Court Opinion

ID: 9467449
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:49:05.851711+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:21.100163
License: Public Domain

WEINER, District Judge,
dissenting.
I
Rigoberto Mesa has been charged with two counts each of assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault resulting in serious bodily injury, in violation of 18 U.S.G. § 113(a), (c) and (f). After entering a plea of not guilty to all counts, Mesa moved the District Court to suppress statements made by him in the absence of the warnings required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966).
This appeal is from an opinion and order of the District Court1 excluding from introduction into evidence as part of the government’s case-in-chief statements made by Mesa during a tape recorded conversation between himself and FBI Agent Theodore Viater. The District Court found that Mesa was in custody and was interrogated by Agent Viater, and that Miranda warnings were therefore required if the statements were to be admissible as part of the government’s case-in-chief.
Because I agree with the District Court that Mesa was subject to custodial interrogation and differ with Chief Judge Seitz’s conclusion that Mesa was not in custody for purposes of a Miranda warning while barricaded in his motel room and surrounded by federal, military, and local law enforcement officers, and with the conclusion of Judge Adams that no interrogation took place, I would affirm the District Court’s order and must therefore respectfully dissent.
II
On January 28,1980, Karin Little, Mesa’s “common-law” wife, and Sonia Mesa, his daughter, were shot and wounded. That same day the FBI learned from the victims *592that their injuries were inflicted by Mesa. After an unsuccessful search for Mesa on the 28th, a complaint was filed on January 29th, before a United States Magistrate, who issued a warrant for Mesa’s arrest.
At approximately 2:00 p. m. on January 29th, three FBI agents went to the El Sombrero Motel in Browns Mills, New Jersey in an attempt to locate Mesa. The agents were informed that Mesa had barricaded himself in his room sometime before 10:00 a. m. that day. The agents evacuated the surrounding rooms, barricaded the adjoining area and blockaded the streets.
The agents parked their car directly in front of Mesa’s room and using a bullhorn called out to Mesa that they were FBI, that they had a warrant for his arrest, and that he should come out with his hands raised. There was no response from Mesa. This statement was repeated over the bullhorn more than ten times during the first hour of the confrontation, but Mesa did not surrender.
Other law enforcement authorities were notified of the situation and within twenty minutes nearly thirty federal, state, and military law enforcement officials were on the scene. In addition, during the course of the confrontation close to 200 members of the press, including radio and television reporters, were present outside the motel.
The agents requested the assistance of the FBI Special Agent Theodore Viater, who was specially trained in hostage negotiation. The agents at that time did not know whether Mesa had any hostages or what weapons he might have. In fact, Mesa had no hostages but did have a pistol.
Before Agent Viater’s arrival at 3:00 p. m., Mesa had passed three notes through the door to the agents outside. The notes indicate that Mesa was confused, was hearing an inner voice, and wanted to see a psychiatrist, but would give himself up, and would not hurt anyone, although he needed more time.2
The motel room did not have a telephone, so it was necessary to use a mobile telephone in order for Viatar to talk with Mesa. Using hand signals, Mesa agreed to take such a telephone into the room.
Agent Viater spoke with Mesa over the phone for the next few hours. All but the initial five percent of the conversation was tape recorded. Agent Viater testified that the unrecorded portion consisted of Viater identifying himself as an FBI agent and hostage negotiater who was there to help Mesa.
The conversation ranged over various events in Mesa’s life, including his relationship with his family, his experiences in Vietnam, and the events of the previous day. As the trial judge noted,3 Viater lent a sympathetic ear to Mesa’s tale of troubles, and attempted to establish an atmosphere of trust between himself and Mesa. The Judge quite correctly concluded that an atmosphere of mutual trust was created.4
*593At various times throughout the conversation Agent Viater directed questions about the previous day to Mesa, and encouraged him to talk freely about those events.5 Viater testified that his purpose during the confrontation was to defuse the volatile situation and prevent any harm befalling Mesa or any of the law enforcement officials in the area. The District Court concluded, and I agree, that Viater had a secondary purpose of gathering information about Mesa’s involvement in the shootings of his “common-law” wife and daughter.
Mesa surrendered peacefully at 6:30 p. m. He was thankful that Agent Viater had spoken with him, and told Viater that he would have killed himself if they had not talked.
At no time during the conversation was Mesa advised of his Miranda rights, although a Miranda warning was given to him after his surrender.
Ill
