Opinion ID: 2317297
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: The Motion to Suppress the Statements Made by Lodowski

Text: Lodowski filed a pretrial motion in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County to suppress all statements [5] made by him to the police. The court held a plenary hearing on the motion. In conducting the hearing, the court complied with the procedures and applied the law as set out by us in State v. Kidd, 281 Md. 32, 375 A.2d 1105, cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1002, 98 S.Ct. 646, 54 L.Ed.2d 498 (1977). At the conclusion of the hearing, the court found by a preponderance of the evidence that the statements were voluntary and denied the motion. Pursuant to this ruling, at the trial in the Circuit Court for Charles County, the court permitted the statements challenged by the motion to be submitted to the jury. It then became the jury's duty to determine, beyond a reasonable doubt, whether the statements were voluntary. Lodowski contends that the court erred in denying the motion and in permitting the statements to be received in evidence. When we deal with the issue whether a statement was voluntary or involuntary, it is our duty to examine the entire record and make an independent determination of the ultimate matter of voluntariness vel non. Davis v. North Carolina, 384 U.S. 737, 741-42, 86 S.Ct. 1761, 1764-65, 16 L.Ed.2d 895 (1966); Watson v. State, 282 Md. 73, 84, 382 A.2d 574, cert. denied, 437 U.S. 908, 98 S.Ct. 3100, 57 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1978). Almost invariably in cases involving statements obtained through unobserved police interrogation, there are conflicts in the evidence as to the events surrounding the interrogations. But this Court is not a finder of facts; in the preliminary determination of voluntariness the weight initially to be given the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses are matters for the trial court. The independent constitutional appraisal which we are obliged to make means, therefore, that we accept the findings of the hearing judge with respect to the facts surrounding the interrogation unless his judgment thereon is clearly erroneous. Rule 886. We resolve for ourselves, however, in the light of the entire record, the ultimate fact, namely, the existence or nonexistence of voluntariness. Walker v. State, 12 Md. App. 684, 691-95, 280 A.2d 260 (1971); Dennis v. Warden, 6 Md. App. 295, 315, 251 A.2d 909, cert. denied, 255 Md. 740 (1969). If we determine, in the light of the facts and the applicable law, that the statement challenged was voluntarily made, the consideration of the statement by the trier of fact in the determination of guilt or innocence would be proper. Conversely, our determination that the statement was involuntary would ordinarily render its consideration by the trier of fact prejudicial error. In denying the motion to suppress, the hearing judge, speaking from the bench, deemed the question to be whether or not [Lodowski] was denied his constitutional right to counsel, that is according to everything under the Sixth Amendment of [the federal] Constitution. He made only one finding of fact in answering the question  that Lodowski did not request a lawyer. Commenting that I am sitting here as a trier of fact, which gives me the right to believe or disbelieve the testimony of any person that I choose to believe or disbelieve, he declared: I don't have any testimony from any people, that I want to believe, that I choose to believe, that he ever asked for an attorney the night in question. He stated unequivocally what he thought was the applicable law: The law as I understand it to be in this State, is that the right [to counsel] is personal to [the defendant making the statement]. Shortly thereafter, he iterated his belief. Characterizing the question as very serious, he said: [M]y understanding of the law is to be that the right is personal to [Lodowski] and he didn't choose to exercise it.... He asserted that he did not intend to change the law. Applying the law as he thought it to be to the fact he had found, he believed by a preponderance of the evidence that these statements are freely and voluntarily given ... and accordingly the motion to suppress all statements is denied. Three statements made by Lodowski were the subject of the motion to suppress. The first statement was a written admission given at 11:00 p.m. on 14 June 1983. The second statement was an oral confession obtained as a result of an interrogation which began about 10:15 p.m. on 17 June 1983 and ended shortly after 6:00 a.m. the next morning. The third statement was a written admission which was obtained immediately after the oral confession was concluded. We focus at this time on the third statement. We make our independent constitutional appraisal in the light of the following facts and