Source: http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19730911_0040141.C02.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2016-12-10 11:15:02
Document Index: 9186423

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 812', '§ 2', '§ 3731', '§ 3501', '§ 3501', '§ 3501', '§ 3501']

| United States v. Vigo
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLANT,v.ROBERT VIGO AND CARMEN PAGAN, DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES
Lumbard, Hays and Timbers, Circuit Judges. Timbers, Circuit Judge (concurring in part and dissenting in part).
The government appeals from an order of the Southern District, entered January 18, 1973, which suppressed certain evidence relating to the prosecution of Robert Vigo and Carmen Pagan, who were indicted on August 11, 1972, for possession of heroin with intent to distribute it, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 812, 841(a)(1), and 841(b)(1)(A), and for conspiracy to violate these sections (18 U.S.C. § 2). Prior to trial defendants moved to suppress tangible evidence obtained during the search of the automobile in which they were riding at the time of their arrest, to suppress other tangible evidence obtained from defendant Pagan's pocketbook, and also to suppress oral statements made by both defendants shortly after their arrest. The district court, after a hearing, denied the motion with respect to the evidence seized from the automobile, but granted it with respect to the evidence seized from Miss Pagan's purse and with respect to the oral statements, see 357 F. Supp. 1360 (S.D.N.Y. 1972). The government does not challenge the suppression of Miss Pagan's statement, but pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731, it has appealed the order to the extent that it suppressed the evidence seized from Miss Pagan and Vigo's oral statement.
From the evidence at the hearing, the district court found the following facts. On April 11, 1972, Thomas Smith, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), received information from an unidentified informant*fn1 that Vigo had offered to sell him up to one kilogram of cocaine. The informant reported that he was to meet with Vigo the following day at Amigo's Bar, located at 8th Street and Avenue D in Manhattan. Smith instructed the informant to contact Vigo again and attempt to arrange for the delivery of the cocaine to take place at that meeting.
Six agents participated in the arrest, and as a result the events described below happened nearly simultaneously.*fn2 The agents frisked Vigo and found a loaded.32 caliber revolver tucked in his belt. They then took Miss Pagan's purse (they did not search her person) and searched it, discovering, among other things, some notes thought by the agents to contain a formula for cutting narcotics, a scale, and some marihuana. They also searched Vigo's car, and in the trunk Agent Smith discovered a briefcase containing several packages of heroin as well as narcotics paraphernalia, including spoons, rubber bands, a strainer, and a scale.
We hold that the search of Miss Pagan's purse was reasonable and proper as a normal protective measure on the part of law enforcement authorities. A loaded concealed gun had just been found on her companion Vigo. A lady's handbag is the most likely place for a woman similarly to conceal a weapon. Cf. United States v. Berryhill, 445 F.2d 1189 (9th Cir. 1971). The search of the handbag took place directly after the defendants had been stopped. The circumstances fall well within the limits of permissible protective search established in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S. Ct. 1868, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889 (1968). Cf. United States v. Johnson, 467 F.2d 630 (2d Cir. 1972). Nor did the search spill over into an unrelated and therefore unreasonable search for evidence. The agents did not search Miss Pagan's person. They did no more than ascertain the contents of the place where she would have been most likely to hide a weapon. Evidence of crime discovered by virtue of such a limited investigation is not the fruit of an unreasonable search and is admissible. See United States v. Del Toro, 464 F.2d 520 (2d Cir. 1972).
Defendant Vigo's oral admissions made at the time of his arrest are also admissible. In Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, at 478, 86 S. Ct. 1602, at 1630, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966), the Supreme Court stated:
Vigo's statements were voluntary within the meaning of this language, and their admission into evidence did not violate the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Nor does it contravene the purpose behind Miranda of curtailing illegal custodial interrogation by law enforcement authorities. The statements were made immediately after Vigo's arrest, at the scene of the arrest and before any systematic inquiry was begun by the arresting agents. None of the inherently compelling factors of station-house interrogation were present. The arresting agents did not coerce or deceive him. He was aware of the illegality of his acts,*fn3 and had in addition been given three of the four warnings required by Miranda. He spoke in an effort to protect his companions, particularly Miss Pagan, and with evident knowledge of the meaning and consequences of what he said. Under these circumstances, the admissibility of his statements was not precluded either by the Fifth Amendment or by Miranda. Stone v. United States, 385 F.2d 713 (10th Cir. 1967), cert. den., 391 U.S. 966, 88 S. Ct. 2038, 20 L. Ed. 2d 880 (1968); Pitman v. United States, 380 F.2d 368 (9th Cir. 1967); Parson v. United States, 387 F.2d 944 (10th Cir. 1968); Sablowski v. United States, 403 F.2d 347 (10th Cir. 1968); United States v. Tafoya, 459 F.2d 424 (10th Cir. 1972); United States v. Cruz, 265 F. Supp. 15 (W.D. Tex., 1967); People v. Gant, 264 Cal.App.2d 420, 70 Cal.Rptr. 801 (1968); Cameron v. State, 214 So.2d 370 (Fla.D.C.App. 1968). See also People v. Dorado, 62 Cal.2d 338, 354, 42 Cal.Rptr. 169, 179, 398 P.2d 361, 371 (1965).
