Opinion ID: 791823
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Post-examination questioning by agent Wipperfurth on December 10

Text: 28 The district court concluded that Black Bear was in custody on the morning of December 10 during the post-polygraph questioning. The court relied on the historical facts that Black Bear, after being ordered to the December 9 interview, was then ordered by Wipperfurth to return for the polygraph on December 10, and that the request for the exam was not an optional appointment. The district court, acknowledging the LeBrun case, emphasized that Black Bear was not a repeat felon or otherwise familiar with FBI tactics or his Fifth Amendment rights. 29 The government attacks these factual findings, reiterating that the district court — without conducting an evidentiary hearing — disbelieved Wipperfurth's testimony that he told Black Bear the polygraph exam was voluntary (as he always does). This court again need not address the relative roles of the district court and magistrate judge, because the magistrate judge made a finding only as to an agreed upon time for the exam, mentioning nothing about other arrangements for it. The district court did not clearly err in its factual findings as to the December 10 questioning. 30 Based on these facts, the district court had no doubt that Black Bear's freedom to depart was restricted on December 10. Significantly, Black Bear was not told before the post-exam questioning on December 10: that he was not under arrest, would not be arrested at the end of the interview, did not have to speak with them, and could stop talking at any time. Based on a de novo review of the totality of these historical facts, this court agrees that Black Bear was in custody on the morning of December 10. 31 The government retreats to the position that proper warnings were given. The government has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that, under the particular facts and circumstances of the case, the waiver was an intentional, voluntary, knowing, and intelligent relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege. See LeBrun, 363 F.3d at 724. 32 At the outset of the polygraph exam on December 10 — between 10:17 and 10:21 am — Black Bear was advised of his Miranda rights, and waived them in writing. The advice of rights form plainly states the Miranda warnings, is not restricted, and was signed by both agents Trone and Wipperfurth. Black Bear also signed a (separate) consent to interview with polygraph. After the exam, agent Trone questioned Black Bear. Wipperfurth then re-entered the room and with Trone present, immediately interrogated Black Bear in the same room. Finally, with a tape-recorder on, both interviewed Black Bear, with Wipperfurth posing 20 questions, Trone next asking 7, and Wipperfurth concluding with 4 more. The district court admitted all the post-exam statements made to Trone, but suppressed those made to Wipperfurth. 33 The district court emphasized that Wipperfurth did not give any warnings when he re-entered the room to begin questioning at 11:25, and repeated the Miranda warning only when tape-recording began at 12:10. The district court concluded this was analogous and parallel to Missouri v. Seibert, ___ U.S. ___, 124 S.Ct. 2601, 159 L.Ed.2d 643 (2004). There, the defendant was given no warning of any kind until midstream — after she confessed during a continuous interrogation in the same room by the same officer who eventually gave the Miranda warnings. Seibert, 124 S.Ct. at 2605, 2606, 2612-13, 124 S.Ct. 2601 (plurality opinion). The Seibert case is inapposite to this case, where Miranda warnings were given at the beginning of a continuous interrogation in the same room by the same officer who witnessed the warning at the outset. 34 The district court viewed the December 10 statements to Wipperfurth as a continuation of the unwarned statements to him on December 9. First, this view misinterprets the multifactor test of the Seibert plurality (assuming it applies to these facts). Black Bear's statements were separated by almost 24 hours, occurred in different places, and involved an additional officer the second day; the first questioning was short (30 minutes); there was no cross-referencing overlap between the interrogations; and the agent did not treat the second day's as continuous with the first's. See United States v. Fellers, 397 F.3d 1090, 1098 (8th Cir.2005); United States v. Briones, 390 F.3d 610, 614 n. 3 (8th Cir.2004); United States v. Hernandez-Hernandez, 384 F.3d 562, 566-67 (8th Cir.2004); United States v. Aguilar, 384 F.3d 520, 524 (8th Cir.2004). In addition, Black Bear was not under any police control (apparently returning home) during the nearly 24-hour break in questioning. 35 Second, the key to Seibert is whether the police officer's technique was a designed, deliberate, intentional, or calculated circumvention of Miranda. See Seibert, ___ U.S. at ___, 124 S.Ct. at 2614-16 (Kennedy, J., concurring in the judgment). See generally Marks v. United States, 430 U.S. 188, 193, 97 S.Ct. 990, 51 L.Ed.2d 260 (1977) (when no single rationale has the assent of five Justices, the holding is the position of the Justices who concurred in the judgment on the narrowest grounds). The district court did not make a legal conclusion of such intent as to the December 10 statements to Wipperfurth. Moreover, the district court did not conclude that there was a deliberate strategy of staged interrogations to circumvent Miranda. See Fellers, 397 F.3d at 1098; Briones, 390 F.3d at 614; Hernandez-Hernandez, 384 F.3d at 566; Aguilar, 384 F.3d at 525. 36 On a de novo review, the totality of the circumstances does not support such conclusions. Wipperfurth's questioning occurred in the same room, continuously after the (warned) polygraph and the (admissible) examining agent's questions. This case therefore is like those where after a (warned) polygraph exam, there is no per se requirement for Miranda warnings before (admissible) post-exam questioning. See Wyrick v. Fields, 459 U.S. 42, 48-49, 103 S.Ct. 394, 74 L.Ed.2d 214 (1982); McDowell v. Leapley, 984 F.2d 232, 234 (8th Cir.1993); Vassar v. Solem, 763 F.2d 975, 978 (8th Cir.1985); United States v. Eagle Elk, 711 F.2d 80, 83 (8th Cir.1983). 37 Black Bear objects that in those cases, the polygraph examiner was apparently also the post-exam questioner — not another officer. Black Bear argues that this change is so serious that his answers no longer were voluntary, or he no longer was making a knowing and intelligent relinquishment of his rights. See Wyrick, 459 U.S. at 47, 103 S.Ct. 394; Fields v. Wyrick, 706 F.2d 879, 881 (8th Cir.1983). To the contrary, the change in interrogator is not itself decisive. See United States v. Gell-Iren, 146 F.3d 827, 830-31 (10th Cir.1998); United States v. Andaverde, 64 F.3d 1305, 1312-13 (9th Cir.1995). This is not a case where the new interrogator had nothing to do with the polygraph examination, as the district court here found that Wipperfurth had arranged the exam, ordered Black Bear to attend, and witnessed the Miranda and polygraph warnings. See United States v. Gillyard, 726 F.2d 1426, 1429 (9th Cir.1984). Moreover, by ruling that post-exam statements to agent Trone were admissible, the district court found that Black Bear was sufficiently informed of the post-exam questioning. See United States v. Leon-Delfis, 203 F.3d 103, 109 (1st Cir.2000). 38 This appeal presents no other issue of involuntariness as to the statements to agent Wipperfurth on December 10. See LeBrun, 363 F.3d at 724-27. Because required warnings were given, the district court's order suppressing Black Bear's statements to Wipperfurth after the polygraph exam on December 10 is reversed.