Opinion ID: 3050012
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Is armed with a deadly weapon; or

Text: (2) Uses or threatens to use a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument. The Federal Criminal Code describes the elements of robbery: 18 U.S.C.A. § 2111 Whoever, within the the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, by force and violence, or by intimidation, takes or attempts to take from the person or presence of another anything of value, shall be imprisoned not more than fifteen years. Armed robbery is encompassed by § 2111, see United States v. Burns, 701 F.2d 840, 841, 842 (9th Cir. 1983). 6 As in the case of robbery, if the arrest were for assault the type of assault involved here would constitute a federal crime as well as a tribal crime, compare 18 U.S.C. §§ 113, 1153 with 17 N.N.C. § 314-15, and the probable cause requirement would be the same. 11662 UNITED STATES v. MITCHELL Duncan said that they discussed trying to obtain a federal warrant for robbery but rejected that approach because they could not connect the robbery to a house. However, as described above, federal robbery does not include any element requiring that the offense take place in a house. Moreover, that the arrest for a tribal offense was a ruse arranged to allow federal officers to interrogate Mitchell without affording him the opportunity to consult counsel becomes evident from a comparison of the possible penalties under tribal and federal law. The maximum penalty for any offense under tribal law, including criminal homicide, is one year. See 17 N.N.C. §§ 223, 303(b). The maximum under federal law for robbery and homicide is fifteen years and death respectively. Accordingly, there can be little doubt that the authorities always intended that Mitchell and his co-defendants would be tried on federal rather than on tribal charges. Even if the district court’s finding that the agents’ testimony was credible were not clearly erroneous, and I think that it was, the circumstances surrounding the decision to take Mitchell into tribal custody establish collusion with the requisite intent, despite the claim that officials never explicitly discussed depriving defendant of his rights. Both FBI agents made it quite clear in their testimony that a significant motivation underlying the arrest was to be able to interrogate the defendant and that if he were in tribal rather than federal custody, the interrogation could be conducted without affording him substantial rights designed to protect him against self-incrimination. Moreover, if federal agents did not have probable cause to obtain a federal warrant at the time of the November 3 meeting (in which case the tribal officers also lacked probable cause for the tribal arrest), the agents clearly had probable cause to arrest Mitchell after November 4, when he confessed to participating in the robbery. However, he remained in tribal custody and was questioned further. A federal indictment was not filed until November 21. On November 29, FBI agents conducted at least one more extensive pre-arraignment interrogation precisely because they knew that a lawyer would be UNITED STATES v. MITCHELL 11663 appointed shortly thereafter, when Mitchell would appear before a magistrate. This evidence establishes that Mitchell was effectively in federal custody from the time of his tribal arrest. Therefore, federal rights attached and the violation of these rights requires suppression of statements obtained during this period. The majority errs in the analysis that leads it to a contrary conclusion. First, the majority fails to consider the federal agents’ conduct after Mitchell’s tribal arrest. This court has made clear that the post-arrest activity of federal agents is directly relevant to a finding of collusion or lack thereof. See Michaud, 268 F.3d at 734-35. Critical to the Michaud court’s conclusion that the defendant offered “no evidence of actual collusion . . . to deny her federal right to appear before a magistrate judge,” id. at 735, was the timeliness with which fed- eral charges were brought against her. Although Michaud had first been arrested by state authorities for kidnap and sexual assault, “[a]s soon as the federal agents gathered sufficient evidence against Michaud from the search of her van, they obtained an arrest warrant and took the steps necessary to prosecute her in federal court.” Id. at 734-35. An initial search of Michaud’s hotel room on December 2 led to her arrest by state officials, but a search of her van later that day revealed additional evidence that allowed the federal agents to obtain a federal warrant on December 5. Four days after that, on December 9, the federal agents executed the warrant. Here, the federal agents made no similar effort to obtain a federal search warrant as “soon as [they] gathered sufficient evidence against [Mitchell].” To the contrary, the record suggests that the agents deliberately delayed bringing Mitchell under federal jurisdiction. On November 4, the FBI and tribal officials executed the tribal warrant, and Mitchell was taken into custody. After agreeing to take a polygraph test and failing, Mitchell made a statement to a federal agent inculpating himself in the robbery. Although this confession should have given the FBI agents sufficient evidence to establish probable 11664 UNITED STATES v. MITCHELL cause to obtain a federal warrant to arrest Mitchell, two hours later FBI agents successfully sought to have Mitchell record that confession. In this recorded statement, Mitchell admitted for the first time that he was present when “things happened” to the victims. Then, the next