circumstances. The factual finding of the hearing judge that Lodowski did not request a lawyer was not clearly erroneous. Therefore, we accept it. And we assume for the purpose of decision that, prior to the making of the third statement, Lodowski was given the Miranda warnings with respect to his right to a lawyer and waived, for the nonce, the right in writing by answering yes to the question, Are you willing to answer questions without having a lawyer with you now? [6] We find in the record before us certain other relevant facts regarding the circumstances surrounding the making of the third statement which stand undisputed and unrefuted. Lodowski was in custody at the police station from 10:00 p.m. on 17 June 1983, when the police informed him that he was under arrest, until noon the next day when he was taken before a Commissioner of the District Court. During that period interrogation of him produced two statements. One was an oral confession. As recounted by the officer to whom it was made, it covered the inception of the crimes, the planning of them, their execution, the disposition of the loot and the disposal of the murder weapons. Upon the completion of the oral confession, Lodowski was presented with a form on which was typed the following: Kenneth you have advised me [the officer who received the oral statement] that you have information about the shooting/armed robbery that occurred at the Mini-Market on Greenbelt Rd. last Saturday evening. I would like for you to tell me about that incident. The balance of that page and two additional pages bear a statement in Lodowski's handwriting. A fourth page is appended which according to the police, is a diagram showing where the murder weapons were thrown from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge into the Potomac River. The statement bears the date 6-18-83 and the time 0618 Hrs. [7] A police officer took possession of the statement around 11:00 a.m. on 18 June at which time he requested that Lodowski sign each of the first three pages. Lodowski did so, adding the notation signed under protest. About 6:15 a.m. on 18 June, Lodowski's mother, who was at the police station, was informed by the police that her son was a suspect. She immediately took steps to obtain the services of a lawyer. By 7:15 a.m. she had employed two lawyers to represent her son. The lawyers arrived at the police station at 8:10 a.m., identified themselves, and asked to see and consult with their client. The request was refused. From then until noon, when Lodowski was taken before a District Court Commissioner, they made persistent efforts without avail to obtain access to their client. They solicited the aid of the Public Defender, the State's Attorney for Prince George's County and a District Court judge. They prepared a petition for a writ of habeas corpus and obtained the agreement of the judge to hear it at noon. The police made their position perfectly clear to the lawyers, to the State's Attorney and to the judge. Their position was that since Lodowski had waived his right to counsel and had not asked for a lawyer, they were not going to allow the lawyers representing him to talk to him. The State's Attorney recounted what was told him at 9:45 a.m. when he made inquiry to the police about Lodowski. Lt. Robert Miller informed the State's Attorney that Lodowski was being processed at that time, he had been advised of his rights by the Prince George's County Police Department, that he had not requested an attorney, and that they [the police] thought it was inappropriate to talk to counsel or to allow counsel to see Mr. Lodowski. When one of the lawyers telephoned the State's Attorney about 9:55 a.m. and asked to see his client, the State's Attorney said that he thought the best thing would be to go ahead with his hearing [on the petition for the writ of habeas corpus], that we would have an attorney available at whatever time the Court wished to have an attorney available. While the lawyers were attempting without success to see their client, Lodowski was writing the third statement. He was not informed by the police, nor was he aware, before he had completed the statement and signed it, that two lawyers retained by his mother to represent him were at the police station desperately attempting to see him so they could consult with him forthwith. In a criminal cause, when the State seeks to introduce into evidence a statement given by a defendant to law enforcement officers during a custodial interrogation, [8] it must, upon proper challenge, establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the statement was voluntary. State v. Kidd, 281 Md. at 34, 375 A.2d 1105. A statement is voluntary in the traditional sense when it is obtained without force applied, coercion used, hope held out or promise made on the part of the authorities. Abbott v. State, 231 Md. 462, 465, 190 