United States v. David R. Candelaria

On May 24, 1981, David R. Candelaria entered a telephone booth at Fort Lewis, Washington, dialed the 911 emergency number, and said, “There is a bomb threat at Madigan Club, okay.” When he emerged, he was arrested by military police who were conducting surveillance of the booth because of a pattern of such calls from that number. Since he was not a member of the military, Candelaria was released within the hour and advised that subsequent action would be taken by the proper authorities.

Shortly thereafter, the military police notified the FBI of the incident and on July 7, 1981, 44 days after the first arrest, a one-count indictment was returned charging Candelaria with communicating a false bomb threat in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844 (e) (1976).

Before his trial, Candelaria moved to dismiss the indictment under the Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3161 (b) (1976), on the ground that the 30-day period within which an indictment must issue ran from the day of his arrest by military police on May 24th and had expired by the time the indictment issued on July 7th. The motion was denied.

At his trial, Candelaria admitted making the call, but testified that he had no malicious reason…