United States v. Sergeant First Class QUANTRELL L. ANDERSON

CourtArmy Court of Criminal Appeals
DecidedFebruary 21, 2019
DocketARMY 20170158
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Sergeant First Class QUANTRELL L. ANDERSON (United States v. Sergeant First Class QUANTRELL L. ANDERSON) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Army 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. Sergeant First Class QUANTRELL L. ANDERSON, (acca 2019).

Opinion

UNITED STATES ARMY COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS Before MULLIGAN, FEBBO, and SCHASBERGER Appellate Military Judges

UNITED STATES, Appellee v. Sergeant First Class QUANTRELL L. ANDERSON United States Army, Appellant

ARMY 20170158

Headquarters, U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence Richard J. Henry, Military Judge Lieutenant Colonel Leslie A. Rowley, Staff Judge Advocate

For Appellant: Captain Heather M. Martin, JA; William E. Cassara, Esquire (on brief and reply brief).

For Appellee: Colonel Steven P. Haight, JA; Lieutenant Colonel Eric K. Stafford, JA; Major Hannah E. Kaufman, JA; Captain Allison L. Rowley, JA (on brief).

21 February 2019 --------------------------------- OPINION OF THE COURT ---------------------------------

SCHASBERGER, Judge:

Maltreatment of subordinates is a criminal offense specific to the military. Military leaders hold unique and far-reaching authority over junior enlisted soldiers. This authority comes with obligations. One such obligation is the requirement to treat subordinate soldiers with a basic level of dignity and respect. Maltreatment is an offense against such dignity and respect, and thus an offense against the bedrock of military order and discipline. For this reason, conduct that would not be criminal in any civilian context may constitute the offense of maltreatment if directed toward subordinate soldiers by military superiors. Such is the case here.

A panel with enlisted members sitting as a general court-martial convicted appellant, contrary to his pleas, of three specifications of maltreatment and one specification of abusive sexual contact in violation of Articles 93 and 120, Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. §§ 893 and 920. The panel sentenced appellant to a bad-conduct discharge, thirty months of confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and reduction to the grade of E-1. The convening authority ANDERSON—ARMY 20170158

approved the adjudged sentence and credited appellant with four days against his sentence to confinement. Appellant’s case is now before us under Article 66, UCMJ. 1

BACKGROUND

Appellant was an Army air traffic controller (ATC) and served as the facility chief-in-charge of one of the control towers at Fort Rucker. The tower command structure was, in descending order, the ATC Chief, facility chief, training supervisor, shift leaders, ATCs, and ATC trainees. In November 2015, Specialist (SPC) 2 BK was assigned as an ATC trainee with duty in appellant’s tower.

Over the course of the next few months, appellant and SPC BK exchanged hundreds of text messages. While some of the messages were related to work, others were sexually suggestive, and some others were sexually explicit. Appellant repeatedly asked for pictures of SPC BK in a sports bra and other workout attire. In the messages, appellant offered the flimsy rationale that he wanted the pictures to evaluate SPC BK’s progress in physical fitness. For this purported reason, he directed SPC BK to provide him images showing “every nook and cranny” of her body. Appellant also suggested he might implement “strip training.” Appellant explained that in “strip training,” he would quiz SPC BK on professional topics and, if she answered incorrectly, she would have to strip for appellant or, in the alternative, allow him to perform oral sex on her. Specialist BK’s responses to these messages varied: some she ignored; some she responded to in-kind; and to some she responded by changing the subject.

