United States v. Reed

41 M.J. 755, 1995 CCA LEXIS 64, 1995 WL 43772
CourtU S Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals
DecidedFebruary 1, 1995
DocketCGCMS 24099; Docket No. 1040
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 41 M.J. 755 (United States v. Reed) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U S Coast Guard Court of Criminal 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. Reed, 41 M.J. 755, 1995 CCA LEXIS 64, 1995 WL 43772 (uscgcoca 1995).

Opinion

BAUM, Chief Judge:

Appellant was tried by special court-martial, judge alone. Pursuant to his pleas of guilty, entered in accordance with a pretrial agreement, he was convicted of the following offenses: two specifications of dereliction of duty in violation of Article 92, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C.A. § 892; two specifications of signing a false official document in violation of Article 107, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C.A. § 907; two specifications of marijuana use in violation of Article 112a, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C.A. § 912a; two specifications of larceny in violation of Article 121, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C.A. § 921; one specification of making a false claim in violation of Article 132, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C.A. § 932; three specifications of dishonorable failure to pay a debt, one specification of wrongful cohabitation, one specification of [756]*756adultery, and one specification of obtaining services by false pretenses in violation of Article 134, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C.A. § 934. The judge sentenced Appellant to a bad conduct discharge, confinement for six months, reduction to pay grade E-2, and a fine of $3,732. The convening authority, unconstrained by any sentence limitation in the pretrial agreement, approved the sentence as adjudged.

Before this Court, Appellant has assigned two errors. One of those assignments summarily challenges the Court’s jurisdiction because of service on the Court of civilians who, it is asserted, have not been appointed in accordance with Constitutional requirements. This assignment has been decided contrary to Appellant’s position in U.S. v. Carpenter, 37 M.J. 291 (CMA 1993), pet. for cert. filed, 62 U.S.L.W. 3411 (U.S. Oct. 29, 1993) (No. 93-676). That decision is dispositive and the assignment is rejected for that reason. The other assignment will be addressed.

I

THAT THE STAFF JUDGE ADVOCATE’S POST-TRIAL RECOMMENDATION IS DEFICIENT IN THAT IT DOES NOT INCLUDE INFORMATION ON THE MILITARY JUDGE’S DETERMINATIONS OF MULTIPLICITY FOR SENTENCING

Appellant requests that the action of the convening authority be set aside and the case returned for a new post-trial recommendation and action because the staff judge advocate’s recommendation did not inform the convening authority of the military judge’s determination that several of the offenses were multiplieious for sentencing purposes. Citing U.S. v. Beaudin, 35 M.J. 385, 387-388 (CMA 1992); U.S. v. Walsh, 36 M.J, 666, 667 (NMCMR 1992); and U.S. v. Schiftic, 36 M.J. 1193, 1197 (NMCMR 1993), Appellant says that the staff judge advocate’s recommendation must include such information.

To the contrary, U.S. v. Russett, 40 M.J. 184 (CMA 1994), cited to us as supplemental authority by the Government, makes it clear that U.S. v. Beaudin, supra, does not require that every multiplicity ruling be included in the staff judge advocate’s recommendation. The Court of Military Appeals in Russett held that the court below in that case erred when it interpreted Beaudin as establishing a uniform rule that the staff judge advocate’s recommendation must specifically recite any sentence multiplicity determination by a judge whether or not there is an objection by the defense. The Court went on to say that: “The requirement for the SJA to comment on the multiplicity question arises when the defense counsel first raises the issue as part of the defense submission to the convening authority.” Id. at 40 M.J. 186.

The defense counsel in this case did not raise the issue in any submission to the convening authority. Counsel did submit a clemency petition to the convening authority which the staff judge advocate noted in his recommendation, but that petition made no reference to the multiplicity ruling by the judge. No legal errors were raised in that petition nor was there any other submission pursuant to RCM 1105. Furthermore, the defense counsel and the accused could have objected to the omission of any reference to the judge’s multiplicity rulings in the staff judge advocate’s recommendation by filing a response under RCM 1106, but none was submitted. Accordingly, in light of the amplification of the holding in U.S. v. Beaudin, supra, provided by U.S. v. Russett, supra, we find that the staff judge advocate was not required to comment on the judge’s multiplicity determination. Appellant’s assignment of error is rejected for this reason.

In deciding this issue, we are pleased to note that a certificate of service of the staff judge advocate’s recommendation, together with the defense counsel’s acknowledgment of receipt, appear in the record. Their inclusion in the record has facilitated the review and disposition of this issue, thus avoiding the problems prompting remand in U.S. v. Haire, 40 M.J. 530 (CGCMR 1994) and U.S. v. Leaver, 40 M.J. 529 (CGCMR 1993).

II

POST-TRIAL PROCEDURE DIRECTED BY THE MILITARY JUDGE TO RESOLVE CONFLICTS IN THE RECORD BEARING ON THE PROVIDENCE OF THE PLEAS

As a separate matter, not commented upon in the briefs, we wish to note and [757]*757validate a procedure utilized by the military judge that allowed resolution of a conflict in the record, without reopening the trial. The judge, when reading the record for authentication purposes, discerned a contradiction between part of the accused’s unsworn statement at sentencing and some of the answers to the plea-providence inquiry. In order to correct this variance, the judge, who was in Washington, D.C., first held an RCM 802 conference by telephone with the trial counsel, who was in Juneau, Alaska, and the defense counsel, who was in Bremerton, Washington. In that conference the judge disclosed the problem and posed two choices: reconvening the court or propounding written questions to the accused, with his consent, after consultation with counsel. The following is a portion of what was said in that conference:

MJ: I see at least two choices. We could re-convene, and I could ask the Accused questions to clarify this. Or possibly I could propound some questions to him in writing. His reply would be under oath, because this is part of providency. If his reply clears it up, what we’ve done goes into the record and the bottom line doesn’t change. If not, we have to re-convene, because providency is broken on at least the adultery specification. There may be other ways to handle this. LT Ecton, I’m not going to ask you [as defense counsel] to commit yourself at this point. You need to talk to your client.
TC: What kind of proceeding would you call this?
MJ: I can authorize documents to be attached to the record until I authenticate it. It doesn’t matter what its called, as long as we don’t violate the rights of the Accused. Its questionable whether we could do this entirely by documents if the Defense objects. Also, the Accused should probably be given Article 81 rights since in theory his answers could incriminate him with regard to perjury. I don’t personally suspect him of perjury, I think he just misspoke, but he reasonably could be suspected of perjury.

App. Ex. VI, p. 1

The judge explained the kind of questions she contemplated asking and determined that the defense counsel would talk to his client who was in the Alaska Command Confinement Facility at Fort Richardson, Alaska. After the conference, the judge transmitted written questions to the parties and ordered, among other things, that:

1.

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Bluebook (online)
41 M.J. 755, 1995 CCA LEXIS 64, 1995 WL 43772, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-reed-uscgcoca-1995.