United States v. Magyari

63 M.J. 123, 2006 CAAF LEXIS 607, 2006 WL 1295711
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Armed Forces
DecidedMay 10, 2006
Docket05-0300/NA
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 63 M.J. 123 (United States v. Magyari) 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. Magyari, 63 M.J. 123, 2006 CAAF LEXIS 607, 2006 WL 1295711 (Ark. 2006).

Opinions

Judge BAKER

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Appellant was attached to the Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet (COM-SUBPAC), in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On February 12,1998, the Navy Drug Screening program randomly generated Appellant’s name for urinalysis testing at the Navy Base in Pearl Harbor. At the orders of COM-SUBPAC command, Appellant, a petty officer, along with thirty-five to forty other ser-vicemembers, provided a urine sample to the urinalysis coordinators. Appellant’s sample and eleven other samples from COMSUB-PAC were received by the Navy Drug Screening Laboratory in San Diego, California, six days later. Appellant’s sample, identified with lab accession number S9802132117, was subsequently combined in a batch of 200 samples. Appellant’s sample tested positive for methamphetamine. Between receipt of the sample and release of the test results, approximately twenty lab personnel handled and/or tested Appellant’s sample.

After a contested special court-martial before members, Appellant was convicted of wrongful use of methamphetamine, a schedule III controlled substance, in violation of Article 112(a), Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. § 912(a) (2000). He was sentenced to a reduction to pay grade E-3 and a bad-conduct discharge. His sentence was approved as adjudged by the convening authority, and except for the bad-conduct discharge, was ordered executed.

The United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed in an unpublished opinion, United States v. Magyari, No. NMCCA 9801499, 2000 CCA LEXIS 131, 2000 WL 703572 (N.M.Ct.Crim.App. May 13, 2000). Upon Appellant’s petition, we granted review of the following issue:

WHETHER, IN LIGHT OF CRAWFORD v. WASHINGTON, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), APPELLANT WAS DENIED HIS SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHT TO CONFRONT THE WITNESSES AGAINST HIM WHERE THE GOVERNMENT’S CASE CONSISTED SOLELY OF APPELLANT’S POSITIVE URINALYSIS.

We answer in the negative and affirm the decision of the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals. As spelled out below, in the context of random urinalysis screening, where the lab technicians do not equate specific samples with particular individuals or outcomes, and the sample is not tested in furtherance of a particular law enforcement [125]*125investigation, the data entries of the technicians are not “testimonial” in nature. Nonetheless, the lab results and reports must satisfy the standard for reliability established in Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 66, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980).

BACKGROUND

Appellant testified at his court-martial that he was aware of the Navy’s zero tolerance policy on drug use and that he had never knowingly violated it. No witness testified to ever seeing Appellant use unlawful drugs in his fifteen years of naval service.

The Government’s case against Appellant consisted of a lab report from the Navy Drug Screening Laboratory in San Diego that showed Appellant’s urine sample tested positive for methamphetamine. The Government called four witnesses to introduce the evidence contained in the lab report. The Government called three witnesses stationed at COMSUBPAC in Hawaii, who were involved in the initial collection of Appellant’s urine sample. These witnesses included: Sonar Technician Chief Michael S. Szymonik, the urinalysis coordinator, Chief Operations Specialist Steve Hapeman, the designated urinalysis coordinator at the time of Appellant’s testing, and Fire Control Technician Chief David R. Chadwick, who observed the Appellant fill his sample bottle in the men’s head. One witness was called from the Navy Drug Screening Laboratory in San Diego, Mr. Robert J. Czarny, a civilian quality assurance officer. Mr. Czarny testified about how urine samples are handled and how results are generated at the Laboratory. Mr. Czar-ny signed off on Appellant’s report upon its release, but he was not personally involved in the handling or testing of Appellant’s sample. The Government did not call any of the lab technicians at the Navy Drug Screening Laboratory whose names appeared on the lab report and chain of custody documents, and who reviewed Appellant’s paperwork, tested his urine sample, or prepared the lab report.

Appellant’s defense counsel cross-examined Mr. Czarny, but did not call any of the other lab personnel who handled or tested Appellant’s urine sample. Appellant now argues that his constitutional right to confront the witnesses against him was violated and that any statements contained in the lab report that indicated his urine tested positive for the presence of methamphetamine were inadmissible testimonial hearsay and could not be used against him at trial.

DISCUSSION

When an error is not objected to at trial, plain error analysis applies. United States v. Gilley, 56 M.J. 113, 122 (C.A.A.F.2001). To prevail under a plain error analysis, Appellant must show that: (1) “there was an error; (2) it was plain or obvious; and (3) the error materially prejudiced a substantial right.” United States v. Tyndale, 56 M.J. 209, 217 (C.A.A.F.2001). If Appellant meets his burden of showing plain error, the burden shifts to the Government to prove that any constitutional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Brewer, 61 M.J. 425, 430 (C.A.A.F.2005).

The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment states that “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him____” U.S. Const, amend. VI. In Crawford v. Washington, the Supreme Court held that in order for the prosecution to introduce “testimonial” out-of-court statements into evidence against an accused, the Confrontation Clause requires that the witness who made the statement be unavailable, and that the accused have had a prior opportunity to cross-examine the witness. 541 U.S. 36, 53-54, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004).

Prior to Crawford, the admissibility of out-of-court statements was controlled by Ohio v. Roberts. Under Roberts, the statements of an out-of-court witness could be admitted against an accused if the statements carried adequate indicia of reliability. Roberts, 448 U.S. at 66, 100 S.Ct. 2531.

The Crawford Court departed from the Roberts framework for admitting out-of-court hearsay statements, and transformed the inquiry to one hinging on whether the out-of-court statement comes within the scope of the Sixth Amendment because it “bears testi[126]*126mony” against an accused. Crawford, 541 U.S. at 51, 124 S.Ct. 1354. “ ‘The lynchpin of the Crawford decision ... is its distinction between testimonial and nontestimonial hearsay----United States v. Scheurer, 62 M.J. 100, 104-05 (C.A.A.F.2005) (quoting United States v. Hendricks, 395 F.3d 173, 179 (3rd Cir.2005)). Where nontestimonial statements are at issue, the statements do not fall within Crawford’s scope and may be exempted from Confrontation Clause scrutiny altogether. Crawford, 541 U.S.

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Bluebook (online)
63 M.J. 123, 2006 CAAF LEXIS 607, 2006 WL 1295711, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-magyari-armfor-2006.