United States v. Miller

32 M.J. 843, 1991 CMR LEXIS 199, 1991 WL 71046
U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Military Review·Decided February 15, 1991·No. NMCM 89 2570·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

ORR, Judge:

Contrary to his pleas before a military judge sitting alone as a general court-martial, the appellant was found guilty of one specification of raping his 12-year-old daughter on 6 October 1988, in violation of Article 120, Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. § 920; one specification of committing sodomy with his daughter during 1988, in violation of Article 125, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 925; and one specification of committing indecent acts upon his daughter during 1988, in violation of Article 134, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 934. He was sentenced on 15 February 1989 to be confined for eight years, to forfeit $350.00 of his pay per month for 96 months, to be reduced to pay grade E-1, and to be separated from the U.S. Marine Corps with a dishonorable discharge.

Although the military judge recommended that all confinement in excess of five years be suspended if the appellant participated in a rehabilitation program, the convening authority initially approved the sentence adjudged. In a supplementary action, however, the convening authority suspended all unexecuted confinement as of 30 May 1990 for a period of four years from that date on the condition that the appellant proceed immediately to his intended out-of-state destination in the State of Arkansas without making any physical contact with his wife or daughter and that, during the period of the suspension, the appellant refrain from physically contacting his wife or daughter unless the contact is supervised under an appropriate State-certified and licensed family counseling program. The supplementary action and order includes a more precise definition of the term, “physical contact”.

I

The evidence offered by the Government at trial included the appellant’s oral statement to a Naval Investigative Service (NIS) agent in which he stated: “I admit that I have done sexual things to my daughter, but there’s not a living soul on earth that I will give the details to.” Record at 38. The appellant subsequently admitted as part of that same NIS interview that he had had sexual intercourse with his daughter on the previous night, [846] but he denied any type of sodomy or fondling. Record at 44-45. The Government also offered statements by the appellant to a social worker (Ms. La Grua) for the San Diego County Child Protective Services (CPS), an agency of the California Department of Social Services and California’s juvenile court, and to a psychologist (Dr. Murphy) appointed by CPS.1 In both of these statements the appellant denied any sexual activity with his daughter. He did say, however, that after taking his wife to a bingo game earlier in the evening of 6 October 1988, he had returned home alone and saw a teenage boy in front of the house. Upon entering the house he sensed that someone had just left. When he went upstairs he found his daughter in his and his wife’s bedroom, and he told her to pull her pants down and turn around. He then ran the back of his hand between her legs to see if she was moist because, to him, this would indicate if she had been having sexual intercourse.

In addressing the appellant’s first assignment of error, we find that the appellant’s statements to Ms. La Grua and Dr. Murphy were not subject to any privilege and that neither Ms. La Grua nor Dr. Murphy was required to advise the appellant of either his Fifth Amendment or Article 31(b), 10 U.S.C. § 831(b) rights. Consequently, the military judge did not err in admitting these statements. Even if we had found error in the admission of these statements, however, it would be harmless under the facts of this case since we agree with the military judge that the statements had little or no relevance to the issues before the court and were not considered adverse to the appellant.

As to subdivision A of the appellant’s first assignment of error, we note that the privilege initially claimed by Ms. La Grua and Dr. Murphy applies equally to the daughter’s statements to them as well as to those of the appellant because the California statute on which the privilege is based [Cal.Evid.Code § 1040(b) (West 1966) ] concerns the confidentiality of information either contained in the records of public social services agencies [Cal.Welf. & Inst.Code § 10850 (West 1980) ] or received as part of any juvenile court proceeding or matter [Cal.Welf. & Inst.Code § 827 (West Supp.1990)]. The daughter’s statements are as much a part of the information in those records as are the appellant’s. The appellant has not argued that the privilege claimed by Ms. La Grua and Dr. Murphy should also have barred the admission of his daughter’s statements to them. The appellant does assert, however, that the military judge should have applied the criteria of In re Hampers, 651 F.2d 19 (1st Cir.1981), to his interpretation of the fourth exception to the general rule against claims of privilege in the Military Rules of Evidence (Mil.R.Evid.).2 In response to this argument, the Government asserts that the military judge implicitly applied the threshold question from Hampers in finding that the California statute establishing the privilege can be read to allow disclosure and [847] then using that exception to determine that the privilege should not apply in this case.

We have been unable to find any prior reported decision applying Mil.R.Evid. 501(a)(4) to a similar claim of a privilege derived entirely from a state statute. Before embarking on such uncharted waters, we note that the privilege in issue here belongs to public social service agencies of the State of California, not the appellant. Even if the military judge’s failure to recognize the privilege was erroneous, the person against whom the evidence is offered has no grounds to object if that person is not the holder of the privilege. 8 J. WIG-MORE, EVIDENCE IN TRIALS AT COMMON LAW § 2196 (McNaughton rev. ed. 1961).3 The appellant may have standing to assert the privilege in regard to his own communications to the holder of the privilege, but the appellant does not have standing to assert the privilege in regard to the statements of his daughter.

II

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United States v. Miller, 32 M.J. 843, 1991 CMR LEXIS 199, 1991 WL 71046 (usnmcmilrev 1991).

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