Opinion ID: 2051995
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: whether a seizure of the defendant occurred for fourth amendment purposes when the defendant was taken to the police station for questioning

Text: [1, 2] A circuit court's findings regarding the historical facts surrounding a defendant's detention will not be overturned unless they are clearly erroneous. Section 805.17(2), Stats.; State v. Nash, 123 Wis. 2d 154, 161, 366 N.W.2d 146 (Ct. App. 1985); State v. Smith, 119 Wis. 2d 361, 366, 351 N.W.2d 752 (Ct. App. 1984). Whether these facts rise to the level of a seizure invoking fourth amendment protections is a constitutional fact which this court determines independently. State v. Woods, 117 Wis. 2d 701, 715-16, 345 N.W.2d 457 (1984); Nash, 123 Wis. 2d at 161-62; Smith, 119 Wis. 2d at 366. [3-5] Whether a person has been seized for fourth amendment purposes is determined by an objective test. A person is seized within the meaning of the fourth amendment only if, in view of all the circumstances, a reasonable person would have believed he was not free to leave. Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 501-02 (1983) (White, J., plurality opinion joined by Marshall, J., Powell, J., and Stevens, J.); United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554 (1980) (Stewart, J., plurality opinion joined by Rehnquist, J.); Nash, 123 Wis. 2d at 162; Smith, 119 Wis. 2d at 366. Examples of circumstances that might indicate a seizure would be the threatening presence of several officers, the display of a weapon by an officer, some physical touching of the person of the citizen, or the use of language or tone of voice indicating that compliance with the officer's request might be compelled. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 554; Nash, 125 Wis. 2d at 162; Smith, 119 Wis. 2d at 366. Any subjective intention of the officers to detain a person is relevant only to the extent it is conveyed to that person. State v. Reichl, 114 Wis. 2d 511, 515, 339 N.W.2d 127 (Ct. App. 1983). The record in this case and the circuit court's findings indicate that no physical force was used by the officers to compel the defendant to accompany them to the police station. The defendant was not handcuffed by the officers, although an officer did pat him down before transporting him to the police station. There was no evidence that the officers ever drew their weapons. In addition, there was no evidence that the officers used any language or tone of voice indicating that compliance with their request that the defendant accompany them to the police station might be compelled. Rather, the officers spent approximately twenty to thirty minutes discussing with the defendant's parents whether the defendant would be allowed to accompany the officers to the police station. The defendant was present for about five or ten minutes of that discussion and then the defendant left the officers' presence for the balance of the discussion. We conclude that under the preceding circumstances, a reasonable person in the defendant's position would have concluded that he was free to refuse to accompany the officers to the police station. The fact that the officers engaged in an extended discussion with the defendant's parents, seeking their permission to take the defendant to the police station for questioning, would have indicated to a reasonable person in the defendant's position that he could have refused to accompany the officers to the station because if the officers had intended to take the defendant into custody, the officers simply would have done so without engaging in a lengthy discussion with the defendant's parents. Moreover, the fact that the defendant was allowed to leave the officers' presence while the discussion among the officers and the defendant's parents was going on would have indicated to a reasonable person in the defendant's position that he was not being taken into custody by the officers because if the officers had intended to take the defendant into custody, the officers would not have allowed him to leave their presence. The defendant maintains, however, citing Huebner v. State, 33 Wis. 2d 505, 516, 147 N.W.2d 646 (1967), that an individual should be told that he has no obligation to go to the police station. We conclude that while a person's awareness of his freedom to refuse to accompany the police to the police station is an important consideration in determining whether a seizure has occurred, whether a seizure has in fact occurred does not depend on whether the defendant has been told that he does not have to cooperate. Smith, 119 Wis. 2d at 366, citing Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 555. Thus, notwithstanding the fact that the officers never expressly told the defendant that he did not have to accompany them to the police station, we conclude that under the circumstances outlined above, a reasonable person in the position of the defendant would have concluded that such was the case. [6] Therefore, we hold that when the defendant acquiesced in his mother's direction that he accompany the officers to the police station [3] and when the defendant, without a word of protest, accompanied the officers to the police station, the defendant by his behavior manifested his consent to go with the officers. Consequently, we hold that no seizure of the defendant occurred for fourth amendment purposes when the defendant went with the police officers to the police station for questioning.