United States v. Dornick

16 M.J. 642
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedJuly 6, 1983
DocketACM S25906
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 16 M.J. 642 (United States v. Dornick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Military Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Dornick, 16 M.J. 642 (cma 1983).

Opinion

MILLER, Judge:

The accused was convicted at a special court-martial, military judge, sitting alone, of disrespect to a superior commissioned officer and destruction of another’s private property, in violation of Articles 89 and 109, U.C.M.J., 10 U.S.C. §§ 889 and 909. He was sentenced to a bad conduct discharge, confinement at hard labor for 60 days, forfeitures of $100 per month for five months, and reduction to airman basic.

After discussing two errors alleged via an excellent brief authored by trial defense counsel, we affirm both findings and sentence.

SEXIST FAMILIARITY AS DISRESPECT TO AN OFFICER

The accused was convicted of behaving himself with disrespect toward a female superior commissioned officer by saying to her, “Hi sweetheart.”

We do not, here, hold that every such utterance to a superior commissioned officer by an enlisted person, regardless of attendant circumstances, constitutes a criminal offense. However, we are convinced that, absent extraordinary circumstances tending to negate the implied sexist familiarity proffered by an enlisted person to his or her superior commissioned officer by making such a remark, use of such a term constitutes disrespect.

Here, not only were any extraordinary circumstances that might have negated the implied sexist familiarity proffered by the accused’s remark absent, but, to the contrary, several attendant circumstances verified that the accused meant to imply such sexist familiarity by his remark. The officer, assigned to the same squadron as the accused, was both known to him and in uniform. Furthermore, almost immediately after the accused was orally reprimanded by his superior female commissioned officer, he screamed up a stairwell to fellow enlisted men, a remark about the Lieutenant being a rotten or stinking “pussy.”

Clearly under the circumstances of this case, the accused was properly convicted of being disrespectful to a superior commissioned officer by saying “Hi sweetheart,” or words to that effect.

THE EFFECT OF A TWO MINUTE SUBSTANTIAL OMISSION UPON A SUBSTANTIALLY VERBATIM RECORD OF TRIAL

At arraignment the accused pled not guilty to the disrespect charge as it was originally worded, to wit: “in that [the accused] ... did ... behave himself with disrespect toward [the lieutenant] ... by saying to her, “Hi sweetheart,” and “I heard that Lieutenant’s pussy stank.”

[644]*644The record clearly reflects that the theory used by the defense in defending against this specification consisted of an assertion that the accused’s use of the words “Hi sweetheart,” absent the additional words “I heard that Lieutenant’s pussy stank,” did not constitute the offense of disrespect to a superior commissioned officer. Accordingly, the defense called two witnesses and the accused to establish that the latter words, although uttered, were not directed to the Lieutenant (instead they were directed up a stairwell to airmen on other floors of the building where the incident occurred).

Each of the three witnesses testified to essentially this same version of the facts. The accused admitted he directed his remark of “Hi sweetheart” to the Lieutenant, but asserted he directed his additional remark to airmen in the stairwell above. The two witnesses testified that the accused admitted to them that he had directed the “Hi sweetheart” remark to the Lieutenant and that the accused’s second remark had been directed to them.

The military judge, in his findings,

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Bluebook (online)
16 M.J. 642, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-dornick-cma-1983.