In the very early morning of 1 January 2016, appellant called SPC BK and asked to come over and hang out with her at the barracks. He made up a story of being locked out of his own residence. Specialist BK agreed and said she was hanging out with friends. Appellant texted, “I’m trying to see all u sexy girls.” Specialist BK texted back, “it’s me, [SL], [S], and [PC].” Appellant’s response was,

1 In matters raised under United States v. Grostefon, 12 M.J. 431 (C.M.A. 1982), appellant argues the military judge erred in allowing improper sentencing evidence. We find no prejudicial error. We are also satisfied appellant’s conviction of abusive sexual contact is legally and factually sufficient. We limit our further discussion to appellant’s arguments regarding his convictions of maltreatment. 2 When she first arrived at appellant’s tower, SPC BK had the rank of Private First Class (PFC). At some later date, she achieved the rank of SPC. For consistency, we use her rank of SPC throughout this opinion. At all relevant times, SPC BK was a PFC or SPC and therefore considered a junior enlisted soldier.

2 ANDERSON—ARMY 20170158

“[s]o long as it’s females I’m good lol is that cool.” 3 Of the three other soldiers, SL and PC were women and S was a man. Ultimately, SPC BK told appellant to let her know when he arrived and she and a friend would come out to meet him. Appellant asked what friend would accompany SPC BK, to which she responded, “[her] friend from Bravo Company.”

When appellant arrived at the barracks, SPC BK and PFC PC came out to meet him. At that time, PFC PC did not know appellant’s rank. Specialist S joined them shortly thereafter and the four soldiers went to SPC BK’s barracks room.

In SPC BK’s barracks room, SPC BK and PFC PC sat on the bed and appellant sat between them. Over the course of the next few hours, appellant repeatedly placed his arm around PFC PC, which PFC PC resisted by moving his arm off of her. Appellant and PFC PC also exchanged text messages while sitting next to each other. During this time, PFC PC learned that appellant was a senior NCO in SPC BK’s tower. Appellant showed PFC PC his identification card.

At one point, PFC PC asked appellant to remove his hand from her stomach. Appellant responded by shoving his hand down PFC PC’s pants and touching her vulva. Private First Class PC grabbed appellant’s arm, removed his hand from her pants, and got up. Eventually, SPC BK and PFC PC got appellant to leave, in spite of his protests that he had nowhere to go.

Some of the texts appellant sent to PFC PC during this time included: “Come on so I can feel u up in privacy;” “I am wanting to taste you I have never done that b4 with a white female lol;” “Ok sorry for harassing you . . . Why you so mad;” and “Why won’t u let me try. . . answer damn it lol.”

In February 2016, after the Super Bowl, another junior air traffic controller in the unit, SPC SL, engaged in a text conversation with appellant regarding the outcome of the game. After a few messages were exchanged on this topic, appellant asked her if she wanted “to know a real secret.” Upon her response of “ok,” appellant sent the message: “When you arrived I wanted to do u.” 4 Specialist SL reported the incident the next day and told SPC BK and PFC PC that she was reporting it. This led both SPC BK and PFC PC to report appellant’s misconduct toward them as well.

3 Because the text messages at issue are replete with acronyms and misspellings, we omit the use of “[sic]” when presenting the content of the texts. 4 Appellant concluded this message with an “emoji” depicting a monkey covering its mouth with its hands.

3 ANDERSON—ARMY 20170158

LAW AND DISCUSSION

Appellant argues that his convictions of maltreating SPC BK and PFC PC are legally and factually insufficient.

We review legal and factual sufficiency de novo. United States v. Washington, 57 M.J. 394, 399 (C.A.A.F. 2002).

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Related

United States v. Miller
67 M.J. 385 (Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, 2009)
United States v. Caldwell
75 M.J. 276 (Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, 2016)
United States v. Humpherys
57 M.J. 83 (Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, 2002)
United States v. Fuller
54 M.J. 107 (Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, 2000)
United States v. Grostefon
12 M.J. 431 (United States Court of Military Appeals, 1982)
United States v. Turner
25 M.J. 324 (United States Court of Military Appeals, 1987)
United States v. Washington
57 M.J. 394 (Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, 2002)

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Bluebook (online)
United States v. Sergeant First Class QUANTRELL L. ANDERSON, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-sergeant-first-class-quantrell-l-anderson-acca-2019.