T-Minus One Week Until the 2021 Term

CAAF's 2021 term is approaching fast. Here are the four cases before CAAF next week:

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

United States v. Julian D. Schmidt
Case Summary: GCM conviction of sexual abuse of a child. Granted issues question: (1) whether the phrase "in the presence of" used to define the term "lewd act" in Article 120b(h)(5)(d) requires the child to be aware of the lewd act or merely that the accused be aware of the child's presence; (2) whether Appellant affirmatively waived any objection to the military judge's instructions and the failure to instruct on the affirmative defense of mistake of fact; and (3) whether having assumed deficient performance by counsel, the lower court erred in finding no prejudice.

United States v. Virginia S. Moratalla

Case Summary: GCM conviction of attempted larceny, larceny, drawing and uttering a check without sufficient funds, bank fraud, and dishonorably failing to pay debt. Granted issue is whether the Appellant's guilty plea to bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. Section 1344 was improvident.

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

United States v. Bradley M. Metz
Case Summary: GCM conviction of arson, housebreaking, and unlawful entry. Granted issue is did the lower court err by failing to apply Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590 (1975), despite finding Appellant was illegally apprehended. 

United States v. Jerard Simmons 
Case Summary: GCM conviction of sexual assault of a child, extortion, and producing child pornography. Granted issue questions whether the military judge erred in allowing the government to make a major change to a specification, over defense objection – almost tripling the charged time frame – after the complaining witness's testimony did not support the offense as originally charged and the prosecution had rested its case. 

Briefs for all cases can be found here.