United States v. McCallister

24 M.J. 881, 1987 CMR LEXIS 594
CourtU.S. Army Court of Military Review
DecidedAugust 15, 1987
DocketCM 448748
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 24 M.J. 881 (United States v. McCallister) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Army 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. McCallister, 24 M.J. 881, 1987 CMR LEXIS 594 (usarmymilrev 1987).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

CARMICHAEL, Judge:

Appellant was tried by a military judge sitting as a general court-martial. Although charged with desertion, as well as numerous larcenies and dishonorable failures to pay debts, appellant was convicted of only two offenses — the lesser included offenses of absence without leave and wrongful appropriation of personal property. He was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement for ten months, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and reduction to the grade of Private E-l. The convening authority approved the sentence.

At trial, appellant moved for dismissal of all charges and specifications on the ground that he had been denied his right to a speedy trial. The military judge denied this motion and subsequently, during the [884]*884sentencing proceedings, denied appellant’s motion for sentence relief because of pretrial confinement that was alleged to be illegal. These two rulings are before us on appeal. This court heard oral argument on the issue of denial of speedy trial, and we will confine our opinion to a discussion of that issue. Briefly stated, however, we find that appellant was denied a speedy trial with regard to the offense of absence without leave (AWOL), but afforded a speedy trial with regard to the remaining offense of wrongful appropriation. As for the conditions of confinement, we find appellant’s pretrial confinement at the Cumberland County, North Carolina, jail was legal. See United States v. Daniels, 23 M.J. 867 (A.C.M.R. 1987) (accused’s confinement in Cumberland County jail met the standards of Article 13, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 813, and did not constitute pretrial punishment).

SPEEDY TRIAL

A. Facts.

Since the issue focuses solely on government action, or lack thereof, before trial, a chronology reflecting the case’s pretrial processing is set forth. The evidence of record establishes the following occurrences on the dates indicated.

On 24 October 1985, appellant was apprehended by civilian authorities and held at the Putnam County, West Virginia, jail. Upon being told of appellant’s apprehension, Army authorities requested that appellant be held for the Army due to his AWOL status. Putnam County was about 300 miles from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the location of appellant’s former unit. On 31 October, appellant was released to the AWOL apprehension team.

On 1 November, appellant was transported to the Fort Dix, New Jersey, Personnel Control Facility (PCF), and remained there until 7 November. The Fort Dix PCF is located on the second floor of a three-story building, which is surrounded by a six-foot fence. Members assigned to the PCF are restricted to a bay between sixty to seventy feet in length. Appellant could not leave the second floor except when on work detail, or when he obtained permission to go to the first floor to get a soft drink or use the telephone. Members were escorted to the dining hall and to get haircuts. The PCF staff was present during the day and a charge of quarters (CQ) at night. Alarms on the double doors leading out of the bay where the members slept were activated at 2200 hours each evening. Members were allowed visitors in the CQ office.

On 7 November, appellant was released to the military police and confined overnight in a detention cell at Fort Hamilton, New York. Also on this date, appellant’s company commander at Fort Bragg made a written request for pretrial confinement, based not only on an alleged AWOL, but additional allegations that appellant had borrowed money from soldiers, and sold equipment that he did not own to soldiers.1

On 8 November, appellant was returned to Fort Bragg and placed in pretrial confinement at the Cumberland County jail. On 12 November, appellant made an oral demand for speedy trial. On 14 November, a written demand for speedy trial was made. On 18 November, the desertion charge was preferred against appellant.

On 19 November, appellant’s unit commander initiated an investigation under the provisions of Army Regulation 15-62 with a view toward determining whether there was evidence to substantiate any additional [885]*885charges.3 Sworn statements were obtained from soldiers “victimized” by appellant. This investigation was completed on or about 27 November.

On 22 November, the Article 324 Investigating Officer (10) was notified to investigate the desertion charge. The 10 took no action until 4 December because a note from “Brigade Legal” was attached to the Article 32 packet, stating that appellant’s defense counsel was on leave until 3 December.5 On 4 December, the 10 contacted appellant’s defense counsel and was informed of the defense’s past demands for speedy trial. On 6 December, additional charges, consisting of numerous larcenies and dishonorable failures to pay debts, were preferred against appellant, and were forwarded to the 10.

On 8 December, the Article 32 investigation commenced. Appellant’s entire unit was in Panama for jungle training from 29 November until 20 December, but witnesses could be contacted by telephone. All of the witnesses from appellant’s unit testified on Sunday, 8 December, from Panama, by means of a speaker fitted over the telephone. These were essentially the same witnesses who had given sworn statements during the AR 15-6 investigation. The remaining Article 32 sessions were held between 11 and 13 December. On 6 January 1986, the 10 submitted the final investigative report. On 14 January, the convening authority referred the original and additional charges for trial by general court-martial.

On 27 January, the date of the initial trial session, the Army was, by our calculation, responsible for ninety-five days of pretrial processing time in appellant’s case. The speedy trial issue was litigated during this Article 39(a), UCMJ, session, but the military judge concluded that he did not have sufficient facts to resolve the issue. On his own initiative, and despite defense counsel’s objection, the military judge directed the trial counsel to gather additional evidence relating to the events between 1 and 7 November and continued the case until 3 February. He stated that this time would not be chargeable to the government and that appellant would remain in pretrial confinement.

On 3 February, litigation of the speedy trial motion resumed. The defense counsel objected to the additional time allowed trial counsel to obtain evidence and requested that the time be charged to the government. The military judge denied the request and, after additional evidence was presented, denied the speedy trial motion.

In denying the motion, the military judge made the following pertinent factual findings:

1. Appellant was detained in a civilian jail from 24 to 31 October 1985 at the Army’s request. This was not an unreasonable length of time for the Army to arrange for appellant’s return to military control.

2. Appellant’s restriction to the Fort Dix PCF was not tantamount to either arrest or confinement because appellant was free to leave the facility. Thus, appellant was not continuously in pretrial confinement.

3. Assuming arguendo

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Bluebook (online)
24 M.J. 881, 1987 CMR LEXIS 594, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mccallister-usarmymilrev-1987.