Opinion ID: 33
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mejia's Admissions

Text: At the scene of the arrest, Detective Andres Perez, a native Spanish speaker, orally advised Mejia of his Miranda rights in Spanish. Once at the police station, Mejia was again advised orally, in Spanish, of his rights. Detective Perez then confirmed that Mejia could read Spanish and gave Mejia a Spanish-language form that delineated his Miranda rights. Officer Perez also read each of the rights out loud in Spanish from the text of the form and asked Mejia whether he understood his rights. Mejia indicated that he did and then placed his initials next to each of the enumerated rights and initialed a statement in Spanish that the police had made no threats or promises to him; he also checked a box indicating that he understood his rights. Finally, Detective Perez told Mejia that, if he wished, he could sign his name to the bottom of the form and Mejia elected to do so. It is uncontroverted that the form contained no language regarding waiver of rights; it only laid out the content of Mejia's Miranda rights. After signing the form, Mejia began answering questions posed to him by Detective Perez and the other officer present, Agent Michael Naylor. [2] According to Perez's translation of Mejia's oral statements, Mejia told the officers that Tejada had given him the gun when they were in the McDonald's, that he had then tucked the gun into his waistband, and that he had placed the gun under the driver's seat of the informant's car when he saw police approaching. Mejia also said that his job was to protect Tejada and watch his back, though when the police asked what he was protecting Tejada from, he merely stated you know. Mejia also said that he assumed the transaction that took place was a drug deal. After making these statements, Mejia offered to become a government informant. When the officers attempted to commit Mejia's statements to writing, Mejia became evasive and the officers terminated the interrogation. Mejia's interaction with the police officers was not taped and no contemporaneous notes were taken. However, Agent Naylor wrote a report of the interview two days later. For the duration of the interrogation Mejia had one arm handcuffed to a rail coming out from the wall, but there was no testimony or allegation that he was in any discomfort.