Opinion ID: 271339
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Curry's Statements to the FBI.

Text: 9 Arrest warrants for Curry, Wilcoxson and Nussbaum were secured from United States Commissioner Shiffman between 6:00 and 7:00 P.M. on February 12, 1962. Agents Long and Putz of the FBI, accompanied by New York City Detective Lesson, arrested Curry at the home of his mother and stepfather in Brooklyn when he arrived there from Washington, D.C., at 4:50 A.M. on February 13, 1962. Curry was warned that he need make no statement, that what he said could be used, and of his right to consult a lawyer. Agent Foley joined them minutes later. It took a few minutes to get to the agents' car, and thirty-five minutes to drive to FBI headquarters at 201 East 69th Street, Manhattan, where they arrived at about 5:30 A.M. 10 Curry was brought immediately to a ten by twelve foot interviewing room containing two desks, four or five chairs, one filing cabinet, and one window facing east opposite the door. The room was occupied by Curry, Agents Foley, Putz and Keefe, and Detective Lesson. 1 Curry was immediately 'strip-searched'; he disrobed completely and all his belongings were given a thorough examination. He then dressed. After the search and before Curry made any statement, Agents Foley and Putz again advised him that he need make no statement, that anything he said could be used in a court against him, and that he could have legal counsel. Curry replied that he wanted to call a lawyer and that he had a lawyer. Foley offered him the use of a telephone on the desk, and Curry then replied, 'I don't have an attorney.' 11 The first forty-five minutes of the interview centered around Curry's background: his parents, family, schooling, and personal history. Agent Foley was the only one to question. At 6:32 A.M. Curry was served coffee. 12 The interview then turned to the bank robbery itself. Foley explained why they thought that Curry had been involved and asked if Curry had anything to reply. Curry denied taking part in the robbery. The agents brought the names of Wilcoxson and Nussbaum into the questioning, explaining that the FBI knew that Curry had met them in prison and that Wilcoxson had called Curry's house from the New York Statler Hotel. Curry still denied taking part in the robbery and denied that he knew Wilcoxson and Nussbaum. Apparently most of the questions during this period were asked by Agents Foley and Putz. During this time Curry was told something along the lines of 'Be truthful and you will be better off,' but there was no elaboration as to how he would be 'better off.' At 8:16 A.M. Curry was again given coffee; he declined the offer of a roll. 13 The questioning then turned to locating Wilcoxson and Nussbaum. They were still at large at the time, had committed other robberies prior to the Lafayette Bank robbery, and in fact later committed at least three bank robberies in Philadelphia and in suburbs of Pittsburgh in 1962. Curry was shown pictures of himself, Nussbaum and Wilcoxson which the New York Daily News had published the prior night because of the issuance of the arrest warrants. Curry then admitted that he knew them, but he continued to deny having taken part in the robbery. Agent Foley, in questioning Curry, outlined the general scheme of the robbery during this period, but, according to his testimony, did not go into explicit detail. 14 At 9:47 A.M., Curry was taken to the bathroom by Agents Keefe and Putz and was then photographed. Curry claims that four agents took him into the bathroom and, because they appeared set to beat him, he told them that he would confess. Both Keefe and Putz testified that no such threats were made and that Putz, in the men's room, merely pointed out some of the inconsistencies in Curry's statements. At about this time, the agents became convinced that Curry was ready to disclose what he knew about the robbery. 15 At 9:56 A.M. Curry and the two agents returned to the interview room and the questioning continued. At 10:00 Curry stated, 'Yes, I was in on it,' and proceeded to admit his part in the robbery. Agent Foley took the information down in narrative form; after he finished his story, Curry read the statement for about ten minutes. He then signed it at 11:18 A.M. after writing at the end a sentence dictated by Foley that the statement was true and correct. 16 Meanwhile, Commissioner Shiffman had been advised of Curry's arrest and had told the agents he would be ready for arraignment about 1:00 P.M. Curry was now driven to the office of the United States Attorney in Brooklyn, arriving about noon. He talked at length with his mother in the office of an Assistant United States Attorney until his arraignment just before 1:10 P.M. 17 Upon arraignment, Curry was again warned that he was entitled to remain silent and to have legal counsel. The Commissioner informed him that, 'We will get the Legal Aid Society to defend you if you have no money to provide yourself with counsel.' Curry replied, 'I want to furnish my own attorney.' 