Report yourself-Failure to report

On 21 September 2011, a new Army Directive went into distribution on a Self Reporting requirement.

The Army Directive – Self-Reporting by Officers and Senior Enlisted Members of Criminal Convictions is effective immediately.

Coverage appears to be limited to convictions after 1 March 2008. For those convicted after 1 March 2008 and before the date of the memorandum, the person has 15 days from 21 September 2011 to report their conviction, after that it is 15 days after date of conviction. They include a nolo plea, as well as, “all actions tantamount to a finding of guilty.” They intend to capture PBJ type situations, anything along the lines of deferred judgment. In Maryland you can get probation before judgment. Do you probation and the conviction goes away.

On 4 May 2010, the CAAF decided United States v. Serianne, 69 M.J. 8 (C.A.A.F. 2010), which dealt with the Navy’s version of this memorandum. Here is the BLUF from LEXIS, and link to my prior post on the case.

While the service instruction required the servicemember to report his arrest, U.S. Navy Regs. art. 1137 required the servicemember to report observed criminal conduct except when the servicemember was criminally involved in the conduct. The military appellate court held that the U.S. Navy Regulations were superior competent authority to the service instruction, the reporting requirement in the instruction was inconsistent with the exclusion provided in the higher authority, and thus the instruction did not provide a legal basis for finding the servicemember derelict in the performance of a required duty.

On 2 April 2008, the Secretary of Defense required each Service to develop their own regulation. So here, more than a year later is the Army’s.

h/t to a client, who shall of course remain nameless.