The heart of the Miranda rule is that, “the prosecution may not use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from custodial interrogation of the defendant unless it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective to secure the privilege against self-incrimination.” Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. at 444, 86 S.Ct. at 1612, 16 L.Ed.2d 694. Thus, the Supreme Court’s requirement that a suspect:
be warned prior to any questioning that he has the right to remain silent, that anything he says can be used against him in a court of law, that he has the right to the presence of an attorney, and that if he cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed for him prior to any questioning if he so desires.
Custodial interrogation was defined by the Supreme Court in Miranda as “questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way.” Id. at 444, 86 S.Ct. at 1612; quoted in Oregon v. Mathiason, 429 U.S. 492, 494, 97 S.Ct. 711, 713, 50 L.Ed.2d 714 (1977).
The initial question to be considered is whether Mesa was “in custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action” during the conversation with Agent Viater.
In articulating the availability and scope of the Fifth Amendment’s privilege against self-incrimination, the Court in Miranda sought to “protect persons in all settings in which their freedom of action is curtailed in any significant way from being compelled to incriminate themselves.” Id. at 467, 86 S.Ct. at 1624. The Court recognized the “inherently compelling pressures” present during in-custody interrogation, and the need for proper safeguards in order to combat these pressures which operate to compel a suspect to speak “where he would not otherwise do so freely.” Id.
The Court clearly intended that the rule it was so forcefully establishing would not be limited to situations involving actual station-house custody. Rather, the Court contemplated the reach of the Fifth Amendment’s protection to include a person “otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way.” Thus, in Orozco v. Texas, 394 U.S. 325, 89 S.Ct. 1095, 22 L.Ed.2d 311 (1969), the Court held that Miranda applied to a person interrogated in his own bedroom who was not free to come and go as he pleased but was under arrest, as such interrogation was custodial. Moreover, the Court in Oregon v. Mathiason, 429. U.S. 492, 97 S.Ct. 711, 50 L.Ed.2d 714 (1977) made it clear that it is not the particular setting itself in which the questioning takes place that defines an interrogation as custodial, but rather the restraint on the interrogated person’s freedom of movement that creates the coercive environment that renders that person in custody for Miranda purposes.
*594Judge Seitz reviews the Miranda decision, and focuses as did the Supreme Court, on the psychological pressures to which a person interrogated in private in a police dominated atmosphere is subject. Judge Seitz distinguishes the case sub judice from Miranda, however, with an analysis in which I cannot join. Apparently it is the lack of “immediate” police control over Mesa stemming from the fact that no officers were actually present in the motel room with Mesa that is of crucial significance to Judge Seitz. In the view of Judge Seitz, Mesa could therefore not be handcuffed, nor could questioning be forced upon him, nor could the content and direction of the conversation be controlled by the authorities. Thus, Judge Seitz concludes, Mesa was not in a police dominated atmosphere subject to the psychological advantages possessed by law enforcement officers in a custodial setting.
I find the distinctions drawn by Judge Seitz to be at odds with my view. It appears to me that Mesa was indeed deprived of his freedom of action by the time Agent Viater initiated the telephone conversation with him. Mesa was alone, and locked inside of a room in a motel with only one exit. The motel was surrounded by twenty or more law enforcement officers led by FBI agents armed with a warrant for Mesa’s arrest. The surrounding rooms had been emptied, the adjoining area barricaded, and the streets blockaded. An FBI car was parked directly in front of the motel room. Mesa’s only communications link with the world outside the room was the mobile telephone, which provided a direct connection with the authorities surrounding the room.
Contributing to the seige atmosphere at the scene was the presence of scores of radio and television reporters and other members of the press. Despite their presence, Mesa was isolated in his room and in communication only with law enforcement officers speaking over a mobile telephone. In a very real sense therefore, he was under the direct and immediate control of the authorities and was effectively being restrained by them in his freedom of movement. As the District Court so bluntly stated, Mesa could have left the room in only one of three possible ways: dead, injured and under arrest, or uninjured and under arrest.6 It is thus of little import that Mesa was not actually placed under arrest until his surrender. This court has previously held that:
... in the absence of actual arrest something must be said or done by the authorities, either in their manner of approach or in the tone or extent of their questioning, which indicates thiat they would not have heeded a request to depart or to allow the suspect to do so.
