United States v. Bailey ( 2017 )


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    U NITED S TATES A IR F ORCE
    C OURT OF C RIMINAL APPEALS
    ________________________
    No. ACM S32375
    ________________________
    UNITED STATES
    Appellee
    v.
    Dennis D. BAILEY
    Airman Basic (E-1), U.S. Air Force, Appellant
    ________________________
    Appeal from the United States Air Force Trial Judiciary
    Decided 22 May 2017
    ________________________
    Military Judge: Shelly W. Schools.
    Approved sentence: Bad-conduct discharge and confinement for 100
    days. Sentence adjudged 19 November 2015 by SpCM convened at
    Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.
    For Appellant: Major Melissa Biedermann, USAF.
    For Appellee: Major Meredith L. Steer, USAF; Gerald R. Bruce, Esquire.
    Before MAYBERRY, SANTORO, 1 and C. BROWN Appellate Military
    Judges.
    Judge SANTORO delivered the opinion of the court, in which Senior
    Judge MAYBERRY and Judge C. BROWN joined.
    ________________________
    This is an unpublished opinion and, as such, does not serve as
    precedent under AFCCA Rule of Practice and Procedure 18.4.
    ________________________
    1   Judge Santoro took final action on this case prior to his retirement.
    United States v. Bailey, No. ACM S32375
    SANTORO, Judge:
    At a special court-martial, Appellant pleaded guilty to absenting himself
    from his place of duty, failure to go, consuming alcohol while under the lawful
    drinking age (two specifications), disobeying an order (three specifications), re-
    sisting apprehension, and disorderly conduct, in violation of Articles 86, 92, 95,
    and 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 
    10 U.S.C. §§ 886
    , 892, 895, 934.
    Officer members sentenced him to a bad-conduct discharge and confinement
    for 100 days. The convening authority approved the sentence as adjudged.
    Appellant raises two assignments of error: (1) three specifications are un-
    reasonably multiplicious for sentencing, and (2) the military judge erred in ad-
    mitting a sentencing exhibit. We disagree and affirm.
    I. BACKGROUND
    Appellant’s use and abuse of alcohol led to problems both on- and off-duty.
    He was repeatedly late to awaken and get to his duty section. His supervisor
    attempted to correct his behavior informally and, when that failed, issued him
    orders to be prepared for duty at certain times. Appellant failed to obey those
    orders and was found asleep in his bed at the prescribed times. On another
    occasion, his excessive drinking precipitated a law enforcement response to his
    erratic behavior. He was apprehended, but not before he disobeyed an order
    from the responding security forces member, physically resisted apprehension,
    and created a commotion that disrupted the dormitory area.
    II. DISCUSSION
    A. Unreasonable Multiplication of Charges
    Among the charges and specifications to which Appellant pleaded guilty
    were that he disobeyed a security forces order to “stop moving around” by “con-
    tinuing to walk around and swing his arms,” resisted being apprehended by
    security forces, and was disorderly at the same time and place. Appellant con-
    tends that these three specifications unreasonably misrepresented and exag-
    gerated his criminality.
    Prior to entry of pleas, the military judge noted that the Defense had filed
    a motion for a bill of particulars. Although the Government responded, follow-
    ing arraignment trial defense counsel withdrew the request because Appellant
    intended to plead guilty to the specifications as drafted and confirmed that
    there were no unresolved issues with respect to the charges and specifications.
    Thereafter Appellant entered an unconditional guilty plea. Even after the
    military judge accepted his pleas, Appellant never requested that the military
    judge merge the offenses for sentencing. See United States v. Quiroz, 
    55 M.J. 334
    , 337 (C.A.A.F. 2001).
    2
    United States v. Bailey, No. ACM S32375
    Rule for Courts-Martial (R.C.M.) 910(j) provides a “bright-line rule” that an
    unconditional guilty plea “which results in a finding of guilty waives any ob-
    jection, whether or not previously raised, insofar as the objection relates to the
    factual issue of guilt of the offense(s) to which the plea was made.” United
    States v. Schweitzer, 
    68 M.J. 133
    , 136 (C.A.A.F. 2009). “An unconditional plea
    of guilty waives all nonjurisdictional defects at earlier stages of the proceed-
    ings.” United States v. Bradley, 
    68 M.J. 279
    , 281 (C.A.A.F. 2010). “While the
    waiver doctrine is not without limits, those limits are narrow and relate to
    situations in which, on its face, the prosecution may not constitutionally be
    maintained.” 
    Id. at 282
    . Additionally, “appellate consideration of multiplicity
    claims is effectively waived by unconditional guilty pleas, except where the
    record shows that the challenged offenses are ‘facially duplicative.’” United
    States v. Lloyd, 
    46 M.J. 19
    , 20 (C.A.A.F. 1997). Although “a guilty plea does not
    foreclose or relinquish consideration of all legal issues . . . . [I]f the factual com-
    ponent of each offense said to be multiplicious is not shown to be the same,
    appellate review . . . is not required under [the] guilty plea waiver doctrine.”
    Lloyd, 46 M.J. at 24 (citations omitted).
    Although multiplicity and unreasonable multiplication of charges are dis-
    tinct concepts, United States v. Campbell, 
    71 M.J. 19
    , 24 (C.A.A.F. 2012), our
    superior court has applied multiplicity waiver principles to the concept of un-
    reasonable multiplication of charges. See United States v. Gladue, 
    67 M.J. 311
    ,
    313–14 (C.A.A.F. 2009) (“Although Lloyd only addressed multiplicity, we see