A.2d 797 (1963). Pertinent to the question of voluntariness is the entitlement of the defendant to the assistance of counsel during the interrogation. Contrary to the belief of the hearing judge, however, in the circumstances under which the statements were obtained from Lodowski, he was not entitled to the assistance of counsel by reason of the right to counsel clause of the Sixth Amendment to the federal constitution, even though that clause is applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963). The Sixth Amendment provides that [i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. (Emphasis added.) Therefore, that right is applicable only upon the initiation of adversary judicial criminal proceedings, and at the time the statement was obtained from Lodowski such proceedings had not been initiated against him by way of formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, information or arraignment. Webster v. State, 299 Md. 581, 598-599 and 606, 474 A.2d 1305 (1984). See United States v. Gouveia, ___ U.S. ___, ___-___, 104 S.Ct. 2292, 2297-98, 81 L.Ed.2d 146 (1984). The requirement that a statement obtained from a defendant by law enforcement officers during a custodial interrogation must be voluntary in the traditional sense in order to be admissible in a criminal prosecution generally stems from that portion of the Fifth Amendment to the federal constitution commanding that no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. Bram v. United States, 168 U.S. 532, 542, 18 S.Ct. 183, 42 L.Ed. 568 (1897); Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 12 L.Ed.2d 653 (1964). But see Escobedo v. State of Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed.2d 977 (1964). Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), impressed procedural safeguards on the traditional test of voluntariness. The procedural safeguards are warnings which must be given. The warnings are prophylactic rules created by the Supreme Court of the United States to assure the sanctity of the Fifth Amendment's privilege against compelled self-incrimination. The defendant may waive effectuation of the safeguards, but until such warnings and waiver are demonstrated by the State at trial, no evidence obtained through a custodial interrogation may be used against him. Kidd, 281 Md. at 36-37, 375 A.2d 1105. One of the warnings which must be given prior to any questioning is that the person has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444, 479, 86 S.Ct. at 1612, 1630. [T]he right to have counsel present at the interrogation is indispensable to the protection of the Fifth Amendment privilege [against compelled self-incrimination] under the system we delineate today. Id. at 469, 86 S.Ct. at 1625. The presence of counsel ... would be the adequate protective device necessary to make the process of police interrogation conform to the dictates of the privilege. His presence would insure that statements made in the government-established atmosphere are not the product of compulsion. Id. at 466, 86 S.Ct. at 1623. Thus, the need for counsel to protect the Fifth Amendment privilege comprehends not merely a right to consult with counsel prior to questioning, but also to have counsel present during any questioning if the defendant so desires. Id. at 470, 86 S.Ct. at 1626. If the defendant indicates in any manner and at any stage of the process that he wishes to consult with an attorney before speaking there can be no questioning.... The mere fact that he may have answered some questions or volunteered some statements on his own does not deprive him of the right to refrain from answering any further inquiries until he has consulted with an attorney and thereafter consents to be questioned. Id. at 444-45, 86 S.Ct. at 1612-13. The right to the presence of counsel, like the other Miranda rights, may be waived by the defendant, provided the waiver is made voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently. Id. at 444, 86 S.Ct. at 1612. The Supreme Court has always set high standards of proof for the waiver of constitutional rights.... Id. at 475, 86 S.Ct. at 1628, citing Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938). The Court expressly reasserted these standards as applied to in-custody interrogation and observed that the burden is on the shoulders of the State. Miranda 384 U.S. at 475, 86 S.Ct. at 1628. [A] valid waiver will not be presumed simply from the silence of the accused after warnings are given or simply from the fact that a confession was in fact eventually obtained. Id. [W]here in-custody interrogation is involved, there is no room for the contention that the privilege is waived if the individual answers some questions or gives some information on his own.... Id. at 475-76, 86 S.Ct. at 1628-29. Miranda makes clear that [a]n individual need not make a pre-interrogation request for a lawyer.... [H]is failure to ask for a lawyer does not constitute a waiver. 