Opinion ID: 553880
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Domination of Interview

Text: 35 An interrogation which occurs in an atmosphere dominated by the police, the fifth indicium of custody, is more likely to be viewed as custodial than one which does not. Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 438, 104 S.Ct. at 3149. The Miranda court was deeply concerned with the effect of an incommunicado, police dominated atmosphere on a criminal suspect's will to resist self-incrimination during interrogation. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 451, 86 S.Ct. at 1615 (1966). The question is whether the entire context of the questioning, including such considerations as place and length of the interrogation, demonstrates that the course of the investigation was police dominated. 10 36 Other circumstances which indicate police domination of the custodial surroundings concern whether the police assume control of the interrogation site and dictate the course of conduct followed by the [suspect] or other persons present at the scene. Jones, 630 F.2d at 616. 11 Where the conduct of the police leads a suspect to believe that the police have taken full control of the scene, then we are more likely to recognize the existence of custody. A frequently recurring example of police domination concerns the removal of the suspect from the presence of family, friends, or colleagues who might lend moral support during the questioning and deter a suspect from making inculpatory statements, an established interrogation practice noted by the Miranda court. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 451, 86 S.Ct. at 1615. Officers diminish the public character of, and assert their dominion over, an interrogation site by removing a suspect from the presence of third persons who could lend moral support. Carter, 884 F.2d at 372 (police domination demonstrated when suspect isolated from co-workers who may have provided moral support); Beraun-Panez, 812 F.2d at 582 (agents interrogating rancher in pasture demonstrated domination of interrogation by stopping co-worker from approaching suspect); Jorgensen, 871 F.2d at 729 (atmosphere not police dominated when suspect permitted to speak with brother in private during questioning). When police resort to domineering practices, we find there exists a greater probability that an objective, reasonable person would feel in custody during the interrogation.