    no reason why the same caveat regarding express waiver or consent should not
    apply to the concept of unreasonable multiplication of charges, and therefore
    adopt it.”). To the extent that waiver of unreasonable multiplication differs
    from waiver of multiplicity, because an accused may waive claims related to
    the constitutional principle of multiplicity, we believe it necessarily follows
    that he may also waive the non-constitutional, presidentially-created protec-
    tion from unreasonably-multiplied charges.
    We conclude that Appellant’s unconditional guilty plea, coupled with trial
    defense counsel’s explicit withdrawal of a request for a bill of particulars,
    waived appellate consideration of this issue. To the extent that appellate re-
    view is required under Lloyd, we further find that Appellant is entitled to no
    relief because the specifications at issue were not facially or factually duplica-
    tive. Although all of the conduct occurred at the same time and place, each
    specification required proof of an element not required by the others. When
    describing his actions during the Care2 inquiry, Appellant himself identified
    different conduct that established the truth of each specification. He told the
    military judge that he walked away from and swung his arms at the security
    2   United States v. Care, 
    40 C.M.R. 247
     (C.M.A. 1969).
    3
    United States v. Bailey, No. ACM S32375
    forces member (disobeying the order to “stop moving around”), that after being
    tasered and brought to the ground he physically resisted the application of
    handcuffs (resisting apprehension), and that while all of this was occurring he
    was yelling loudly enough to draw the attention of other Airmen in the area
    (disorderly conduct).
    Finally, after considering the entire record, we decline to exercise our Arti-
    cle 66(c), UCMJ, 
    10 U.S.C. § 866
    (c), authority to modify the findings or sen-
    tence because of this claimed error. United States v. Chin, 
    75 M.J. 220
    , 223
    (C.A.A.F. 2016).
    B. Sentencing Exhibit
    The Government sought to introduce an Air Force Form 3070, Record of
    Non-Judicial Punishment, pursuant to R.C.M. 1001(b)(2) (records of accused’s
    military efficiency, performance, and conduct). Trial defense counsel objected,
    arguing that the record was incomplete only because it was missing an attach-
    ment. The Government produced the attachment and trial defense counsel spe-
    cifically disavowed having any other objections to the exhibit’s admissibility.
    Despite his position at trial, Appellant now contends that the military judge
    erred in admitting the Form 3070 because it was missing the signature of the
    servicing general court-martial convening authority’s staff judge advocate.
    Although we ordinarily review a military judge’s decision to admit sentenc-
    ing evidence for an abuse of discretion, United States v. Ediger, 
    68 M.J. 243
    ,
    248 (C.A.A.F. 2010), Appellant may not raise on appeal an error that was
    waived at trial. Gladue, 67 M.J. at 313; R.C.M. 1001(b)(2).3 Such a waiver oc-
    curred here when Appellant recognized his ability to object to the exhibit’s lack
    of completeness, lodged that objection but complained only of its missing an
    attachment, and once the complained-of error was cured raised no further ob-
    jection. Appellant is therefore precluded from appellate review of this issue.4
    3 “Waiver is different from forfeiture. Whereas forfeiture is the failure to make the
    timely assertion of a right, waiver is the ‘intentional relinquishment or abandonment
    of a known right.’” United States v. Olano, 
    507 U.S. 725
    , 733 (1993) (quoting Johnson
    v. Zerbst, 
    304 U.S. 458
    , 464 (1938)). When forfeiture occurs, we review for plain error.
    United States v. Harcrow, 
    66 M.J. 154
    , 156 (C.A.A.F. 2008).
    4Even under a plain error analysis Appellant is entitled to no relief. The Sixth Amend-
    ment’s right to confront witnesses does not apply to pre-sentencing proceedings, United
    States v. McDonald, 
    55 M.J. 173
    , 177 (C.A.A.F. 2001), and we discern no prejudice from
    what appears to have been, at most, an administrative oversight that did not affect
    Appellant’s due process rights. According to the Government’s exhibit, the record of
    non-judicial punishment had already been deemed “legally sufficient and . . . final” by
    4
    United States v. Bailey, No. ACM S32375
    United States v. Ahern, 
    76 M.J. 194
    , 
    2017 CAAF LEXIS 292
    , at *7 (C.A.A.F.
    2017) (citing United States v. Campos, 
    67 M.J. 330
    , 332 (C.A.A.F. 2009)).
    III. CONCLUSION
    The findings of guilt and the sentence are correct in law and fact and no
    error materially prejudicial to the substantial rights of Appellant occurred. Ar-
    ticles 59(a) and 66(c), UCMJ, 
    10 U.S.C. §§ 859
    (a), 866(c). Accordingly, the find-
    ings and sentence are AFFIRMED.
    FOR THE COURT
    MICAH L. SMITH
    Deputy Clerk of the Court
    the special court-martial convening authority’s staff judge advocate; the missing sig-
    nature was one of “administrative supervisory review” after the action had already
    become final. See, e.g., United States v. Godden, 
    44 M.J. 716
    , 718 (A.F. Ct. Crim. App.
    1996) (“[A]bsence of the typed signature block of the reviewing authority and the dates
    the form was forwarded to other administrative offices . . . did not affect any procedural
    due process rights.”); United States v. Anderson, 
    12 M.J. 539
    , 540 (A.F.C.M.R. 1981)
    (commander’s failure to sign AF Form 3070 did not prejudice the accused).
    5
    

Document Info

Docket Number: ACM S32375

Filed Date: 5/22/2017

Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

Modified Date: 4/17/2021