Steigler v. Anderson, 496 F.2d 793, 799 (3d Cir. 1974), quoting United States v. Hall, 421 F.2d 540, 545 (2d Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 990, 90 S.Ct. 1123, 25 L.Ed.2d 398 (1970). To say that Mesa would have been allowed to freely leave the motel room, or that he was not deprived of his freedom of movement is to severely misinterpret the actions and intentions as well as to, grossly underestimate the strength of the'law enforcement authorities on the scene, and the magnitude of Mesa’s predicament.
Furthermore, Mesa was not appreciably less restricted in his freedom of action than he would have been had Agent Viater or another officer been in the motel room with him, or had he been actually under arrest. Actual physical presence of an officer, or being placed under arrest, might have served to increase the already existing psychological pressure on Mesa as well as the control over him exerted by the officers surrounding the motel, but the lack of such arrest or actual presence of officers inside the room did not significantly diminish the immediateness and directness of the pressure and control which was in fact exerted by the officers.
It is thus evident to me that the situation at the motel was replete with the very same dangers to Mesa’s Fifth Amendment rights as are present in a station-house custody situation. Indeed, the need for the protec*595tion of a Miranda warning in order to safeguard Mesa’s right against self-incrimination may even have been more acute here than it would have been in the more ordinary custodial setting of a police station. Mesa was in a particularly vulnerable position with respect to his Fifth Amendment rights because of his mental condition and the relationship of trust which Agent Viater was able to establish with him. Mesa was confused, frightened, and depressed, and repeatedly voiced concern for his safety. Throughout the conversation Agent Viater reassured Mesa that he was Mesa’s friend, and that Mesa should trust him and speak freely to him.
Furthermore, Judge Seitz ascribes undue importance to what he considers to be Mesa’s ability to control the conversation with the agent. While it is true that a person barricaded in a motel room with a gun retains some ability to “call the shots”, the overall “balance of power” that existed at the motel scene was with the authorities surrounding the motel, who were clearly in command of the situation. In addition, any suspect being questioned in a police station or other custodial setting has a similar ability to terminate a conversation with law enforcement officers by simply refusing to speak to his interrogators. The purpose of the Miranda warning though is that unless apprised of his constitutional rights, a person being interrogated while in custody or “otherwise deprived of his freedom of action” may not be aware that he has such rights. The mere ability to terminate questioning by the authorities does not abrogate one’s rights under the Fifth Amendment and the Miranda rule; rather it is the need to assure that those who in fact possess Fifth Amendment rights are actually informed of their right and ability to exercise them that gives rise to the required safeguards of the Miranda rule.
IV
Having recognized that Mesa’s statements were made while he was deprived of his freedom of action and confined within a coercive custodial environment, the remaining issue to be decided is whether the conversation between Agent Viater and Mesa constituted an interrogation.
The meaning of interrogation was recently addressed by the Supreme Court in Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980):
We conclude that the Miranda safeguards come into play whenever a person in custody is subjected to either express questioning or its functional equivalent. That is to say, the term “interrogation” under Miranda refers not only to express questioning, but also to any words or actions on the part of the police (other than those normally attendant to arrest and custody) that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect.
(footnotes omitted).
At the outset, it is not necessary to engage in any lengthy discussion of whether Agent Viater’s statements were in fact “questions”, for his words and actions surely were the functional equivalent of express questioning, and as such fall squarely within the Supreme Court’s definition of interrogation. Although the Supreme Court has provided only little guidance as to precisely what constitutes the functional equivalent of express questioning, any meaningful definition of the term would have to encompass the situation presented here.
The Supreme Court in Innis has indicated that the intent of the police:
... may well have a bearing on whether the police should have known that their words or actions were reasonably likely to evoke an incriminating response. In particular, where a police practice is designed to elicit an incriminating response from the accused, it is unlikely that the practice will not also be one which the police should have known was reasonably likely to have that effect.
Id. at 302 n.7, 100 S.Ct. at 1690 n.7.
In the case sub judice, Agent Viater had the secondary purpose of obtaining information from Mesa about the previous day’s *596shootings.7 Agent Viater did quite a bit more than exchange mere pleasantries with Mesa. His comments were frequently investigatory and can hardly be described as innocuous in terms of their interrogatory character and their effect upon Mesa. Viater’s comments appear calculated to both bring about a peaceful end to the standoff at the motel and to elicit information about the shootings. The agent not only listened patiently to Mesa’s often rambling monologue, but also attempted to direct the course of the conversation.
