United States v. Dowty

48 M.J. 102, 1998 CAAF LEXIS 34, 1998 WL 260300
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Armed Forces
DecidedMay 22, 1998
DocketNo. 97-6001; Crim.App. No. 96 1535
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 48 M.J. 102 (United States v. Dowty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Dowty, 48 M.J. 102, 1998 CAAF LEXIS 34, 1998 WL 260300 (Ark. 1998).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court

EFFRON, Judge:

In an appeal under Article 62(a)(1), Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 862(a)(1) (1983), the Government asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to review a ruling of the military judge at appellant’s general court-martial that the statute of limitations in Article 43(b)(1), UCMJ, 10 USC § 843(b)(1), barred appellant’s prosecution on 12 of the 16 specifications alleging false official statements, larceny, forgery, and false claims against the United States, see Arts. 107, 121, 123, and 132, UCMJ, 10 USC §§ 907, 921, 923, and 932, respectively. On May 6, 1997, the Court of Criminal Appeals set aside the military judge’s dismissal of the affected specifications, thereby permitting trial to proceed on all 16 specifications. 46 MJ 845. On June 19, 1997, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied appellant’s timely filed request for reconsideration en banc, and the next day appellant filed his petition for review of that decision in this Court. We granted review. 48 MJ 328 (1997). We affirm the decision of the lower court for the reasons discussed below.

I

Appellant, a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve, has been on continuous active duty since June 17, 1981, which includes the period of time covered by the charges, trial, and appellate proceedings in this ease. He has been subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice at all relevant times. See Art. 2(a)(1), UCMJ, 10 USC § 802(a)(1).

While serving on active duty in the Medical Service Corps of the Navy, appellant allegedly conducted a private business named Health Care Associates, under which he submitted claims for reimbursement to the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland. The charges in this case allege that the claims submitted by appellant were fraudulent.

On September 28, 1993, the Defense Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Hotline received an anonymous allegation that claims submitted by appellant’s company to the Government between 1989 and 1992 were false and forged; that such claims had resulted in payment by the Government of $15,000 for services that appellant’s company never had rendered; and that appellant had deposited the checks paid by the Government for these fraudulent claims into his personal checking account. The caller subsequently was identified as appellant’s former wife.

The matter was referred to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), which opened an investigation. During this investigation, NCIS agents determined that it would be necessary to review appellant’s bank records, and they requested the Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) to issue an appropriate administrative subpoena under the Right to Financial Privacy Act (RFPA), 12 USC §§ 3401-3422, to the custodian of the bank records of appellant and Health Care Associates. The subpoena was issued on July 27, 1994. See 12 USC § 3405.

In accordance with the statute, a copy of the subpoena was mailed to appellant’s last known address on August 1, 1994. See 12 USC § 3405(2). After the notice was returned without having been forwarded to appellant, it was served personally on appellant on September 9,1994.

Appellant, exercising his rights under the statute, 12 USC § 3410, filed a motion on September 15, 1994, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the Government’s access to the records. Eight months later, the District Court dismissed appellant’s motion on May [105]*10517, 1995. Pursuant to the subpoena, NCIS obtained appellant’s bank records, and the investigation proceeded to completion in mid-December 1995.

Charges were preferred against appellant on January 17, 1996. The charge sheet contained four charges, with four specifications each. Twelve of the sixteen specifications were based on acts allegedly committed between “on or about” July 18,1990, and “on or about” January 17, 1991. The remaining four specifications were based on acts allegedly committed after January 23, 1991. The charges were received by the summary court-martial convening authority on January 23, 1996, thereby tolling the running of the UCMJ’s statute of limitations under Article 43(b)(1), which provides:

Except as otherwise provided in this section (article), a person charged with an offense is not liable to be tried by court-martial if the offense was committed more than five years before the receipt of sworn charges and specifications by an officer exercising summary court-martial jurisdiction over the command.

The charges were referred to a general court-martial.

At trial, appellant moved to dismiss the twelve specifications alleging offenses in 1990, citing the 5-year statute of limitations in Article 43(b)(1).1 The Government acknowledged that more than 5 years had transpired between the dates of the alleged offenses and receipt of charges by the summary court-martial convening authority, but it argued that the period of 8 months and 2 days in which appellant’s motion challenging the subpoena was pending in federal district court should be excluded under the RFPA. The relevant provision of that statute reads:

If any individual files a motion or application under this chapter which has- the effect of delaying the access of a Government authority to financial records pertaining to such individual, any applicable statute of limitations shall be deemed to be tolled for the period extending from the date such motion or application was filed until the date upon which the motion or application is decided.

12 USC § 3419. If the period of the litigation in federal district court is excluded, the charges were timely filed with the summary court-martial convening authority within the 5-year period provided in Article 43(b)(1).

The military judge, however, declined to apply the tolling provisions of the RFPA, relying primarily on two grounds. First, he ruled that Article 43 exclusively “controls the issue of what, if any, periods of time are subtracted from computation of the statute of limitations ...” and no language in Article 43 permits consideration of the RFPA to toll the running of the statute. Second, he ruled that, even if § 3419 of the RFPA did apply, the time period during which appellant’s challenge was under consideration did not toll the running of the statute. He stated that appellant’s challenge “did not have the effect of delaying governmental access to the subpoenaed records” because the Government could have obtained access through appellant’s former wife, who was a joint owner of the bank accounts in question, without invoking the RFPA.

On the Government’s appeal of this ruling, the Court of Criminal Appeals disagreed with the reasoning of the military judge. With respect to the relationship between the tolling provisions of the RFPA and Article 43, the court concluded that “both the Right to Financial Privacy Act and the applicable statute of limitations [Article 43(b)(1)] are shields and not swords, and, having picked up both, appellant] is without a free hand to assert one over the other.” 46 MJ at 848.

Second, as to whether appellant’s challenge to the subpoena actually delayed the investigators’ access to the bank accounts, the court held that the military judge had “applied the wrong legal standard.” Id. at 848.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
48 M.J. 102, 1998 CAAF LEXIS 34, 1998 WL 260300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-dowty-armfor-1998.