18 On the following day, Curry was interviewed at the Federal House of Detention at West Street, Manhattan, by FBI agents. He gave an oral statement filling in some of the details of the cirme. Other interviews were held on February 15, 16, 21, March 6 and 7. Written statements were signed by Curry on February 13 (th original statement), 15, 16 and 21. Curry was under no obligation to see any visitors at West Street and his permission was necessary for the agents' entry. At the beginning of each of the interviews he was warned of his rights to counsel and to remain silent. 19 During this period, Curry consented to repeated adjournments of a preliminary hearing before the United States Commissioner. The February 13 hearing was adjourned one week to afford Curry time to secure counsel. Curry appeared unrepresented a second time and the matter was put over to March 7. Curry again appeared without counsel, and the hearing was put over until March 21, when he appeared with counsel and waived a hearing. At each of these appearances the Commissioner made repeated offers of Legal Aid counsel, but these were refused by Curry because he wished to secure an attorney through his own means. 20 A motion to suppress Curry's statements to the FBI was first passed upon by Judge Abruzzo, who denied the motion. Judge Abruzzo rejected Curry's allegations that the agents had threatened to have Curry's son and his mother's six foster children taken away and held that the statements were not coerced in any way. He also noted that Curry 'is one of the smartest witnesses I have ever seen on the stand in my experience.' Signed confessions dated February 13 and 15 and a report of an oral confession made February 14 were received into evidence at the first trial. 21 The motion to suppress was renewed at the second trial and additional proof was taken before Judge Dooling. Judge Dooling found that 'Physical force or specific promises are not found to have overcome defendant's Curry's will.' He also found that while 'a primary objective of the interrogation was to obtain from Curry admission of his guilty involvement and a confession if possible,' 'a substantial part of the time was spent on getting biographical data on Curry himself and in getting data on Wilcoxson and Nussbaum.' However, differing with Judge Abruzzo, he held that suppression was required for two reasons: because Curry had been interrogated without the advice of counsel, and because the initial statement had been elicited during a period of unnecessary delay prior to a preliminary hearing in violation of Rule 5(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. United States v. Curry, D.C., 227 F.Supp. 773 (1963). At the same time, Judge Dooling advised the parties that the government could make use of parts of the statements collateral to the issue of guilt if Curry took the stand and if his testimony was at variance with such statements, citing Walder v. United States, 347 U.S. 62, 74 S.Ct. 354, 98 L.Ed. 503 (1954). 22 As we mentioned above, Curry did testify in his own behalf, and on two collateral matters the government was permitted to use Curry's suppressed statements to impeach his testimony. Curry was asked why in his statements to the FBI agents he did not mention the part played by Streets, Cunningham and Pettit and why he said that he had met Martin only once, in October 1961. Curry replied that he had not wished to incriminate persons whom the FBI did not know were implicated. He was also asked whether he told the agents that he had worn a false moustache on December 8, the day of the abortive first attempt to rob the Lafayette Bank (Curry had testified on direct examination that he did not wear such a moustache on December 8). 2 He replied that he had not, although he was not certain. Agent Putz was recalled to the stand after Curry's testimony and testified that Curry had told the agents that he had worn a false black moustache affixed by Nussbaum just prior to the December 8 attempt. Putz also testified that the agents had questioned Curry about Cunningham and Pettit because they were known associates of Nussbaum and Wilcoxson and that Curry had said he had not seen Pettit or Cunningham since meeting them in Chillicothe. According to Putz, Curry also told the agents that he knew Martin only as a friend of Nussbaum. 23 We hold that it was proper for the district court to permit this use of Curry's statements for two reasons. First, although the government cannot use the fruits of illegal action to establish the elements of the crime with which the defendant is charged, if the defendant offers testimony contrary to the facts disclosed by evidence which has been suppressed, the government may in the interest of truth use this illegally obtained evidence to establish facts collateral to the ultimate issue of guilt. Walder v. United States, 347 U.S. 62, 74 S.Ct. 354, 98 L.Ed. 503 (1954). 24 In Walder the petitioner took the stand during his trial for illicit transactions in narcotics and testified that he had never possessed narcotics illegally. The government then introduced testimony that, nearly two years previously, the police had seized narcotics from the petitioner, which evidence had been suppressed at a prior trial because it was obtained during an unconstitutional search of petitioner's home. The Supreme Court held that such a limited use of the fruits of an unconstitutional search and seizure was permissible: while a defendant must be free to take the stand and to deny the elements of the crime with which he is charged without fear that his testimony will permit the prosecution to introduce evidence illegally obtained from him and thus unavailable in the government's case-inchief, said the Court, citing Agnello v. United States, 269 U.S. 20, 46 S.Ct. 4, 70 L.Ed. 145 (1925), there is no justification for letting a defendant affirmatively resort to perjured testimony as to collateral matters in reliance upon the government's inability to challenge his credibility. 