United States v. Scheurer

62 M.J. 100, 2005 CAAF LEXIS 1104, 2005 WL 2438513
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Armed Forces
DecidedSeptember 29, 2005
Docket04-0081/AF
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 62 M.J. 100 (United States v. Scheurer) 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. Scheurer, 62 M.J. 100, 2005 CAAF LEXIS 1104, 2005 WL 2438513 (Ark. 2005).

Opinions

Chief Judge GIERKE

delivered the opinion of the Court.1

This case presents four issues. The principal issue is whether the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause barred the admission of statements Appellant’s wife made in discussions with a co-worker that incriminated Appellant. Because these statements were not [102]*102“testimonial,” as that term is used in Crawford v. Washington,2 the portions of these discussions that bore adequate indicia of reliability were admissible under the Sixth Amendment. We also reject Appellant’s argument that the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals misused evidence that the military judge admitted for a limited purpose. But our resolution of the two remaining issues entitles Appellant to relief. We must set aside the finding of guilty to one specification due to the evidence’s legal insufficiency and another because the military judge’s announcement of the finding was fatally ambiguous.

Background

Appellant and his wife, both Air Force enlisted members, committed numerous drug offenses while assigned to Yokota Air Base in Japan. As the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals explained, Appellant “and his wife used a variety of drugs on almost a daily basis, both together and separately. Sometimes they used drugs alone as a couple.”3 Sometimes Appellant and his wife used drugs with other individuals, including an American high school student, NK. Appellant and his wife also purchased drugs and supplied them to others, including the high school student, “although they did this more as social facilitators than as dealers.”4

The Government’s case included the testimony of Senior Airman (SrA) Sherry Sullivan, who was assigned to the same duty station as Airman (Amn) Anne Scheurer, Appellant’s wife. “Over a period of about eight months beginning in January 2000, while working at her duty station, the appellant’s wife told [SrA Sullivan] about the drug use, including the participation of the minor,” NK.5 SrA Sullivan “had an amiable on-the-job relationship with the appellant’s wife,” but “was not a close friend.”6 Typically, Appellant’s wife “initiated the conversations about drug activity.”7 She usually described drug use she committed with her husband. But in a few instances, she described “incidents where either she or her husband acted alone while using drugs.”8 Appellant’s wife told SrA Sullivan “how she and her husband would use body cleansing soaps and shampoos to purge their systems of drugs.”9 Appellant’s wife also revealed her belief that “the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) was “watching them’ and looking to ‘get’ both” Amn Scheurer and Appellant “for distributing drugs to a minor.”10

SrA Sullivan “eventually contacted the AFOSI and agreed to wear a ‘wire’ to facilitate recording of the wife’s statements. Two of the conversations between Appellant’s wife and the co-worker in August 2000 were preserved in this manner. The conversations ceased shortly thereafter.”11

The defense moved in limine to exclude from evidence all of Appellant’s wife’s statements to SrA Sullivan. During a motions hearing, the Government called Amn Scheurer as a witness, but she invoked the spousal incapacity rule and refused to testify against her husband. SrA Sullivan testified and described her conversations with Amn Scheurer.

The military judge denied the defense motion to exclude the statements, making “detailed findings of fact” and “extensive conclusions of law.”12

[103]*103His conclusions included the following relevant rulings:

(1) The appellant’s wife, as the declarant, was unavailable as a witness; (2) Admissibility under Mil. R. Evid. 804(b)(3) requires that the statement tends to subject the declarant to criminal liability to the extent that a reasonable person in the position of the declarant would not have made the statement unless she believed it to be true; (3) The statements were against her interest in that the wife was well aware of her criminal liability when making the statements; (4) Under a line-by-line analysis, each implication of the appellant by the wife carried with it an attendant description of her own involvement and there was no attempt to shift blame away fi’om the declarant toward the appellant — thus the statements were truly self-inculpatory; (5) There was no animosity toward the appellant on the part of the wife; and (6) The presumption of unreliability that attaches to statements like the wife’s was overcome by the particular facts of the case.13

The military judge also considered the statements’ admissibility under Military Rules of Evidence (M.R.E.) 401 and 403. He ruled that evidence of Amn Scheurer’s statements to SrA Sullivan was relevant. He also ruled that the statements passed the M.R.E. 403 balancing test, relying in part on the following curative instruction that he planned to deliver:14

[Y]ou may consider evidence that Airman Anne Seheurer alone was involved in drug activity for the limited purpose of its tendency, if any, to first demonstrate the accused had the opportunity to engage in similar activity; demonstrate that the accused had access to the various drugs described by his wife; demonstrate Anne Seheurer’s familiarity with the specifics of drug activity; and consider such background in assessing the credibility of her descriptions of the accused’s alleged activity. You may not consider this evidence [for] any other purpose and you may not conclude from this evidence that the accused is a bad person or has general criminal tendencies and that he therefore committed the offenses charged, simply because of his association with his wife.

The military judge also denied a later defense request that he reconsider his ruling on the admissibility of the statements.

At his court-martial, Appellant was charged with three specifications of violating Article 112a, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 912a,15 by distributing controlled substances (ecstasy, methamphetamine, and LSD) on divers occasions, five specifications of violating Article 112a by wrongfully using controlled substances (ecstasy, two specifications of methamphetamine, LSD, and cocaine), one specification of violating Article 112a by introducing methamphetamine onto Yokota Air Base, one specification of violating Article 111, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 911,16 by physically controlling a passenger car while impaired by controlled substances on divers occasions, and one specification of violating Article 134, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 934,17 by wrongfully soliciting another individual to use methamphetamine. Appellant pleaded guilty to the two specifications alleging use of methamphetamine but not guilty to the other offenses. The military judge found Appellant not guilty of the cocaine use and LSD distribution offenses, but guilty of all other charges and specifications.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
62 M.J. 100, 2005 CAAF LEXIS 1104, 2005 WL 2438513, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-scheurer-armfor-2005.