Court Opinion

ID: 9731159
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:36:18.804764+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:14.665509
License: Public Domain

YOUNG, Presiding Judge,
concurring.
I concur, not because, as the majority holds, no arrest or seizure of the defendant occurred, but because the error in the admission of the defendant’s confession was waived by his failure to object to the introduction of the substance of that confession through the testimony on redirect examination of Officer Biddle. Were it not for this waiver, I would reverse the conviction because the defendant’s confession is the fruit of his illegal arrest.
Contrary to the majority, I do not find sufficient evidence that the defendant voluntarily accompanied the police to the police station for questioning. Rather, an arrest or seizure of the defendant occurred when the defendant was approached by Officer Biddle and transported to the police station for questioning. Five police officers and five squad cars were present at the defendant’s home prior to his being taken to the station. The defendant was watched continuously by police as he changed his clothes and used the bathroom before he was taken to the station. Most importantly, the defendant was never informed that he was “free to go”; he was transported in a squad car to the station and placed in an interrogation room. Three detectives were present when defendant, less than two hours later, gave his statement to police. It is quixotic, in light of these facts, to find that the defendant voluntarily accompanied the police to the station for custodial interrogation. Indeed, I would be hesitant to find a voluntary accompaniment by the defendant given the number of police officers present when the defendant was detained absent evidence that the defendant was informed by police that he was “free to go” at any time.
There was no probable cause for the arrest of the defendant. Rather, the detention and custodial investigation were used as an investigatory tool. There is, therefore, a quality of purposefulness in the police illegality that here occurred. Morris v. State (1980), Ind., 399 N.E.2d 740, 743. Finding an illegal arrest, the defendant’s statements which are a product of that illegal invasion were inadmissible. However, as earlier stated, the error has been waived.