JAG CENTRAL

New from the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals, a published opinion in U.S. v. Embry, No. ARMY 20011179. The defendant was convicted of taking a handgun from his wife's apartment, holding her hostage at gunpoint overnight, raping her, and forcing her to withdraw money from her ATM. and other sordid offenses. A key issue at trial was whether certain admissions he made to a social work assistant should be suppressed or admitted. One piece of evidence relating to these was the counselor's intake notes. The military judge denied the suppression motion on Article 31 (military equivalent of Miranda) and Military Rule of Evidence 513 (the psychoanalyst-patient privilege) grounds. At issue on appeal was whether the omission of these intake notes from the appellate record made the record so incomplete as to preclude the Court of Criminal Appeals from making an effective adjudication. The Court ruled that the omission was substantial enough to set aside the conviction.