25 The Walder doctrine governs here and permits the government's use of Curry's statement on his cross-examination. Although the government was precluded by the ruling of the district court from using in its direct case Curry's admissions that he participated in the robbery, when Curry attempted to construct an alibi inconsistent with his original statements to the FBI, the government could point out inconsistencies as to collateral items such as whether additional parties were implicated and whether Curry had worn a moustache on a prior occasion. 3 Thus the government may not make any use of evidence which has been suppressed in order to make out a case which is strong enough to have the jury pass upon guilt or innocence. And, likewise, the defendant's denial of the elements of the crime may not be disputed by evidence which is the fruit of illegal action. See Agnello v. United States, supra. But once the government has presented a prima facie case without using such evidence, it may use the suppressed evidence to challenge the truth and reliability of the defendant's assertions as to collateral matters. 26 The Walder case involved the admissibility of tangible evidence obtained through an unconstitutional search and seizure. However, the Walder doctrine has been applied to permit the limited admission into evidence of prior inconsistent statements, made by a defendant during a period of unnecessary detention which violated Rule 5(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and excluded from use in the prosecution's case-in-chief by the McNabb-Mallory doctrine. Tate v. United States, 109 U.S.App.D.C. 13, 283 F.2d 377 (D.C.Cir. 1960). See also Lockley v. United States, 106 U.S.App.D.C. 163, 270 F.2d 915, 918 (1959) (dissenting opinion). Curry argues first that the Walder doctrine is inapplicable whenever the Constitution directly requires the exclusion of evidence, second that Walder was therefore implicitly overruled by Mapp v. States of Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961), because Mapp made the exclusionary rule at issue in Walder a part of the Fourth Amendment's guarantee, and finally that Tate is inapplicable because it dealt with an evidentiary rule whereas Curry's statements here excluded because they were obtained in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. 27 We do not agree that the Walder doctrine was in any way weakened by Mapp v. State of Ohio. The rule excluding unconstitutionally seized evidence in a federal prosecution had, according to the author of Mapp itself, 367 U.S. at 646-649, 81 S.Ct. 1684, always been a part of the Fourth Amendment's guarantee. Although this assertion has been disputed, 4 and although Mapp was the first case to hold that the exclusionary rule is a Due Process requirement of the Fourteenth Amendment, we do not think that this extension of the exclusionary rule requires per se an alteration of principles previously applied to federal prosecutions. 28 Neither Walder nor nay of the cases directly interpreting it indicates that the principle of limited admissibility for collateral impeachment purposes is inapplicable when evidence is excluded because unconstitutionally obtained. An exclusionary rule, whether based on constitutional principles or not, is meant primarily to protect those accused of crime from unfair or unconstitutional police procedures by removing the strongest police incentive to use such procedures. Such a rule often results in excluding highly reliable evidence in order to ensure that those who enforce the law will not profit from violating the law. But it does not follow that, if such evidence is excluded for one purpose, it must be excluded for all purposes. It is enough to deter illegal police activity if the government is prohibited from using evidence obtained by such activity to prove its direct case. In view of this adequate penalty, to deny to the government the use of Curry's statement to impeach his contrary testimony at trial would be an unnecessary impediment to the search for truth. 29 We think that the Supreme Court's decision in Walder is in no way modified by the subsequent decision in Mapp. In addition, we find the justification for letting a defendant testify without cross-examination as to collateral matters which can be reliably impeached no greater where the suppressed evidence is an admission made in the absence of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. It is true that, if a prior admission were found to be unconstitutionally coerced, the substantial possibility that the admission is no more reliable than the contrary testimony of the accused at trial should lead a court to proceed with caution in permitting its use for impeachment purposes. See People v. Underwood, 61 A.C. 94, 37 Cal.Rptr. 313, 389 P.2d 937 (Sup.Ct.1964). But where, as here, there is no good reason to believe that a prior inconsistent statement was not accurate and voluntary, we find the Walder principle controlling. 