United States v. Standifer

35 M.J. 615, 1992 CMR LEXIS 644, 1992 WL 195908
CourtU S Air Force Court of Military Review
DecidedAugust 3, 1992
DocketACM 29171
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 35 M.J. 615 (United States v. Standifer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U S Air Force 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. Standifer, 35 M.J. 615, 1992 CMR LEXIS 644, 1992 WL 195908 (usafctmilrev 1992).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

O’HAIR, Senior Judge:

Contrary to his pleas, appellant was found guilty of escaping from confinement on divers occasions, encouraging and instigating another to make false official statements on divers occasions, and suborning another to commit perjury, in violation of Articles 95, 107, and 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. §§ 895, 907, 934. He was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge and confinement for 1 year. Before us appellant challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of all three convictions and questions an aspect of the military judge’s instructions on the subornation of perjury offense. We agree with several of his points, set aside the findings of guilty on two of the three charges, and provide sentence relief.

At the time of the alleged escapes from confinement, appellant was serving post-trial confinement of 7 months at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, because of a prior court-martial conviction for use of cocaine. He was classified as a medium custody prisoner requiring continuous custodial supervision and escort whenever he departed the confinement facility. Appellant is a plumber by trade, and during the work week he was frequently “signed out” by someone from his unit who escorted him to perform work for the base plumbing shop. His alleged misconduct resulted when he persuaded three of his escorts, on different dates, to take him to see his wife, at either her off-base apartment or the on-base plumbing shop.

On one Sunday after this confinement began, one of appellant’s supervisors, Mr. Varner, volunteered to take him to the church services conducted on the installation. Immediately before this and all subsequent trips, Mr. Varner had to complete and sign a prisoner escort form which indicated he was taking the prisoner (appellant) to the chapel. For three consecutive Sundays Mr. Varner and appellant went to church as indicated on the form. Sometime prior to the fourth trip to the chapel appellant persuaded Mr. Varner to make a short detour on their way to the chapel and stop by appellant’s wife’s apartment where he visited her before they returned to the base to go to the church service. After several of these short pre-chapel visits to appellant’s wife, Mr. Varner decided to leave appellant at the apartment, go on to the chapel by himself, and then return after the service to pick up appellant at the apartment. They followed this procedure one or two times, and there were also several occasions when Mr. Varner took appellant to meet his wife at the plumbing shop rather than the apartment.

Appellant also successfully convinced two other airmen who served as his escorts to take him to see his wife. All three escorts conceded they had no authority to deviate from their duty to escort appellant to the specifically named, authorized destination. Each of them concluded appellant had manipulated them and played on their sympathies to convince them to permit him to make a visit to his wife.

Clearly the escorts were without authority to take appellant to visit his wife at either location and at least one of the escorts was punished for this dereliction of duty. It is also unquestioned that appellant knew he had no authority to make those visits. This activity was not expressly prohibited by the “Prisoner’s Handbook” he was provided, but there were enough limitations levied on his freedom, provided to him both orally and in the Handbook, that he knew he was exceeding his boundaries when he convinced his escorts to take him to see his wife. Additionally, the wrongfulness of these visits was repeatedly discussed between appellant and his escorts. The issue before us, though, is not whether appellant’s conduct was unauthorized, but whether it amounts to the criminal offense of escape from confinement. We hold it does not.

[617]*617Escape from confinement requires proof that the accused was ordered into confinement by proper authority and freed himself from confinement before being released by proper authority. Manual for Court-Martial (MCM), Part IV, paragraph 19b (1984). An essential element of confinement is that there must be a showing of a continual physical restraint. United States v. Hodge, 50 C.M.R. 445, 448 (A.F.C.M.R.1975). This physical restraint includes situations whereby prisoners are confined to a cell, prisoners who must be escorted by a guard or escort when outside the confinement facility, and prisoners in minimum custody who may go to designated locations without an escort, but remain confined by moral suasion. The offense of escape from confinement occurs when there is a “... completed casting off of the restraint of confinement, before being set at liberty by .proper authority ...” MCM, Part IV, paragraph 19c(4)(c) (1984).

Although appellant was classified as a medium custody prisoner and was to be escorted to all locations outside of the confinement facility, this evidently did not mean his escort must be a guard in possession of a weapon to help protect himself from the prisoner or to prevent an escape. There was, however, a form of moral restraint or moral suasion in existence which served as a substitute for the essential element of “physical restraint.” The casting off of that moral restraint is what is lacking in the case before us and this precludes us from finding appellant escaped from confinement.

All instances of appellant visiting with his wife occurred while he remained in a confinement status and were conducted with the permission of his escort (guard). Although the escorts were without authority to permit this deviation from the authorized work site or other destination, nevertheless, they approved of such visits. There is little in the record regarding the exact conversations held between appellant and his escorts, but apparently there was an understanding or agreement between them that appellant would be delivered to a certain location (home or plumbing shop) and he would remain there until the escort returned to take him elsewhere. The evidence suggests that appellant complied with these directions or limitations and never left the designated area during the absence of the escort. In other words, when the escort departed, appellant remained at the designated location under a certain moral suasion which served as a substitute for the physical restraint needed for the continuation of his state of confinement. See United States v. Maslanich, 13 M.J. 611, 614 n. 3 (A.F.C.M.R.1982); United States v. Mobley, 12 M.J. 1029, 1031 (A.C.M.R.1982). We find he did not “cast off” his restraint of confinement and therefore could not be found guilty of escape from confinement.1 The finding of guilty of Charge I is disapproved and the specification is dismissed. United States v. Turner, 25 M.J. 324 (C.M.A.1987); Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

We turn next to Charge II, in which it was alleged that appellant, as a principal, did, with intent to deceive, encourage and instigate his escort, Mr. Varner, to make false statements on divers occasions that Mr. Varner was going to take appellant to the base chapel. Here, too, we are not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of appellant’s culpability. Article 66(c), 77, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 866(c). The government attempted to prove that, although Mr.

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Related

United States v. Standifer
40 M.J. 440 (United States Court of Military Appeals, 1994)
United States v. Anderson
36 M.J. 963 (U S Air Force Court of Military Review, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
35 M.J. 615, 1992 CMR LEXIS 644, 1992 WL 195908, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-standifer-usafctmilrev-1992.