Opinion ID: 780418
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Plutarco Tello's Arrest and Interrogation

Text: 21 Appellant Tello was arrested and taken to the Overland Park Police Department. Detectives Dillenkoffer and Martin of the Kansas City Police Department went to the Overland Park Police Department but did not interview Mr. Tello until he was transferred to the Johnson County Adult Detention Center. On their arrival they were told that Mr. Tello was anxious to talk to them. Detective Dillenkoffer testified that Mr. Tello spoke very little English, but Detective Martin had the impression, because of Tello's answers, that he understood questions put to him in English. During their interview, the detectives questioned Mr. Tello through Deputy Herrera, who spoke Spanish, and on whom they relied exclusively for translation of their questions and Mr. Tello's answers. Deputy Herrera had not previously done simultaneous translations or Spanish translations for formal questioning. 22 Mr. Tello told Deputy Herrera that he wanted to talk, that something went wrong and I want to get it out, a request the deputy conveyed to the detectives. Detective Dillenkoffer asked Deputy Herrera to advise Mr. Tello of his Miranda rights and provided one of the department's Spanish Miranda waiver forms. The detective explained the form to Deputy Herrera, as well as the Kansas City Police Department's procedure for using the form with suspects. He asked Deputy Herrera to read the Miranda form verbatim to Mr. Tello and to advise him of his Miranda rights in Spanish. Mr. Tello had no questions about what Deputy Herrera told him, did not ask for an attorney, or indicate that he did not want to talk. When asked if he understood his rights, Detective Martin testified that defendant Tello responded with a yes in English. At times during the questioning, Mr. Tello responded in English. Deputy Herrera translated when he responded in Spanish. During a non-videotaped portion of the interview, Mr. Tello was asked by detectives if he understood his rights, a question translated by Deputy Herrera. After these questions and answers, Mr. Tello signed the Miranda waiver form in Spanish and asked no further questions about the form. 23 Because Mr. Tello was eager to talk, Detective Dillenkoffer did not conduct his usual pre-interview, but did advise him of his Miranda rights. Based on the booking questions and initial interrogation of Mr. Tello, Deputy Herrera had no reason to believe that Mr. Tello did not understand his Spanish. Throughout the interview Detective Dillenkoffer's impression was that appellant was eager to talk, that he responded to questions without hesitation and understood them, and that he did not wish, or attempt to, stop the interview at any point. Later, Mr. Tello was asked to videotape his statement, and agreed. He did not ask for a lawyer at any point, or indicate that he wished to stop talking. 24 Mr. Tello stated that he had come from Texas with co-appellant Sinisterra the day before to help Hinestroza retrieve money from Colon. They met Colon and Borja and got into a car with them and Mr. Tello drove them to another house, where they bound and taped the two victims. Tello and Ortiz took one victim downstairs while Hinestroza and Sinisterra remained upstairs. Mr. Tello and Mr. Ortiz beat the person downstairs, and when Mr. Tello heard a gunshot he went upstairs and observed Mr. Sinisterra standing over the victim (Colon). While upstairs, Mr. Tello heard a gunshot from the basement. He also stated that he knew in advance what would happen in the house and knew that he would be paid. He had a gun with him which he later disposed of and, after these events, he did not attempt to get medical treatment for the victims. 25 At one point during the videotaped statement, Detective Dillenkoffer asked Mr. Tello if he understood his rights, and the detective interpreted Mr. Tello's response Si, si es necessito un abogado, 2 as an affirmation that appellant understood his rights and had begun to repeat them. Deputy Herrera did not translate the word abogado (lawyer in Spanish) for the detectives. 26 During the transfer from the Johnson County Adult Detention Center to the federal courthouse, Agent Meads of the FBI, who speaks Spanish, stopped Mr. Tello from talking to give him his Miranda warnings in Spanish. When asked if he understood his rights, appellant responded yes, and continued to talk. 27 Appellant Tello testified at the suppression hearing (conducted with the aid of a Spanish interpreter) that, at the time of his arrest, he was not informed of his right to have the Colombian consul notified of his arrest, and that, had he been informed of this right, he would have asked that the police call the Colombian consul. He also testified that, had the consul or an attorney explained to him the importance of not