day, Mitchell led tribal officers to the crime scene, where he confessed to participating in both murders and provided graphic details about the murders and post-mortem dismemberment. Even after this last statement, the FBI agents did not seek a federal warrant, but instead waited sixteen days to file an indictment and eighteen days to have a warrant issued. They then interrogated Mitchell one last time while he was in federal custody and shortly before they presented him to a federal magistrate — a full twentyfour days after he had taken federal agents to the crime scene and confessed to committing the crime of which he was convicted.7 The actions of the federal agents in taking one final inculpatory statement from Mitchell before his arraignment provides especially strong evidence of deliberate intent to deprive him of his rights. On November 29, FBI agents arrested Mitchell on a federal warrant and drove him to the courthouse in Flagstaff. At the courthouse, they took him to a conference room and obtained another statement from him before bringing him before a magistrate judge. In this final and most 7 The majority’s reliance on U.S. v. Percy, 250 F.3d 720 (9th Cir. 2001), for the proposition that this delay does not compel a finding of collusion is unavailing. First, in Percy, the delay occurred between the time defendant was detained and the time federal agents questioned him. Id. at 724. The defendant was transferred into federal custody the day after the interview. Id. Here, Mitchell remained in tribal custody long after the first interrogation by federal officials, and through successive rounds of additional questioning. Clearly, there is a difference between delaying the initial interrogation and delaying the transfer into custody once the interrogation has taken place. Second, the defendant in Percy did not challenge the district court’s finding that there was no collusion, so the court was bound by that finding on appeal and did not conduct its own analysis of the question. Id. at 727. Thus, Percy is of no assistance to the majority here. UNITED STATES v. MITCHELL 11665 incriminating statement, Mitchell gave a detailed confession describing the robbery scheme, carjacking, and murders. See ante, at 11559. One of the agents admitted at trial that they talked to Mitchell this one last time because they knew that a lawyer would be appointed at his upcoming appearance and that they would not have another opportunity to interrogate him without counsel. This is a direct admission of deliberate intent to deprive Mitchell of his federal rights. To conclude that these facts do not satisfy the “deliberate intent” requirement would turn an already difficult evidentiary burden into a free pass for FBI agents who know full well that the rights under federal and tribal law differ substantially, and who take purposeful actions to deny defendants their federal rights. Under the majority’s approach, federal agents could meet with tribal agents, as they did here, and encourage a tribal arrest with the express purpose of interrogating defendants and with the knowledge that these interrogations will occur without counsel and before arraignment. Yet so long as the agents do not explicitly state that they sought to avoid affording the defendants their federal protections and as long as they also testify that a purpose of the arrest was to protect the public, they would be free to interrogate repeatedly a defendant held indefinitely without counsel or any arraignment. I do not believe that this court intended such a result when it held that the defendant must show “deliberate intent” to deprive a defendant of procedural rights. Because Mitchell has shown collusion, his right to federal presentment attached at the time of his tribal arrest, and statements made during the period of unnecessary delay before arraignment should be suppressed. Mitchell’s first statement may have fallen within the six hour safe harbor established by 18 U.S.C. § 3501(c), but his subsequent confessions did not.8 8 During his first round of questioning, Mitchell denied involvement in the disappearances and the robbery, and an inability to suppress this statement would therefore be of little consequence. 11666 UNITED STATES v. MITCHELL Although this court does not require exclusion of all non-safe harbor statements, the delay in Mitchell’s arraignment is not justified by either of the reasons we recognize for admitting such statements. See United States v. Mendoza, 157 F.3d 730, 731 (9th Cir. 1998) (“We will admit a statement made outside of the safe harbor if the delay was reasonable or if public policy concerns weigh in favor of admission.” ) (citing United States v. Van Poyck, 77 F.3d 285, 289 (9th Cir. 1996)). We have held that an overnight or weekend delay due to the unavailability of a magistrate is reasonable. Van Poyck, 77 F.3d at 289. However, Mitchell’s arraignment was delayed twenty-five days, not one or two. Furthermore, as there was no intent to take Mitchell before a magistrate when he was arrested, the delay in his arraignment does not fall within that exception. Additionally, given the deliberate delay in arraignment, public policy concerns weigh in favor of suppression, not admission.9 Cf. Van Poyck, 77 F.3d at 290 (finding public policy did not require suppression and explaining “[t]his is not a case where the officers intentionally postponed arraignment so they could interrogate the defendant”). In sum, the district court erred in not suppressing Mitchell’s inculpatory statements. The confessions were highly incriminating and highly prejudicial. Thus, this error warrants reversal of Mitchell’s conviction.