The Court further explained its definition of interrogation by stating that:
.. . [a]ny knowledge the police may have concerning the unusual susceptibility of a defendant to a particular form of persuasion might be an important factor in determining whether the police should have known that their words or actions were reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect.
Id. at 302 n.8, 100 S.Ct. at 1690 n.8.
Agent Viater had assured Mesa of his concern for him, and had encouraged him to speak freely. An atmosphere of trust was established, which coupled with Mesa’s fear and confusion, increased his susceptibility to the particular form of persuasion employed by the agent. Agent Viater was a trained negotiator, who no doubt was well aware of exactly what he was saying and doing and of the likely effect which his words and actions would have upon Mesa. Consequently, the probable result of the conversation and questioning could not have been unknown to him.
Accordingly, Agent Viater certainly should have known that questions concerning the shootings were reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from Mesa. In fact, it seems inconceivable that Viater could not have known that the entire conversation itself, as well as the specific questions relating to the shootings, would be reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response.
Moreover, Agent Viater did in fact direct express questions to Mesa about the shooting of Mesa’s “common-law” wife and daughter.8 There can thus be no question but that Mesa was subject to an interrogation within the meaning of Innis.9
I am unable to agree with Judge Adams’ characterization of the conversation as non-adversarial and non-inquisitive. In Judge Adams’ view, Agent Viater’s “empathetic tone conveyed little of the subtle compulsion that characterizes police interrogation” and “his comments were not designed to elicit an incriminating response but rather were calculated to convey sympathy and understanding.” This conclusion is apparently based on what Judge Adams describes as Mesa’s “need for a sympathetic listener to whom he could vent his confused and tortured mind.”
I am not quite as inclined to adopt so benign an interpretation of the conversation between Mesa and Agent Viater, especially in light of the District Court’s finding, with which I agree, that Viater had a secondary purpose of gathering information about Mesa’s involvement in the previous day’s shootings. To the contrary, it is precisely because Mesa’s mind was confused and tortured and because Viater’s empathetie tone did convey sympathy and understanding that Mesa was in a vulnerable position with respect to the interrogatory aspects of the conversation. Rather than evidencing an absence of interrogation, Agent Viater’s tone contributed to the “unusual susceptibility” of Mesa to this “particular form of persuasion.” It must be remembered that Viater’s primary role was not merely one of sympathetic counselor, *597but rather that of a trained law enforcement officer.
Judge Adams also ascribes what I believe to be undue importance to his conclusion that Mesa’s statements, in which he “poured out his heart to Viater,” were made of his own volition. Miranda and its progeny are addressed not to the voluntariness per se of an accused’s statements, but to the inherently coercive atmosphere of a custodial interrogation, with its attendant Fifth Amendment implications. If a statement is made during a custodial interrogation and without the benefit of a Miranda warning, it need not be characterized as “involuntary” in order for there to be a Miranda rule violation.
V
Any criticism of Agent Viater’s performance during the crisis at the motel is completely without justification. Confronted with a potentially explosive situation in which he and his fellow agents were placed in danger of their lives, he succeeded in arranging for Mesa’s peaceful surrender. Agent Viater and the FBI deserve all due admiration and respect for their exemplary conduct, and it is not my intention to second guess skilled law enforcement officers trained to handle dangerous situations. But no matter how laudable the agent’s success in achieving his stated goal of safely defusing a volatile situation, it would be impermissible to allow the government in its case-in-chief to introduce Mesa’s statements into evidence. The conversation occurred while Mesa was custodially confined in a coercive environment, and the statements were made by him in response to the FBI agent’s interrogation. So long as this custodial interrogation took place without the benefit of a Miranda warning, protection of Mesa’s Fifth Amendment rights must be the court’s concern.
Officers engaged in the delicate art of negotiation with an armed, barricaded suspect are admittedly placed in a difficult position. No one can doubt that the officers’ primary responsibility in such an event must be to defuse the situation as peacefully and safely as possible. Yet the Fifth Amendment compels a court to protect the precious rights guaranteed to aft accused and to reject the government’s attempt to introduce an accused’s statements made during a custodial interrogation without the benefit of the required Miranda warning.
Accordingly, I would affirm the District Court’s order suppressing the taped conversation.