speaking to the police without first talking to an attorney or having an attorney present, he would have refused to answer questions during his police interview. Appellant also indicated that, at the point on the videotape where he used the word abogado, he was requesting an attorney, and that he told the officers that he did not understand his rights. He stated that he continued talking to detectives without comprehending his rights because he believed he would be hit if he did not do so. 28 As the recommended findings of the magistrate judge 3 indicate, appellants Sinisterra and Ortiz were advised by Chief John Douglass of the Overland Park Police Department that under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations they could contact their consulate, although appellants dispute the effectiveness of this notification. In Mr. Sinisterra's case, although he was told that he had a right to notify his consul and that he would be given this right, nothing further was said or done on the matter either by the police or by Sinisterra. Chief Douglass testified that he would have used the same language to appellant Ortiz in notifying him of his right to have the Colombian consul notified of his arrest. As the Government concedes, Mr. Tello was not advised of his right to consular notification either at the time of his arrest or at the time of his transfer to the custody of the FBI. Each of the defendants was advised of his Miranda rights, and then waived those rights and gave videotaped statements to the police. 29 Appellants Ortiz and Sinisterra contend that their limited comprehension of English made the brief explanation of their Miranda rights in English ineffectual, and meant that their subsequent statements to police were neither knowing nor voluntary. According to Dr. Warren Wheelock, a Professor of Education at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, Mr. Sinisterra is functionally illiterate in English. Mr. Ortiz contends that, because no one read or explained his Miranda rights to him in Spanish, he did not intelligently waive his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights. 30 Appellant Tello claims that he did not effectively waive his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, given the language barrier. Agent Jimenez of the FBI, who has served as an interpreter on fifteen occasions for government wiretaps involving Spanish-speaking individuals, reviewed the videotape of Mr. Tello's statement to check for errors and miscommunications. He concluded that, although Deputy Herrera's Spanish was poor or not very good, the government's transcript and translation of that interview was accurate, and that Mr. Tello, in the sentence in which he used the word abogado, was not trying to ask for an attorney, but only reciting what he understood to be his rights. 4 Dr. Yolanda Ayubi, a Colombian native who holds a Ph.D. in post-cultural communication, testified that when Tello was advised of his Miranda rights at one point during the interview, he asked which rights. 31 Carlos Negret, formerly Consul General for Colombia in Chicago, Illinois, stated that he was not contacted concerning the arrests of any of the three appellants. In addition, he indicated that, had defendants made the request, he would have informed them of their right to an attorney. Dale Close, the legal advisor to the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department, testified that he was unaware of the Vienna Convention before the questioning of Mr. Sinisterra and Mr. Ortiz and that it was not the policy of the Kansas City Police Department to advise an arrested foreign national that he could notify his consul. 32 On these facts, the District Court 5 found that the defendants understood their rights and voluntarily waived them. Accordingly, the motions to suppress defendants' confessions were denied. As to the Vienna Convention, the District Court concluded that it had been violated. Ortiz and Sinisterra were told of their rights under the Convention, but they were also told, according to the findings of the District Court, that the police would help them exercise these rights, or would give them an opportunity to exercise them. No such opportunity was ever afforded. On the contrary, defendants were not permitted to make any telephone calls. In Mr. Tello's case, there was no notification whatever of his right to get in touch with the Colombian Consul. The District Court held, however, that violation of the Vienna Convention created no individually enforceable rights in appellants. In addition, the Court found that appellants would have made the same statements even if the Convention had been fully complied with. They had requested, as a remedy for the violation, either that the death penalty be excluded as a possible result, or that their confessions be suppressed. This request was denied.