Opinion ID: 2135795
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the request for counsel

Text: [1] The state challenges the suppression by the circuit court of a series of inculpatory statements Thiel made to the Sheboygan police on September 17, 1992. In deciding whether the police violated Thiel's fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination, we conduct an independent review of this question of constitutional fact. State v. Kramar, 149 Wis. 2d 767, 784, 440 N.W.2d 317 (1989) (citing State v. Turner, 136 Wis. 2d 333, 344, 401 N.W.2d 827 (1987)). During the execution of the search warrant at Thiel's home and place of business, Sheboygan police informed Thiel of his rights under Miranda, 384 U.S. 436. Indicating that he was willing to cooperate with the police, Thiel signed a form which waived his right to counsel and to be silent. At the conclusion of the search, police asked Thiel to accompany them to the police station. Once there, Thiel was again informed of his Miranda rights. Thiel then asked one of the detectives, Do you think I need an attorney? and the detective responded, That's up to you. According to the detective, Thiel paused momentarily and then, for a second time, signed a waiver form. During the subsequent interrogation, Thiel made a series of statements to the police, including an admission that he showed J.L.L. Sexual Secrets of the Zodiac and that he had had an attraction to children for the past six years. At a motion hearing in January, 1992, Thiel argued that the statements he made while at the police station should be suppressed. Suppression was warranted, according to Thiel, because he invoked his right to counsel when he asked the police, Do you think I need an attorney? Therefore, any admissions made as a result of subsequent interrogation were in violation of his rights, since the police failed to ascertain whether the inquiry was in fact a request for counsel. The police did not coerce Thiel to get him to either sign the waiver form or to make the inculpatory statements. Additionally, no further interrogation commenced until after Thiel signed the waiver form. [2] The facts of this case may be easily distinguished from the situation in State v. Lampe, 119 Wis. 2d 206, 349 N.W.2d 677 (1984), in which the defendant clearly made a request for counsel prior to additional interrogation. At no time during the search of Thiel's residence or store, nor later at the Sheboygan police station, did Thiel request the assistance of counsel. At no time was Thiel coerced to sign either of the waiver forms or to make subsequent inculpatory statements to the police. Rather, he was informed on two separate occasions of his rights and unequivocally waived those rights by signing the forms. In Walkowiak, we held that when a defendant makes an equivocal inquiry regarding the presence of counsel, all interrogation must cease until the ambiguity is resolved. The police officer's response, That's up to you, as well as Thiel's conduct in resigning the waiver form following his equivocal inquiry, Do you think I need an attorney? resolved any ambiguity which may have existed. We now reverse the order of the circuit court which suppressed inculpatory statements made by Thiel. We also note here that distinct from the situation in Walkowiak, the issue of whether the waiver by Thiel was voluntary, intelligent and knowing was resolved at the circuit court level. The court found beyond a reasonable doubt that statements made to the police were the result of a rational decision by Thiel and uncoerced.