384 U.S. at 470, 86 S.Ct. at 1626. The Court noted that it had stated in Carnley v. Cochran, 369 U.S. 506, 513, 82 S.Ct. 884, 888, 8 L.Ed.2d 70 (1962), [I]t is settled that where the assistance of counsel is a constitutional requisite, the right to be furnished counsel does not depend on a request. Id. 384 U.S. at 471, 86 S.Ct. at 1626. The Court declared: This proposition applies with equal force in the context of providing counsel to protect an accused's Fifth Amendment privilege in the face of interrogation. Id. The Court expressed a further thought with respect to waiver: Moreover, any evidence that the accused was threatened, tricked, or cajoled into a waiver will, of course, show that the defendant did not voluntarily waive his privilege. Id. at 476, 86 S.Ct. at 1629. In summarizing its holdings, the Court warned: Opportunity to exercise these rights must be afforded to [the defendant] throughout the interrogation. Id. at 479, 86 S.Ct. at 1630. It is readily apparent from our scanning of the opinion of the Court in Miranda that the matter of the voluntariness, and thus the admissibility, of the third statement made by Lodowski is governed by the dictates of that opinion. Lodowski had the right under the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination to the assistance of counsel at the making of that statement. Thus, the question to be answered for a resolution of the motion to suppress was not as the hearing judge posed it. The proper question is whether, in the contemplation of Miranda, Lodowski effectively waived his right to counsel with respect to the third statement. When we consider the facts and circumstances under which the third statement was obtained in the light of the holdings in Miranda and the reasons advanced therefor, we are led inescapedly to the conclusion that the third statement was not voluntary. It was not voluntary because the waiver made by Lodowski was ineffective with respect to it. Although the police punctiliously adhered to the verbal formula of the Miranda decision in advising [Lodowski] of [his] rights, they thereafter adopted tactics which effectively prevented or forestalled the exercise of [his] rights. Commonwealth v. McKenna, 355 Mass. 313, 244 N.E.2d 560, 567 (1969). The requirement of warnings and waiver of rights is ... not simply a preliminary ritual to existing methods of interrogation. Miranda 384 U.S. at 476, 86 S.Ct. at 1629. The defendant must be afforded the opportunity to exercise the rights throughout the interrogation. Id. at 479, 86 S.Ct. at 1630. To allow the police to use tactics which prevent or forestall a suspect from exercising his rights is inconsistent with the clear purpose of Miranda. ... Furthermore, the use of such tactics is logically incongruous with the concept of a knowing and intelligent waiver.... Weber v. State, 457 A.2d 674, 685-86 (Del. 1983). The Miranda warnings indicate to the suspect an abstract right to counsel, and the waiver of that right only means that for the moment the suspect is foregoing the exercise of that conceptual privilege. Id. at 685. [W]hen a suspect's lawyer is waiting to see him, and the police do not tell the suspect of the attorney's presence and availability, then the suspect's waiver of his right to counsel is not knowing and intelligent. Id. at 684-85. To pass up an abstract offer to call some unknown lawyer is very different from refusing to talk with an identified attorney actually available to provide at least initial assistance and advice.... A suspect indifferent to the first offer may well react quite differently to the second. State v. Haynes, 288 Or. 59, 602 P.2d 272, 278 (1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 945, 100 S.Ct. 2175 [64 L.Ed.2d 802] (1980). Like observation was made in Lewis v. State, (Okl.Ct.Crim. App. 1984) 695 P.2d 528 (1984). The court added: It is one thing to say a lawyer has no right to see a client; it is quite another to say that an accused person knowingly and intelligently waived his right to counsel and his right against self incrimination when it was not made known to him that his lawyer was, in effect, knocking at the jail house door. Id. 695 P.2d at 530. Weber put it this way: We can not, and do not, conclude that a suspect, who is indifferent to the usual abstract offer of counsel, recited as part of the warnings required by Miranda, will disdain a chance to consult a lawyer waiting to see him then and there. 457 A.2d at 685. The same reasoning was expressed in State v. Matthews, 408 So.2d 1274, 1278 (La. 1982). And we agree with the observation in Haynes that [w]hen the opportunity to consult counsel is in fact frustrated, there is no room for speculation what defendant might or might not have chosen to do after he had that opportunity. 