United States v. Coffmann

While stationed in Iraq, Coffmann (defendant) was ordered to clear out and trash boxes from a room to prepare for an incoming platoon. He found an open box of valuable special-operations gear, tried unsuccessfully to identify its owner, and began using it himself on patrols. About a month later, confronted by his section leader, Coffmann falsely claimed he had purchased the gear. He pleaded guilty to larceny and making a false official statement, admitting during his plea that he knew it was wrong to take the gear and intended to keep it -- but when the military judge asked, without explaining the legal meaning of 'abandoned,' whether he believed the gear had been abandoned, Coffmann said no. The case reached the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, which on its own raised the question of whether Coffmann's guilty plea to larceny was properly accepted.