Opinion ID: 1722174
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Suppression of the October 14 statements

Text: Mr. Hodge argues that he was seized when Officer Emberton spoke with him in Paragould, when Officers Pruett and Emberton spoke with him at his residence some two hours later, and when he spoke with Officer Leach and volunteered to speak further with him at City Hall. His contention is that his statements made on those occasions, and any evidence obtained as a result of them, were inadmissible because he was given no Miranda warnings. There simply is no evidence that Mr. Hodge was a suspect on any of those occasions or that he was involuntarily present when any of those conversations occurred. The only instance that might be questionable is Officer Emberton's encounter with Mr. Hodge at the Paragould police station. She testified that she assumed he had been asked to be there in response to the Rector police request. There is no evidence that the Paragould police had forced Mr. Hodge to accompany them to the station. He was not in handcuffs and was standing by himself with no officers in his presence. Mr. Hodge's abstract of the record reveals nothing about how he came to be present at the Paragould police station, and we are unwilling to speculate on what the facts may have been. We view the issue of whether one has been seized by considering the totality of the circumstances. State v. Bell, 329 Ark. 422, 948 S.W.2d 557 (1997). None of the instances complained of here have been shown to have constituted a seizure; thus the evidence of the statements given by Mr. Hodge on those occasions was admissible.