602 P.2d at 280. We take note that [i]f the attorney appears on request of one's family, that fact may inspire additional confidence. Id. at 278. To prevent a recurrence of the situation in the instant case, effectuate the protection given to the accused by Miranda, and ensure that a suspect has the opportunity to knowingly and intelligently waive his rights, we adopt, as a caution to law enforcement authorities and for the guidance of the trial courts, the rule established by the court in Weber: [i]f prior to or during custodial interrogation, and unknown to the suspect, a specifically retained or properly designated lawyer is actually present at a police station seeking an opportunity to render legal advice or assistance to the suspect, and the police intentionally or negligently fail to inform the suspect of that fact, then any statement obtained after the police themselves know of the attorney's efforts to assist the suspect, or any evidence derived from any such statement, is not admissible on any theory that the suspect intelligently and knowingly waived his right to remain silent and his right to counsel as established by Miranda. 457 A.2d at 686. The rule applies whether the attorney was retained by the suspect or by a third party acting on behalf of or for the suspect or was a public defender or other lawyer designated or appointed to represent the suspect. We have stated our view that a suspect must be fully informed of the actual presence and availability of counsel who seeks to confer with him, in order that any waiver of a right to counsel, as established by Miranda, can be knowing and intelligent. This view is shared, in addition to the cases above referred to, by People v. Smith, 93 Ill.2d 179, 66 Ill.Dec. 412, 416, 442 N.E.2d 1325, 1329 (1982); State v. Jackson, 303 So.2d 734, 737 (La. 1974); Commonwealth v. Mahnke, 368 Mass. 662, 335 N.E.2d 660, 691-92 (1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 959, 96 S.Ct. 1740, 48 L.Ed.2d 204 (1976); State v. Jones, 19 Wash. App. 850, 578 P.2d 71, 73 (1978). Cf. Commonwealth v. Sherman, 389 Mass. 287, 450 N.E.2d 566, 570-71 (1983). And see Burbine v. Moran, 753 F.2d 178 (1st Cir.1985). The cases above which we have cited and extensively quoted represent a clear majority of the courts which have considered the issue. Other cases have in effect shared our view but have adopted an even more stringent rule  once an attorney enters the proceeding, the police may not question the defendant in the absence of counsel unless there is an affirmative waiver, in the presence of the attorney, of the defendant's right to counsel. See State v. Johns, 185 Neb. 590, 177 N.W.2d 580, 585 (1970); People v. Hobson, 384 N.Y.S.2d 419, 420, 39 N.Y.2d 479, 348 N.E.2d 894, 896 (1976); People v. Arthur, 292 N.Y.S.2d 663, 666, 22 N.Y.2d 325, 239 N.E.2d 537, 539 (1968). We do not subscribe to that rule. The few cases under comparable facts which are not in full accord have disregarded the question of the validity of the waiver and relied upon the totality of the circumstances in determining whether a statement was voluntary, see, e.g., State v. Blanford, 306 N.W.2d 93, 96 (Iowa 1981); State v. Smith, 294 N.C. 365, 241 S.E.2d 674, 680-81 (1978). The reasoning of the majority of the courts in other states faced with analogous circumstances to those in the case before us is persuasive and convinces us that the conduct of the police vitiated Lodowski's waiver of his right to counsel with respect to his third statement. Therefore, that statement was rendered involuntary and inadmissible in the State's case in chief. The conduct of the police, even if predicated upon a mistaken concept of the law, had the effect of circumventing Lodowski's rights. No system worth preserving should have to fear that if an accused is permitted to consult with a lawyer, he will become aware of, and exercise, his rights. Matthews, 408 So.2d at 1278. We hold, as to the third statement, that the denial of the motion to suppress was prejudicial error which requires reversal of the judgments entered at the jury trial under the first, second and seventh counts of the indictment. For the same reason the judgments entered at the court trial on the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth counts of the indictment are reversed. As we have seen, those charges were tried on a stipulated set of facts. The facts stipulated with regard to the conspiracies included the statements of Lodowski as presented at the trial for counts one, two, and seven (although Defendant Lodowski wishes to preserve his objections to the admissibility of this evidence). Thus, our determination that the denial of the motion to suppress the third statement was erroneous requires that the judgments on the conspiracy counts also be set aside. The State suggests that [e]ven if this Court holds that a waiver in general terms is not effective when specific counsel is available, or determines that the