30 Finally, we find the Walder principle applicable even though the jury was not instructed, as was the Walder jury, that the rebuttal evidence must be used for impeachment purposes only. While it would have been preferable to have had such limiting instructions, none were requested by Curry. 'The better opinion is that the opponent of the evidence must ask for that instruction; otherwise, he may be supposed to have waived it as necessary for his protection.' 1 Wigmore, Evidence 13, at p. 301 (3d ed. 1940). The defense may not remain silent in hopes that the district court will fall into reversible error where the possible error could have been passed upon and cured, if need be, by a properly timed objection. 5 United States v. Indiviglio, 352 F.2d 276 (2d Cir. 1965). 31 In our opinion, there is a second reason why the use of Curry's statements was not improper. We find that the statements were not taken in violation of Curry's rights under the Sixth Amendment and under Rule 5(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and that the trial court erred in excluding them from the government's case-in-chief. 6 32 The statement of February 13 was not taken during a period of unnecessary delay before arraignment in violation of Rule 5(a), Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and thus it should not have been excluded under the doctrine of Mallory v. United States, 354 U.S. 449, 77 S.Ct. 1356, 1 L.Ed.2d 1479 (1957). As the questioning demonstrated and as Judge Dooling found, the agents were not using the interview solely to secure a confession from Curry. The location of Nussbaum and Wilcoxson, who were still at large, was of prime importance. A substantial portion of the questioning pertained to their whereabouts and to Curry's background. In addition, the agents could not be sure at the time of Curry's arrest that he had taken part in the robbery. Witnesses at the bank had said that the Negro robber was tall and light-skinned whereas Curry is fairly short and dark. The record does not reveal what information led to the issuance of arrest warrants for Curry, Nussbaum and Wilcoxson, but it was proper for the agents to question Curry, in a noncoercive manner and after warning him of his constitutional rights, to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to charge. 33 By 10:00 A.M. Curry had begun to recite the part he played in the robbery and the parts played by Nussbaum and Wilcoxson. Even before this, Curry had given indications that he knew more than he was telling. At this earlier point, even if a Commissioner had been available, it was not incumbent upon the FBI to interrupt the interrogation, 'as a fruitful investigation was in progress, and valuable momentum was not to be lost.' United States v. Vita, 294 F.2d 524, 531 (2 Cir. 1961), cert. denied, 369 U.S. 823, 82 S.Ct. 837, 7 L.Ed.2d 788 (1962). The delay to reduce the statement to writing and to have Curry read and sign it likewise was not unnecessary. United States v. Ladson, 294 F.2d 535 (2 Cir. 1961), cert. denied, 369 U.S. 824, 82 S.Ct. 840, 7 L.Ed.2d 789 (1962). 34 We may now turn to whether the manner in which Curry was questioned violated his right to counsel. We hold that it did not because we find that, on the facts of this case, Curry waived whatever rights he had to remain silent and to be interrogated only after he had had the benefit of counsel. Apparently, Curry on his own decided that it would be best for him to give the appearance of cooperating fully with the FBI in their investigation. Although Curry stated at the beginning of the questioning on February 13 that he had a lawyer and that he wanted to contact his lawyer, he did not respond to the agents' offer of a telephone and he did not object when they proceeded with the questioning. Moreover, Curry was warned of his rights before the February 13 interview and before each of the subsequent interviews which he granted to the agents who visited him at West Street. These later interviews took place between his appearances before Commissioner Shiffman, who continually apprised him that legal counsel was available immediately and that it was in his best interest to secure legal counsel at the earliest opportunity. In the face of these warnings, Curry refused to accept Legal Aid assistance and continued to cooperate with the FBI by granting interviews and giving signed statements. Under these circumstances and considering Curry's previous experience with the criminal law, the failure of the agents to respond to his ambiguous request for counsel on February 13 did not 'infect his subsequent trial with an absence of 'that fundamental fairness essential to the very concept of justice. Crooker v. People of State of California, 357 U.S. 433, 440, 78 S.Ct. 1287, 1292, 2 L.Ed.2d 1448 (1958), quoted in Escobedo v. State of Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 491, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed.2d 977 (1964). See also United States v Drummond, 354 F.2d 132 (2 Cir. 1965), where the circumstances were in many respects similar to the waiver in the instant case. 35