Ask the Lawyer: Concealing a troop’s wrongdoing can bring trouble - Military Law, Military Law Advice, Ask a Lawyer - Navy Times

Ask the Lawyer: Concealing a troop’s wrongdoing can bring trouble

Lawyer Mathew B. Tully answers your questions.

Q. Someone I know in the service has been up to no good. What are the consequences for me when I am aware that a fellow service member is doing or has done something wrong?

It’s not so much what you know about an offense as what you do to conceal it that could land you in hot water.

The keywords for this discussion are “concealment” and “misprision.” Under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, misprision occurs when you go out of your way to conceal a serious offense committed by another, without providing previous planning or subsequent assistance to the offender in a way that makes you an accessory.

A “serious offense” is understood to be a felony or any offense under the UCMJ that is punishable by death or confinement of at least one year, according to the Manual for Courts-Martial.

Failing to report a serious offense or refusing to do so alone are not the types of concealment that rise to the level of misprision. Instead, it is through the active steps a service member takes to conceal an offense that he commits misprision.

One example of the type of concealment that would constitute misprision, according to the Manual for Courts-Martial, would be fudging an account book to conceal someone else’s theft.

A classic example of misprision is the late 1990s case of a Marine lance corporal who tried to conceal his distinctive tattoos so he could not be associated with a stabbing in Japan.

While stationed in Okinawa, the Marine witnessed a fellow Marine stab a Navy sailor. For the rest of his tour on Okinawa, the lance corporal wore long-sleeve shirts while off duty to conceal his tattoos. But a security policeman stopped him after spotting a spider web tattoo on his elbow.

Misprision carries a maximum penalty of dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for up to three years.

Failure to report an offense also could lead to a charge of failure to obey an order or regulation under Article 92 of the UCMJ.

For example, in the Navy, OPNAV Instruction 5350.4C states that a sailor with nonprivileged information about a drug offense by a fellow sailor must report that information to an immediate supervisor, commanding officer, security agency or Navy criminal investigative office. Failure to do so could lead to charges under Article 92.

Mathew B. Tully is an Iraq war veteran and founding partner of the law firm Tully Rinckey PLLC. E-mail him. The information in this column is not intended as legal advice.