failure to advise [Lodowski] of the availability of a specific attorney renders the State's proof of waiver insufficient, any error in admitting the statements in this case was clearly harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The third statement was an admission as distinguished from a confession, see n. 5 supra, but it was inculpatory and buttressed the oral confession, lending credence to the confession in a way that was not insignificant. It dealt with Lodowski's relationship with Elfadl prior to the commission of the crimes, Elfadl's purchase of a shotgun and Elfadl's persistent solicitation of Lodowski to rob the Minimart. Although Lodowski began to write it before his attorneys knocked at the stationhouse door, it appears that he had not completed it when they arrived and initially attempted to consult with him. He did not sign it or turn it over to the police until several hours after his attorneys were first denied access to him. In such circumstances, the fact that the third statement was in some respects cumulative is not controlling. A question of credibility is ever present when a statement is offered, and particularly so with respect to an oral statement recounted by a police officer and made during an unobserved interrogation. A signed statement in a defendant's handwriting is more compelling evidence of what the defendant said than the testimony of a police officer of what the defendant said. A defendant who has written and signed an inculpatory statement has a far heavier burden to meet to establish that he was actually not involved in the commission of the crime than if his statement were oral. See Elfadl v. State, 61 Md. App. 132, 138, 485 A.2d 275 (1985). Upon our own independent review of the record, we are not able to declare a belief, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the error in denying the motion to suppress the third statement in no way influenced the verdict. We are not satisfied that there is no reasonable possibility that [the statement admitted] ... may have contributed to the rendition of the guilty verdict. Dorsey v. State, 276 Md. 638, 659, 350 A.2d 665 (1976). We hold that the error in denying the motion to suppress as to the third statement was not harmless. We do not reach on this appeal the question whether the oral confession was admissible. There were numerous conflicts in the evidence with respect to the circumstances under which it was obtained. For example, it was disputed whether the waiver was signed on 17 June 1983 at 10:19 p.m. as the police indicated, or not until after 12:30 p.m. on 18 June as Lodowski maintained, so as to be after both the oral confession and the third statement were given. The evidence differs as to what Lodowski and his mother were told from time to time by the police as to Lodowski's status as a suspect or a witness and his need for an attorney. Due to the length of the interrogation and the tactics employed by the police, it was disputed whether Lodowski was capable of freely and knowingly waiving his rights. A psychiatrist, offered as an expert witness, gave his opinion, based upon a personal examination of Lodowski, the oral confession, the testimony he heard in court, and Lodowski's sleep deprivation state when the confession was made. He opined that the confession was not the product of Lodowski's unconstrained choice. As we have seen, none of these matters were resolved by factual findings of the hearing judge. Such findings are necessary for our independent constitutional appraisal of the voluntariness of the confession. Nor do we decide the admissibility of the first statement. Its voluntariness depends primarily upon whether it was the product of a custodial interrogation. Volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the Fifth Amendment and their admissibility is not affected by our holding today. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 478, 86 S.Ct. at 1630. The hearing judge made no factual finding whether the first statement was volunteered or was extracted after an effective waiver by an interrogation while Lodowski was in custody. If the first statement is proffered by the State on retrial and challenged, the court shall make factual findings on the record appropriate to our independent constitutional appraisal with respect to its voluntariness. Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 390-391, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 1788-1789, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964); Md.Rule 736f (now Rule 4-252(f)). Lodowski is entitled to a new trial. He may not, however, relitigate the issues determined by the holdings we make today on the pretrial motions, namely the validity of the indictment, the removal of the case for trial, and the suppression of the third statement. Those holdings are the law of the case and are conclusive on retrial.