Opinion ID: 2008580
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Statements Made in Florida

Text: Sumabat argues that the statements he made to the Orlando police following his arrest were the product of interrogation and improperly obtained. The court [1] denied Sumabat's motion to suppress, finding that the statements Sumabat made before he received his Miranda warnings were not the product of interrogation. On the night of December 4, 1987, Detective Chisari of the Orlando police arrested Sumabat in Orlando for armed robbery pursuant to a warrant obtained by the Maine State Police. Chisari took Sumabat and his companion, Meredith Cain, to the police station. At the station Sumabat and Cain were separated and Chisari filled out the arrest affidavit in Sumabat's presence, asking Sumabat for information as necessary. Chisari then called Detective Reichtel of the Maine State Police. Reichtel asked Chisari to interview Cain and to attempt to interview Sumabat. Reichtel also told Chisari that someone had died during the robbery. When Chisari returned to the room, he asked Sumabat what his relationship was with Cain. Sumabat immediately told Chisari, [s]he had nothing to do with the robbery. If she had known we were going to do a robbery, she would have tried to stop us. All we did was use her car. Chisari then read Sumabat his Miranda rights. Sumabat invoked his right to remain silent and Chisari acquiesced. When Chisari told Sumabat that he was going to talk to Cain, however, Sumabat repeated his statement that she had not been involved. After Sumabat himself spoke with Cain, he again told Chisari that she had nothing to do with the incident. There is no clear error in the presiding justice's finding that Sumabat's statements regarding Cain were voluntary and not the product of interrogation. Interrogation in the Miranda sense includes express questioning by the police and any equivalent indirect questioning or suggesting which the police should know is reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response by the suspect. State v. Philbrick, 436 A.2d 844, 848 (Me.1981) (quoting Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 299-300, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 1688-1689, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980)). As the Court elaborated in Innis: Confessions remain a proper element in law enforcement. Any statement given freely and voluntarily without any compelling influence is, of course, admissible in evidence. The fundamental import of the privilege [against self-incrimination] while an individual is in custody is not whether he is allowed to talk to the police without benefit of counsel, but whether he can be interrogated.... Volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the Fifth Amendment. Id. (quoting Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 478, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1629, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966)). After Miranda rights have been read and invoked and the police no longer ask express questions to investigate the incident, the issue on review of statements such as those made by Sumabat becomes whether the officers' subsequent actions rose to the level of interrogation  that is, in the language of Innis, whether they were the functional equivalent of police interrogation. Arizona v. Mauro, 481 U.S. 520, 527, 107 S.Ct. 1931, 1935, 95 L.Ed.2d 458 (1987). Contrary to Sumabat's contention, interrogation does not include everything except routine booking information. In United States v. Downing, 665 F.2d 404 (1st Cir.1981), on which Sumabat relies heavily, the court excluded evidence (keys to an airplane and evidence revealed by the keys) obtained by the police in a post-arrest search of a suspected drug smuggler, during which the police questioned the defendant about the keys after he had invoked his right to remain silent. The First Circuit, however, recognized the biographical data exception to the Miranda rule because of the need for police and other agencies to know the identity of people taken into custody. Id. at 406. This has been our rule for some time. See State v. Estes, 418 A.2d 1108, 1111 (Me.1980) (Brief, routine questions posed to a suspect during `booking' procedures ... do not constitute interrogation); State v. Simoneau, 402 A.2d 870, 873 (Me.1979) (questions characterized by brevity, neutrality, and an absence of intent to elicit a confession or admission do not constitute interrogation). Rooted in Innis and subsequent decisions of the United States Supreme Court, this rule requires the trial court to examine the nature and motivation behind police questions and conduct for the threat of compulsion, the rationale behind the Miranda rule. Chisari was seeking routine biographical information of no apparent testimonial value when he asked Sumabat about his relationship with Cain. Indeed, after Sumabat invoked his right to remain silent, Chisari did not ask him any questions or make any provocative statements regarding Cain. Sumabat's statements were gratuitous and in no way compelled by Chisari or by the circumstances of Sumabat's detention. The presiding justice properly found Sumabat's statements to be voluntary and not the product of interrogation in violation of his rights.