United States v. Daye

37 M.J. 714, 1993 WL 243349
CourtU S Air Force Court of Military Review
DecidedJune 2, 1993
DocketMisc. Dkt. No. 93-07
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 37 M.J. 714 (United States v. Daye) 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. Daye, 37 M.J. 714, 1993 WL 243349 (usafctmilrev 1993).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

SNYDER, Judge:

This is an appeal by the Government from a ruling of the military judge below granting a defense motion to dismiss Charge I and the Additional Charge and their respective specifications. See Article 62, UCMJ, 10 USC § 862 (1988); R.C.M. 908. The Government avers the military judge erred as a matter of law in dismissing the affected specifications. We agree and reverse the military judge’s ruling.

Appellee is charged with committing indecent acts with another and two specifications of adultery, both in violation of Article 134, UCMJ, 10 USC § 934 (1988).1 Only the charges alleging the indecent acts concern us. The specification of Charge I reads, in part, as follows:

Did, at or near Andrews AFB, MD, ... wrongfully commit indecent acts with Sgt [LMG] by videotaping and/or knowingly participating in a videotaping of various sexual intercourse positions between himself and Sgt [LMG] and videotaping and/or knowingly participating in a videotaping of Sgt [LMG] performing oral sex on him, both without the knowledge and consent of Sgt [LMG].

With the exception of a different partner and date, the specification of the Additional Charge alleges similar misconduct. In an Article 39(a), UCMJ, session, appellee moved to dismiss Charge I and the Additional Charge for failure to state an offense. The colloquy leading to the military judge’s granting of the motion follows:

DC: The issue comes down to whether or not the videotaping in and of itself is an indecent act and can subsequently be charged under Article 134____ And it’s the defense’s position that the act of videotaping is not in and of itself indecent, and it must be the act itself not the [715]*715contents which must be indecent in order to bring an indecent act charge under Article 184.
* sic s): * * *
TC: First of all, your honor, it’s not the videotaping here that the government is alleging is the indecent act. It’s not the videotaping in and of itself. The videotaping without the females’ knowledge and consent.
* * * * * *
Again, it’s not the sexual intercourse that is the basis of the indecent acts it’s the sexual intercourse that was videotaped without the females’ knowledge and consent. So it’s a videotaping without the knowledge and consent that is the basis for Charge I and the Additional Charge.
MJ: The Motion to Dismiss is granted because an indecent act requires a touching. Since the government’s philosophy doesn’t deal with touching here the videotaping cannot support a [sic] indecent acts given the charging also of the adultery.

At a subsequent session, trial counsel requested the military judge reconsider his decision in light of this Court’s decision in United States v. Hansen, 36 M.J. 599 (A.F.C.M.R.1992). The military judge granted trial counsel’s motion for reconsideration and, upon reconsideration, adhered to his prior ruling. The military judge ruled Hansen distinguishable on its facts and ruled United States v. Jackson, 30 M.J. 1203 (A.F.C.M.R.1990) was still the controlling precedent on whether the commission of an indecent act with another required a touching. He stated,

To illustrate this another way I’d like to pose a hypothetical. If a peeping Tom surreptitiously observes and possibly videotapes a couple engaged in sexual activities that peeping Tom has not committed an indecent act. This rule is that which is stated in the Jackson case. The peeping Tom in this example has not acted with anyone. And this is also the situation we still have in this case. There is no allegation that the accused acted with either of these women as to the videotaping. I adhere to my ruling.

Thereafter, trial counsel duly filed notice of the Government’s intent to appeal the ruling. All conditions precedent having been met, the matter is properly before us for decision. R.C.M. 908.

Appellant’s brief asserts two bases for concluding the military judge erred as a matter of law: (1) when he determined that an indecent act requires a touching, and (2) when he determined that the accused and the women were not acting in conjunction or participating with the accused while he was surreptitiously videotaping the activity. During oral argument, appellant urged an unequivocal overruling of Jackson. As additional support for its position that the specification alleges an offense, appellant also asserts that appellee’s videotaping of the events in question rendered arguably nonactionable private conduct sufficiently public to constitute indecency.

Appellee counters by arguing Jackson is still viable precedent regarding indecent acts with another, vis-a-vis indecent acts or liberties with children, Hansen notwithstanding. Further, appellee argues, to find indecency solely on the basis of an absence of consent will constitute the crafting of a new, heretofore nonexisting, offense under Article 134, for which no reasonable person could have notice. In holding the military judge erred, we opt for a position between those of the parties.

I

PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF PHYSICAL CONTACT

As mentioned by the Jackson majority, one reason for the uncertainty in this area is that most of the precedents involving an indecent act with another without touching have dealt with the offense as a lesser included offense of indecent acts/liberties with a child, which specifically excludes touching as an element. MCM, Part IV, paragraph 87b(2) (1984). See, e.g., United States v. Thomas, 25 M.J. 75 (C.M.A.1987), United States v. Ramirez, 21 M.J. 353 (C.M.A.1986) and cases cited therein. As a [716]*716result, appellate courts willingly have sustained an indecent act without a touching when it involved children, as reflected in Thomas, where the Court stated,

The fact that the participants here were children is evidence that the nude dancing was indecent, but the proof of “indecent acts” does not include an element that the participants be children.

Thomas, 25 M.J. at 77 n. 4 (emphasis added).

The only other case which squarely holds touching not required to commit an indecent act is United States v. Murray-Cotto, 25 M.J. 784 (A.C.M.R.1988), pet. denied, 26 M.J. 322 (C.M.A.1988). However, the Jackson majority specifically rejected MurrayCotto’s holding on facts similar to those in Jackson, in part, because the precedents relied on involved children. Jackson, 30 M.J. at 1205. Interestingly, we find a similar fallacy with the Jackson majority’s rationale: It, too, relies on the elements of indecent acts/liberties with a child, and we believe unnecessarily so.

As part of its rationale for concluding touching is necessary to commit an indecent act with another, the Jackson majority stated,

[W]e view the framers of the Manual for Courts-Martial as artful drafters. A page or two earlier in the Manual, they addressed the Article 134 offense of indecent acts/liberties with a child. They provided that “physical contact is not required.” By the logic of exclusio unis,

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37 M.J. 714, 1993 WL 243349, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-daye-usafctmilrev-1993.