United States v. Johnson

53 M.J. 459, 2000 CAAF LEXIS 954, 2000 WL 1239210
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Armed Forces
DecidedAugust 31, 2000
Docket99-0092/AR
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 53 M.J. 459 (United States v. Johnson) 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. Johnson, 53 M.J. 459, 2000 CAAF LEXIS 954, 2000 WL 1239210 (Ark. 2000).

Opinions

Chief Judge CRAWFORD

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Contrary to his pleas, appellant was convicted by officer and enlisted members of 2 specifications of battery — one by biting and the other by striking a child — and 3 specifications of aggravated assault upon a child by intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm, in violation of Article 128, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 928. Appellant was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge, 6 years’ confinement, total forfeitures, and reduction to the lowest enlisted grade.

Upon initial review, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the findings of guilty and the sentence without opinion. On remand by this Court, 52 MJ 374 (1999), the Court of Criminal Appeals determined that appellant was entitled to relief under United States v. [460]*460Gorski, 47 MJ 370 (1997). This Court had noted in the remand order that it was remanding the case “without prejudice to raising other issues in a petition after remand.” On December 9, 1999, this Court granted the petition for review on the following issue:

WHETHER THE MILITARY JUDGE ERRED TO THE SUBSTANTIAL PREJUDICE OP APPELLANT IN DENYING THE DEFENSE MOTION TO STRIKE TESTIMONY OF APPELLANT’S WIFE AT THE ARTICLE 32 PRETRIAL INVESTIGATION, WHERE THE WIFE’S APPEARANCE AT THE INVESTIGATION WAS PROCURED BY AN ILLEGAL SUBPOENA AND APPELLANT WAS DENIED HIS RIGHT TO A PROPERLY CONDUCTED PRETRIAL INVESTIGATION.

Finding that appellant lacks standing to object to the subpoena, we affirm.

FACTS

On February 26, 1996, trial counsel in the case at bar obtained a “subpoena” from German authorities commanding Mrs. Tashonda Johnson, wife of appellant, to appear at an Article 32, UCMJ, 10 USC § 832, hearing on March 1, 1996. The document issued by German authorities was styled a “Subpoena for Article 32 Hearing.” The cover letter to Mrs. Johnson from German authorities states, ‘You are obliged [sic] to appear on the strength of the subpoena. Should you fail to appear, you may become liable to afine [sic] up to DM 1.000 or confinement up to six (6) weeks.”

On March 5,1996, the investigating officer notified appellant by written memorandum addressed to appellant’s civilian defense counsel that he intended to call Mrs. Johnson as a witness at the Article 32 hearing. Appellant did not move to quash the subpoena or object to Mrs. Johnson’s testimony at the Article 32 hearing or to the convening authority. Mrs. Johnson was called by the investigating officer to testify, was sworn as a witness, and proceeded without objection to testify and be cross-examined.

At trial, however, the defense did move to exclude all testimony given by Mrs. Johnson at the Article 32 hearing, for a new Article 32 investigation, and to prohibit the Government from using the testimony of Mrs. Johnson at trial.

The military judge found as a matter of law that the subpoena was unlawful and issued without authority. However, he declined to exclude the testimony of Mrs. Johnson. Instead, he treated her testimony as a “deposition” under RCM 702, Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (1998 ed.). He found that appellant did not suffer any prejudice from having a witness illegally produced at the Article 32 hearing.

Mrs. Johnson was the principal government witness against appellant. She testified that she told agents of the Criminal Investigation Command (CID) she had seen appellant hit their daughter 2 times; that appellant held their 8-month-old daughter upside down just by either her arms or legs; appellant “usually just drops her in the crib”; and that she saw appellant bite their daughter’s feet hard enough to make their daughter cry. Trial counsel effectively used Mrs. Johnson’s Article 32 testimony during his direct examination.

Appellant argues that the military judge properly ruled that the prosecution had no authority to issue a subpoena to secure the attendance of appellant’s wife, Mrs. Johnson, at the Article 32 hearing, but that he erred by not striking Mrs. Johnson’s Article 32 testimony. Appellant submits that no prejudice need be shown from the military judge’s ruling; however, if prejudice must be established, appellant was clearly prejudiced by the illegal compulsory attendance of Mrs. Johnson at the Article 32 hearing.

The Government argues that it was within the military judge’s discretion to consider the prior testimony a deposition and allow trial counsel to impeach his own witness with prior inconsistent statements. The Government also argues that even if the testimony was obtained as a result of an unlawful subpoena, appellant was afforded his rights of cross-examination and compulsory process at the Article 32 investigation. United States v. Bramel, 29 MJ 958 (ACMR), affd, 32 MJ 3 (CMA 1990).

[461]*461DISCUSSION

The military judge was correct in ruling that an illegally ordered “subpoena” was issued to secure the attendance of appellant’s wife, Mrs. Johnson, as a witness at the Article 32 hearing. He was also correct in finding that there was no prejudice to appellant’s substantial rights by the improper production of this witness at the Article 32 hearing. We hold that appellant did not have standing to object to the use of the Article 32 testimony at trial because the evidence presented against him was reliable.

We first note that the Supreme Court and other federal courts have permitted third parties to move to quash grand jury subpoenas directed to another person where a litigant has sufficiently important, legally-cognizable interests in the materials or testimony sought to give the litigant standing to challenge the validity of that subpoena. See, e.g., Gravel v. United States, 408 U.S. 606, 92 S.Ct. 2614, 33 L.Ed.2d 583 (1972)(U.S. Senator asserting constitutional privilege allowed to intervene and move to quash subpoena directed at his assistant). We see no reason why a third-party challenge either to a subpoena duces tecum or a subpoena ad testificandum could not be raised during an Article 32 investigation if a sufficient basis were provided to establish standing.

Appellant did, however, properly challenge the Article 32 investigation prior to trial by a Motion for Appropriate Relief in accordance with the provisions of RCM 906(b)(3). Therefore, we must test to see whether appellant has standing to object. We have previously found standing to object

when the actions of the Government impact upon the reliability of the evidence presented against him at trial, e.g., coerced confessions, unlawful command influence, interference with the rights of confrontation or cross-examination, and interference with the right to present evidence.

United States v. Jones, 52 MJ 60, 64 (1999).

This is not a case of first impression. In United States v. Smelley, 33 CMR 516 (ABR 1963), command influence was alleged based on an authorization given by the convening authority to take depositions in order to per-feet an Article 32 investigation. The Smelley board of review looked at the question “whether such defect in an Article 32 investigation is prejudicial or violative of any substantial right of the accused as to vitiate the pretrial investigation and require a reversal of the trial proceedings.” 33 CMR at 524. The board noted:

Paragraph 34a of the Manual

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Bluebook (online)
53 M.J. 459, 2000 CAAF LEXIS 954, 2000 WL 1239210, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-johnson-armfor-2000.