. United States v. Mesa, 487 F.Supp. 562 (D.N.J.1980).

. Note one (Exhibit D-l): “Have a little patience. 1 will give myself up. My mind is too confused. I won’t hurt anybody so wait till dark and call the M.P. I give you my words I really need to see a psychiatrist. To many people. Please tonight and will come out only to the M.P.”
Note two (Exhibit D-2): “If I say I have a gun you will storm the place. I said I don’t want to hurt anybody.- If you really know what I have been through this inner voice what don’t let me alone.
I have been done everything. I am not a criminal but please give me a little more time. Your wife will be impatient. At least you have someone to come. I never have that. I try so hard to make so good.”
Note three (Exhibit D-3): “The guy that pick up my note, please tell him that if I want to hurt him I got the chance twice so if he bring the phone act like a man. I am not a criminal.”

. 487 F.Supp. at 564-65.

. The following statements made by Agent Viater while talking with Mesa are representative:
Yes, Rigoberto, I am listening to you very intently. I can, I have empathy for what you’re saying. I understand exactly the things you are expressing to me. And I want you to know I understand and be aware of the fact that I am here to help you. Are you, are you aware of that?
I’m concerned about you Rigoberto, I’m concerned about your welfare, and I’m concerned about your health and I want to make absolutely certain that you and I trust each other and we can bring this problem to a successful solution.

. The following exchange is illustrative:
Viater: Tell me what happened Rigoberto?
Mesa: What happened what?
Viater: Tell me what happened yesterday.
What was the provocation?

. 487 F.Supp. at 566.

. See footnote 5, supra, and accompanying text.

. See footnote 5, supra.

. This conclusion is not inconsistent with the result in Innis, for the Supreme Court there found nothing to suggest that the police were aware of any peculiar susceptibility on the part of the accused, or that the accused was unusually disoriented or upset, or that the officers’ remarks were designed to elicit a response. Id. at 303, 100 S.Ct. at 1690. By contrast, all of these factors are present in the case sub judice.