Opinion ID: 1831263
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unreasonable Detention.

Text: Defendants Cresci and Tolfa were allegedly held incommunicado for forty-two and thirty-four hours respectively before being brought before a magistrate. The trial court in its memorandum decision on the motions to withdraw the pleas of guilty did not resolve the dispute in the testimony with respect to whether during this period defendants requested permission to contact counsel and were denied such requests. For the purpose of this appeal we will assume such requests were made and denied. Defendants did have counsel of their own choice by the time the preliminary hearing was held later in the month of their arrest. The issue is whether there is any causal connection between the incommunicado detention and denial of right to contact counsel during the first week of March, 1965, and the change of pleas from not guilty to guilty on August 4, 1965, five months later. We deem that Pulaski v. State [3] is controlling on this issue. In that case even though this court deplored the defendant's incommunicado detention for thirty-six hours, it could find no causal connection between a detention on March 28th and 29th and a plea of guilty on May 5th, particularly when the defendant had pleaded not guilty at the arraignment on April 18th. The court stated: This [the arraignment] was on April 18th. Between this date and May 5th when the defendant changed his plea to a plea of guilty we find nothing in the record which coerced the defendant or rejuvenated any fear which caused him to change his plea. We find no causal connection between the incommunicado detention and his treatment by the police on March 28th and 29th which caused him to change his not-guilty plea. [4] Likewise in the instant case, defendants had pleaded not guilty at their arraignment after having been represented by counsel at their preliminary hearings. It would be stretching the court's credulity to the breaking point to hold that the prior incommunicado detention had any causal effect on the later change of pleas.