bridges-usafctmilrev-1987.