United States v. Batiste

DECISION

MAHONEY, Judge:

Theft of urine. The accused claims his acts did not constitute the offense because urine has no value and therefore cannot be the subject of larceny. Resisting the temptation to draw upon the colorful and imaginative arguments of counsel, we disagree.

As a part of the Air Force drug testing and rehabilitation program, samples of urine were collected, labeled, and prepared for shipment to a testing laboratory. The accused, a shipping clerk, was supposed to send the samples to the testing laboratory. Before doing so on the two occasions in question, he removed the specimen…