United States v. Kroop

34 M.J. 628, 1992 CMR LEXIS 93, 1992 WL 17912
CourtU S Air Force Court of Military Review
DecidedJanuary 28, 1992
DocketACM 28424 (f rev)
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 34 M.J. 628 (United States v. Kroop) 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. Kroop, 34 M.J. 628, 1992 CMR LEXIS 93, 1992 WL 17912 (usafctmilrev 1992).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT UPON FURTHER REVIEW

LEONARD, Senior Judge:

This is an unfortunate case of a senior officer’s involvement in adulterous affairs with an officer and an enlisted woman. Discovery of these affairs resulted in appellant being charged and convicted of three specifications of conduct unbecoming an officer. A military judge sitting alone sentenced him to a dismissal and a $5,000 fine.

The first time this case came before us we noted that the convening authority acting on appellant’s case was himself suspected of sexual misconduct similar to that alleged against appellant. In “an abundance of caution over the need to preserve the appearance of propriety in the military justice system,” we set aside the action [631]*631taken by that convening authority. We remanded the case for new staff judge advocate’s recommendations and new action by a different convening authority.

A new convening authority has reviewed and acted on appellant’s case and approved only so much of the sentence as provided for a fine of $5,000. The record is now back before us to address issues raised in appellant’s original assignment of errors and two supplemental assignments of error.

In his latest supplemental assignment of errors, appellant contends that we erred by refusing to direct disclosure of the investigative reports of the original convening authority’s misconduct or to set aside appellant’s conviction because of an improper referral. His prior assignments of errors asserted that the three specifications of which he was convicted did not state offenses under the UCMJ; two of the specifications were multiplicious; his pleas of guilty were improvident; the military judge erred in refusing to admit a defense exhibit; and his sentence was too severe. We find merit in some of these earlier assertions and set aside some of the findings of guilty.

I. DENIAL OP APPELLATE DISCOVERY OR IMPROPER REFERRAL

Prior to our first decision, appellant requested appellate discovery of investigative reports and any other documents from any inquiry concerning his convening authority’s misconduct. We denied that request. He now maintains we erred in refusing this appellate discovery or, in the alternative, ordering a fact-finding inquiry to determine the facts of the convening authority’s misconduct. He further argues we should have set aside his convictions and the referral of his charges because of the potential impact upon that referral of the unresolved allegations of similar misconduct by the referring convening authority.

We find no error in our refusal to grant appellate discovery or order a fact-finding inquiry. We also find no defect in the referral of appellant’s charges that would warrant setting aside that referral and the resultant convictions.

For the purpose of resolving these issues, we will assume that appellant has a right to appellate discovery. However, we find no possible relevance to his case of the material appellant seeks, assuming that it exists. We arrive at this conclusion after reviewing the roles that the general court-martial convening authority played in this case.

The record shows this case arose at a base distant from the headquarters of the general court-martial convening authority. The appellant was the commander of the civil engineering squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. After a preliminary inquiry into the basis for the charges, the commander of the 366th Combat Support Group at Mountain Home Air Force Base preferred the charges. He forwarded them to the commander of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing, a unit of Tactical Air Command also headquartered at Mountain Home Air Force Base. Appellant did not avail himself of a full investigation of the charges as was his right under Article 32, UCMJ. Instead, he waived the Article 32 investigation and the wing commander forwarded the charges to the general court-martial convening authority, the commander of a numbered air force headquartered at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Texas. The record shows no earlier involvement by the numbered air force commander.

The general court-martial convening authority received the advice of his staff judge advocate required by Article 34, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 834. After receiving that advice, the convening authority detailed the members of the court-martial and referred this case to it for trial. As is typical in Air Force practice, he did both contemporaneously. Although in some cases a general court-martial convening authority might do other acts before trial, the record shows none in this case.

The pleadings to date have shown only one possible relevance of an investigation of the convening authority’s own miscon[632]*632duct. It might show that he had committed crimes of a sexual nature similar to appellant’s or that his own misconduct was at least equally reprehensible as appellant’s even if it were not criminal. Our prior disposition recognized that the effect of the consciousness of one’s own misbehavior might influence decisions about the misbehavior of others. We must now decide whether there is any such potential for prejudice at referral and selection of the members of the court-martial.

A. Referral

Referral is simply a decision to try the charges referred and says nothing about ultimate guilt or punishment. Furthermore, there is an objective standard for referral. The convening authority need only find or be advised there are reasonable grounds to believe an offense triable by court-martial has been committed, the accused committed it, and the specification setting forth the offense properly alleges a UCMJ offense. R.C.M. 601(d)(1). See Article 34(a), UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 834(a). Thus, we can examine the advice of the staff judge advocate under Article 34 to determine whether the evidence warranted trial by court-martial and, if it did, conclude that the case would have been referred to trial by any convening authority, regardless of any psychological baggage.1 We have done that in this case, and we find the advice provided the required grounds for referral.

We face a more difficult question when we consider a convening authority’s choice of forum, for there is no objective standard for this decision. However, considering that appellant was a senior officer and commander accused of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct with a subordinate officer and sexual misconduct with an enlisted woman, we conclude that referral to a general court-martial was certainly not an abuse of discretion and was a likely decision of any convening authority.

Therefore, only one question remains about the referral: Was it by a person disqualified to act? Article 22(b), UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 822(b). There is only one such disqualification: The convening authority was an accuser. The term “accuser” is given broad meaning. It includes any person whose interest in the matter is “other than official.” Article 1(9), UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 801(a); R.C.M. 601(c), Discussion. United States v. Thomas, 22 M.J.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
34 M.J. 628, 1992 CMR LEXIS 93, 1992 WL 17912, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kroop-usafctmilrev-1992.