## Facts

- A confidential informant reported that Airman Basic Stephen J. Lazauskas was selling and using ecstasy at Lackland Air Force Base.
- Investigators arranged a controlled purchase and developed multiple witnesses who alleged drug use from February through May 2001 on and off the installation.
- Lazauskas was charged at a general court-martial with wrongful use, distribution, and introduction of ecstasy, obstruction of justice, and attempted disobedience of a no-contact order (Articles 112a, 134, and 80, UCMJ).
- During the Article 32 investigation, the convening authority appointed an investigating officer (IO) and authorized the IO to grant reasonably requested delays.
- After learning two government witnesses would testify by telephone, the defense requested a continuance to obtain their in-person testimony; the IO granted a six-day delay.
- At arraignment, Lazauskas moved to dismiss for lack of a speedy trial under R.C.M. 707, Article 10, UCMJ, and the Sixth Amendment.
- The military judge found 189 days elapsed from the triggering event to arraignment but excluded multiple periods, including 58 days treated as excludable without defense objection, leaving fewer than 120 non-excludable days.

## Issues

1. Whether an Article 32 investigating officer, acting under delegated authority, may approve pretrial delay excludable from the 120-day speedy-trial clock under R.C.M. 707.
2. Whether a service court may determine, after the fact, that time is excludable under R.C.M. 707 when there was no contemporaneous pretrial approval expressly labeling the delay as excludable.
3. Whether the specific delays challenged on appeal, including the six-day continuance, were properly excluded so that no R.C.M. 707 violation occurred.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces affirmed the service court’s decision upholding the convictions and sentence.
- The court held that an Article 32 IO may approve delay excludable under R.C.M. 707 when the convening authority properly delegates that power.
- The court held that reviewing courts may treat time as excludable under R.C.M. 707 after the fact if the record supports that the delay was of a type properly excludable and findings justify the exclusion.
- The court concluded the six-day continuance requested by the defense was reasonable and properly excluded, and the remaining non-excluded time fell within R.C.M. 707’s 120-day limit.

## Legal Principles

- R.C.M. 707 requires trial within 120 days of specified triggering events, subject to exclusion of approved, reasonable pretrial delay.
- A convening authority may delegate to an Article 32 investigating officer authority to grant reasonably requested delays; delays granted under that delegation may be excluded from the R.C.M. 707 calculation.
- Delay requested by the defense and granted for reasonable scheduling or witness-availability purposes is generally excludable from the 120-day computation.
- A military judge or service court may determine excludable delay retrospectively when the record shows the delay was substantively eligible for exclusion and the court makes supporting findings.

## Conclusion

The court held that delegated authority allowed the Article 32 investigating officer to grant excludable delay and that appellate courts may exclude qualifying periods after the fact when supported by the record; applying those rules, the defense-requested six-day continuance and other qualifying periods left fewer than 120 non-excludable days, so no R.C.M. 707 speedy-trial violation required dismissal.


United States v. Lazauskas, 62 M.J. 39 (C.A.A.F. 2005)