United States v. Kimble

33 M.J. 284, 1991 CMA LEXIS 1308, 1991 WL 191352
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedSeptember 26, 1991
DocketNo. 65,053; ACM 27680
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 33 M.J. 284 (United States v. Kimble) 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. Kimble, 33 M.J. 284, 1991 CMA LEXIS 1308, 1991 WL 191352 (cma 1991).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court

EVERETT, Senior Judge:

In a contested general court-martial, appellant was convicted by officer and enlisted members of two specifications of committing indecent acts on his younger daughter and sentenced to confinement for 4 years and reduction to the lowest enlisted [285]*285grade.1 The convening authority approved these results, and the Court of Military Review affirmed. 30 MJ 892 (1990).

We granted appellant’s petition to review these two issues:

I
WHETHER APPELLANT WAS DENIED DUE PROCESS OF LAW BY THE INDUCEMENT OF INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE FROM HIM PURSUANT TO THE STATE’S DECISION TO DEFER PROSECUTION AND A DE FACTO GRANT OF IMMUNITY FROM THE UNITED STATES.
II
WHETHER APPELLANT WAS DENIED THE RIGHT TO CONFRONTATION OF THE WITNESSES AGAINST HIM BY ADMISSION OF THE HEARSAY STATEMENTS OF HIS DAUGHTER.

We agree with appellant’s claim of immunity and, so, will order the charges dismissed. Accordingly, we need not address the second issue.

I

The first specification of which appellant was convicted was based on committing an indecent act with his younger daughter in April 1987. The offense came to light a few months later, based on a tip from a friend of appellant’s older daughter. Although both appellant’s younger daughter and his wife denied it, appellant ultimately admitted the act to a social worker. As a result of his admission, appellant received counseling and was permitted to remain with his family.

One evening over a year later — on June 15, 1988 — appellant’s neighbor learned from the girls that appellant was “doing it again” and that, “around Christmas, it [had] started again.” She took the girls to her house and went to find appellant and his wife at a local casino. There, she told appellant’s wife what she had learned, and the two returned to the family home, leaving appellant at the casino.

Apparently, appellant’s wife reported the matter to the civilian authorities late that night. About 1:00 a.m., she also contacted Chief Master Sergeant Wilson, who was appellant’s reporting official and a good friend of the family, and told him generally about the problem. Wilson immediately telephoned Major Trent, appellant’s squadron commander, and met him at work at 5:00 a.m. There, Wilson told Trent the general nature of the accusation; and, after about an hour’s conversation, they decided to let the civilian police and social service agencies handle the matter.

About 7:30 or 7:45 a.m., Wilson arrived at appellant’s home; spoke briefly with appellant’s wife; got some clothes from her; and took appellant to Wilson’s house, where appellant lived the next couple of months. There, Wilson asked appellant what had happened. The conversation was informal, friend-to-friend; no rights advisement was given; and Wilson put no pressure on appellant to answer. Appellant told Wilson about what happened the night before and mentioned as well, the incident in April 1987, but no other incidents came up at all. Wilson explained what happened then:

Throughout the day, I continually kept Major Trent briefed, updated. He, in turn, kept Colonel Jones[, the special court-martial convening authority,] updated, and throughout that day and the next day the decision was rendered from Colonel Jones that he was going to go along, he was going to go along, defer, to what civilian authorities were going to do, because Metro [the police] and Social Services had gotten involved. We were going to let civilian authorities handle it.

At this point, it is clear that Sergeant Wilson, Major Trent, and Colonel Jones all operated on the belief that only two inci[286]*286dents had occurred — one in April 1987 and one on June 15, 1988.

These events automatically triggered a review of appellant’s security clearance. Major Trent arranged for a psychiatrist, Dr. Master, to examine and evaluate appellant at government expense, to help the government determine whether appellant should retain or lose his clearance. Dr. Master first saw appellant on June 21, 1988, and on that date wrote his first report for the command:

George is accused of sexual assault on April, age I2V2 (born in November, 1975). He states that the first incident that occurred was in April, 1987 ... George, on advice of Gurthie Polk, social worker with Nevada Social Services, went to Charter Counseling on Flamingo where in late July/early August of 1987 he was seen three times by a lady therapist whose name he cannot remember. He states the therapist felt the problem was solved, and so therapy was ended. He states everything was fine until February of1988 when he again began touching April in the genital area. He did this on several occasions, with the last incident being on the afternoon of June 15, 1988.

(Emphasis added.) On the basis of Dr. Master’s assessment that appellant would be best off at work and that he was not a threat to security or to anyone, the command retained appellant’s clearance, and appellant returned to his normal duties a few days after Dr. Master’s report was received.

About this same time, the civilian prosecutor agreed to hold in abeyance any formal action against appellant for a year on condition that appellant enter and complete the Las Vegas Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program (CSAT). As a predicate to entering the program, appellant completed the CSAT intake questionnaire on June 27. According to Dan Bixler, a licensed marriage and family therapist and the clinical coordinator for the Las Vegas CSAT, appellant candidly acknowledged on the form that he had “molested his daughter during two periods of time. One time in April 1987, and from January 1988 to 15 June 1988. ” (Emphasis added.)

About a week and a half after he had returned to work, Major Trent advised appellant that Colonel Jones had decided to let the civilian authorities handle the situation and “that no court-martial action would take place provided that he successfully completed his program downtown.”

On July 7, appellant actually saw Mr. Bixler for the first time. During their session and in response to Bixler’s questions about appellant’s answers on the questionnaire, appellant fully explained the April 1987 incident and its repercussions: “George Kimble then told me that, ‘It started up again with regularity in January 1988.’ ... George Kimble stated that during January 1988 through 15 June 1988, he molested April an average of twice a week, but not every week, in the Kimble’s living room and the son’s bedroom.”

Colonel Jones retired on August 1, 1988, and Colonel Tilley succeeded him as appellant’s special court-martial convening authority. Soon thereafter, Colonel Tilley decided to review the status of appellant’s case, and he requested the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) to look into the matter.

On August 11, Wilson asked appellant to accompany him to the OSI office because “the OSI wanted to have an interview with him.” Before the appointed hour for the interview, Wilson met appellant and his wife at a restaurant near the OSI office. According to Wilson:

We sat around and had some coffee, and I tried to convey to George that I felt that this was no threat to him going in and having this interview with Agent Viskoc.

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Bluebook (online)
33 M.J. 284, 1991 CMA LEXIS 1308, 1991 WL 191352, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kimble-cma-1991.