Inasmuch as we hold defendant Vigo's statements voluntary and admissible under the requirements of Miranda v. Arizona, supra, they are similarly voluntary and admissible under the requirements of 18 U.S.C. § 3501. It is therefore unnecessary to reach the question of the application and constitutionality of § 3501.
The majority holds that Vigo's inculpatory statements are admissible. In holding these statements to have been "voluntary" and therefore admissible without the necessity of finding an "intelligent waiver", the majority, it seems to me, has unjustifiably ignored the rationale and holding of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694, 86 S. Ct. 1602 (1966). The instant case is strikingly different from those which have admitted voluntary exclamations. To hold Vigo's inculpatory statements to have been "voluntary" so that Miranda warnings need not have been given, in effect is to return to the pre-Miranda test of voluntariness and to validate, sub silentio, Title II of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C. § 3501 (1970).
In Miranda, the Supreme Court held that persons in police custody are subject to a form of "compulsion inherent in custodial surroundings". 384 U.S. at 458. In order to protect the individual against this inherent compulsion, and to safeguard his right "to remain silent unless he chooses to speak in the unfettered exercise of his own will", id. at 460, the Court held that individuals in custody must be made aware of their "right of silence", id. at 444, and must be given warnings prior to custodial interrogation. One of the required warnings -- not given to Vigo -- is that the person to be questioned be told that anything said "can and will be used against the individual in court". Id. at 469. The Supreme Court emphasized the importance of this specific warning:
"This warning is needed in order to make him aware not only of the privilege [against self-incrimination], but also of the consequences of foregoing it. It is only through an awareness of these consequences that there can be any assurance of real understanding and intelligent exercise of the privilege. Moreover, this warning may serve to make the individual more acutely aware that he is faced with a phase of the adversary system -- that he is not in the presence of persons acting solely in his interest." 384 U.S. at 469.
True, as the majority in the instant case correctly recognizes, a determination under Miranda of whether an individual "knowingly and intelligently waived his privilege against self-incrimination", 384 U.S. at 475, is not a precondition to the admission of an inculpatory statement if it can be initially shown that the Miranda warnings need not have been given. The types of cases envisaged by the Supreme Court as not requiring Miranda warnings are those involving an absence of questioning which result in "volunteered statements", such as where an individual "enters a police station and states that he wishes to confess to a crime". Id. at 478. Thus, in United States v. Tafoya, 459 F.2d 424 (10 Cir. 1972), although the Miranda warnings were not given and there was no intelligent waiver, an inculpatory statement was properly admitted since it was "obviously not the product of interrogation but was simply a spontaneous utterance volunteered by the defendant". 459 F.2d at 427. Similarly, other cases have recognized that incriminatory statements were admissible without the necessity of finding a Miranda waiver where it was found that such admissions were "spontaneous", were made "before any questions had been asked", were "entirely voluntary", Pitman v. United States, 380 F.2d 368, 370 (9 Cir. 1967), and, "if the arresting officer has not attempted or is not attempting to have the arrested person incriminate himself". United States v. Cruz, 265 F. Supp. 15, 20 (W.D.Tex.1967). See Parson v. United States, 387 F.2d 944 (10 Cir. 1968).
Here, it cannot be said that Vigo's statements to Special Agent Smith, made after Vigo was placed in custody, were spontaneous or were made before questioning began. Vigo's inculpatory statements were made during a discussion in response to questions by Smith which sought to elicit such admissions.*fn1 The Miranda requirements therefore are applicable. As the district court found, 357 F. Supp. at 1366, since Vigo was not warned that anything he said could and would be used against him, the government has not satisfied its "heavy burden . . . [of demonstrating] that the defendant knowingly and intelligently waived his privilege against self-incrimination" (quoting from Miranda, 384 U.S. at 475).*fn2
I think the majority also has erred in holding that Vigo's statements were voluntary because "none of the inherently compelling factors of station-house interrogation were [sic] present. The arresting agents did not coerce or deceive him". Supra at 299. It was precisely this type of determination of voluntariness, required by pre-Miranda law, which Miranda rejected but which was codified in 18 U.S.C. § 3501(b).*fn3 Furthermore, in holding that Vigo spoke "with evident knowledge of the meaning and consequences of what he said", supra at 299, the majority seems to me to have rejected the rationale of Miranda and to have embraced the "totality of the circumstances" analysis prescribed by Section 3501(b).*fn4 The validity of the majority's criticism of Miranda cannot be gainsaid. It has been as a result of occasional unduly harsh Miranda rulings that this Court previously has interpreted Miranda to avoid having "the criminal . . . . go free because the constable has blundered." People v. Defore, 242 N.Y. 13, 21, 150 N.E. 585 (1926) (Cardozo, J.). See, e.g., United States v. Lamia, 429 F.2d 373 (2 Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 907, 27 L. Ed. 2d 146, 91 S. Ct. 150 (1970). Dissatisfaction with a controlling Supreme Court decision, however, does not warrant judicial legislation. I am sure that my colleagues do not suggest it does. But their application of Miranda to the facts of the instant case strikes me as coming perilously close to frustrating the rationale of this controlling Supreme Court decision.