United States v. Vaughan

56 M.J. 706, 2001 CCA LEXIS 339, 2002 WL 13046
CourtUnited States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals
DecidedDecember 28, 2001
DocketACM 34107
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 56 M.J. 706 (United States v. Vaughan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Air Force 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. Vaughan, 56 M.J. 706, 2001 CCA LEXIS 339, 2002 WL 13046 (afcca 2001).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

PECINOVSKY, Judge:

The appellant pled guilty to two specifications of assaulting her infant child, by striking her in the face and stomach and burning the back of her legs with a hair dryer, in violation of Article 128, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 928. The appellant pled not guilty to fracturing her child’s leg by pulling, jerking, or wrenching it. Article 128, UCMJ. She pled guilty, pursuant to a conditional plea, to child neglect by leaving her infant child without supervision or care for an unreasonable period. Article 134, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 934. The appellant was found guilty of all charges and specifications. She was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge, 30 months’ confinement, and reduction to E-l. The convening authority approved the findings and sentence as adjudged. The conditional plea preserved the assigned error of whether child neglect is an offense under military law. We hold that child neglect is an offense under Article 134, and we affirm.

Child Neglect under Article 134

The appellant alleges that the military judge erred in denying a defense motion to [707]*707dismiss Charge II and its specification, alleging child neglect under Article 134, UCMJ, for failure to state an offense. In essence, the appellant asserts child neglect is not a crime under the UCMJ. The issue specifically before this Court is whether the appellant was on notice that the allegations of child neglect, as set forth in the specification, constituted a crime.

The original Charge II and its specification stated:

In that AIRMAN FIRST CLASS SONYA R. VAUGHAN, United States Air Force, did, at or near Pickliessum, Germany, on divers occasions between on or about 16 Nov 98 and on or about 3 Feb 99, neglect her daughter, [SRK] a child under the age of one year, by leaving the said [SRK] in their house without supervision or care for unreasonable periods of time without regard for the mental or physical health, safety, or welfare of the said [SRK], such conduct being of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.

After hearing evidence and argument, the military judge held that the Charge and Specification did state an offense. However, she found that the shorter periods of child neglect of 35 to 45 minutes “factually don’t rise up to sufficient cause to support any kind of criminal action,” and modified the specification to include only the longer overnight period of child neglect on 2 and 3 January 1999.

The appellant made a timely motion to dismiss. She couched the motion as failing to state an offense, although the basis was that child neglect is not an offense under military law. The military judge denied the motion to dismiss, but modified the specification as follows:

In that AIRMAN FIRST CLASS SONYA R. VAUGHAN, United States Air Force, did, at or near Pickliessum, Germany, between on or about 2 January 1999 and on or about 3 January 1999, neglect her daughter, [SRK] a child under the age of one year, by leaving the said [SRK] in their house without supervision or care for an unreasonable period of time without regard for the mental or physical health, safety, or welfare of the said [SRK], such conduct being of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.

(Emphasis added).

During the providence inquiry, the military judge explained the elements of the child neglect offense:

The first element of this specification is that between on or about 2 January 1999 and on or about 3 January 1999, at or near Pickliessum, Germany, you neglected your daughter, [SRK].
The second element is that you did so by leaving [SRK] in your house without supervision or care for an unreasonable period of time, without regard for the mental or physical health, safety, or welfare of [SRK],
The third element is that [SRK] is a child under the age of one year.
And the fourth element is that under the circumstances, your conduct was to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces or was of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.

The appellant admitted that the elements accurately described what she did. The appellant explained that on 2 January 1999, she left her one-year-old infant unsupervised, alone in the house at 2300, and left for a club. The infant’s father was supposed to come over to watch the child at 2230. The appellant stated the she was under the belief that he would show up, but after waiting for about 20 minutes, she left for the club because she “just didn’t care.” She didn’t try to call him and didn’t try to call any of the babysitters she had used in the past. The appellant admitted that the baby’s father had a history of not showing up. After leaving her infant alone at 2300, she did not return until 0500 the next morning. Athough no physical harm came to the child during this unsupervised period, appellant acknowledged that her failure to be there and to supervise and care for her infant during this period of time was unreasonable. The appellant acknowledged that any number of things, including vomiting and choking, could have happened to her infant during this period of time. She agreed that her conduct in leaving her infant alone for five or six hours was criminally or [708]*708culpably negligent. She acknowledged that her acts constituted either a gross, reckless, wanton, or deliberate disregard for the foreseeable results to others or that something could have happened to the infant. The appellant admitted that her conduct was more than just merely failure to use due care and was of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.

Here, the specification stated the essential elements of the offense. The issue, however, is whether the appellant had adequate notice that child neglect constituted a criminal offense. Appellant was charged under Article 134, UCMJ, with conduct “of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.” Article 134 has survived constitutional scrutiny. Parker v. Levy, 417 U.S. 733, 757, 94 S.Ct. 2547, 41 L.Ed.2d 439 (1974). In Parker, the Supreme Court held that the appellant had “fair notice from the language of [Articles 133 and 134] that the particular conduct which he engaged in was punishable.” Id. at 755, 94 S.Ct. 2547. The standard set forth in Parker is that:

[C]riminal responsibility should not attach where one could not reasonably understand that his contemplated conduct is proscribed. United States v. Harriss, 347 U.S. 612, 617, 74 S.Ct. 808, 98 L.Ed. 989 (1954). In determining the sufficiency of the notice a statute must of necessity be examined in the light of the conduct with which a defendant is charged. Robinson v. United States, 324 U.S. 282, 65 S.Ct. 666, 89 L.Ed. 944 (1945).

Id. at 757, 94 S.Ct. 2547.

Subsequent to Parker, our superior court applied this standard of notice to a variety of factual scenarios. See, e.g., United States v. Johanns, 20 M.J.

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Bluebook (online)
56 M.J. 706, 2001 CCA LEXIS 339, 2002 WL 13046, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-vaughan-afcca-2001.