Court Opinion

ID: 9836842
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 03:15:12.908698+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:19.044485
License: Public Domain

EFFRON, Judge
(dissenting):
Two magazines and four catalogs apparently containing sexually explicit material were seized during a search of appellant’s quarters triggered by the victim’s statement that appellant sometimes played sexually explicit videotapes for her in their quarters. The investigators found no such videotapes during the search.
The prosecution offered the magazines and catalogs as evidence at trial, on the theory that the publications contained advertisements for ordering sexually explicit videotapes, which would tend to corroborate the victim’s statement that appellant had exposed her to similar material. The military judge admitted the publications into evidence over defense objection, but did not articulate on the record the factors considered under Mil.R.Evid. 403 (requiring the military judge to balance the probative value against the risk of unfair prejudice). See United States *112v. Reynolds, 29 MJ 105, 109 (CMA 1989) (the balancing test under Mil.R.Evid. 403 is the third prong of the three-part test for determining admissibility of uncharged misconduct under Mil.R.Evid. 404(b)).
The record of trial that reached the appellate courts contained only one of the exhibits at issue in its entirety, Prosecution Exhibit 39. Otherwise, the record contained only the front and back covers of Prosecution Exhibit 44 and photographs of the front covers of Prosecution Exhibits 40, 41, 42, and 45. In response to this Court’s order to produce the missing exhibits, the Government stated that those exhibits were destroyed by the local CID office after appellant’s court-martial. The Government was able to locate and file a back issue of Prosecution Exhibit 44, but it has been unable to locate copies of the other publications that had been introduced at trial.
The impact of sexually explicit material on a court-martial is likely to depend on both the nature of the charges and the nature of the material. Publications that treat children and sexual matter in a degrading and exploitative manner carry the potential for having a prejudicial impact on a court-martial, particularly in a ease involving charges of sexual abuse of a minor. In such a case, it is essential that the military judge articulate the factors used to balance the probative value of such evidence against the risk of unfair prejudice under Mil.R.Evid. 403. Where the military judge has failed to do so, a lower appellate court may nonetheless review the evidence and conduct its own balancing. If the military judge fails to ensure that the evidence at issue is included in the record, however, it is not possible to properly weigh the prejudicial impact of “evidence” that is not described in the record with sufficient particularity. Because the Government has been unable to reconstruct the record, it is necessary to set aside the trial results and return the record for a rehearing. See United States v. Stoffer, 53 MJ 26 (2000).