Court Opinion

ID: 9664797
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:30:06.34103+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:10.264912
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
concurring and dissenting.
This Court should put its “improvidently granted with a disclaimer” stamp to appellant’s petition for discretionary review.
One disclaimer would go to the holding by the court of appeals that appellant failed to object in the trial court to the admissibility of his oral statement that he made to a criminal investigator employed by the Department of Human Resources on *788the ground that it was involuntarily given. The record clearly reflects that when appellant’s oral statement to the criminal investigator was offered into evidence, appellant’s attorney timely, specifically, and expressly objected on the ground that it was involuntarily obtained. See Statement of Facts, Volume I of I Volume, at page 26, which reflects that when appellant’s oral statement was offered into evidence by the prosecutor, appellant’s trial counsel objected because, inter alia, “the statement, whatever statement, was not voluntary ...” After a short “voir dire” hearing, about which appellant does not complain, the trial judge overruled the objection without comment. See page 26. Thus, appellant expressly objected to the admission into evidence of his oral statement because, inter alia, it was not voluntarily made, and the court of appeals clearly erred in holding to the contrary.
The next disclaimer would go to the holding by the coürt of appeals that because this was a bench trial and not a jury trial the trial judge was not required to make and enter any findings of fact and conclusions of law concerning the voluntariness of appellant’s oral statement that was admitted into evidence over objection. Art. 38.22, § 6, V.A.C.C.P., expressly requires that when the issue of the voluntariness of a defendant’s statement is raised, a hearing must be held, after which the trial judge is charged with the duty and responsibility of making and entering findings of fact and conclusions of law, concerning the volun-tariness of the statement. The statutory provision makes no distinction between á jury trial and a trial to the court, nor does it make any distinction between an oral statement and a written statement. The court of appeals clearly erred in holding that findings of fact and conclusions of law need not be made by the trial judge when there is a bench trial.
Notwithstanding that the court of appeals erred in disposing of the above two issues, and what actually causes me to recommend that this Court put its “improvidently granted with a disclaimer” stamp to appellant’s petition for discretionary review rests in the fact that if there was any error in the admission into evidence of appellant’s oral statement, such error, if any, was cured when appellant’s written statement was later admitted into evidence. The doctrine of curative admissibility provides that a defendant may waive his objection to what he claims was improperly admitted evidence by not later properly objecting when evidence is later adduced that establishes the same facts or evidence that was earlier admitted into evidence. See 3 Texas Criminal Practice Guide, § 73.05[l][c]. In this instance, the record is clear that when appellant’s written statement, in which he told about the time that he “spread her [the complainant’s] legs and started having intercourse with [the complainant]”, and what he did thereafter, as well as admitting that he “spent three years in prison for [doing] the same thing,” was offered into evidence, he only made the following objections: “Your Hon- or, I’m going to object on two bases. One is that the statement contains things that are irrelevant to this case, and two, that based on the best evidence [the written statement is not admissible evidence], and is unduly prejudicial because of the irrelevant statements.” The trial judge ruled as follows: “Subject to your [the prosecutor] bringing the original [of the written statement] in, I will admit this [the statement] at this time ... The Court will ignore any irrelevancies in the statement. The statement will be admitted for purposes of this hearing [sic], subject to the original being produced.” Record Volume I of Volume I, at page 30. As easily seen, nowhere in his objections did appellant voice the complaint that the written statement was “not voluntary, there were no Miranda rights given, and that these people function as an arm of the State” as he had stated when his oral statement to the criminal investigator was offered into evidence, and I do not find in the appellate record where he has ever complained that the prosecutor did not produce the original of the written statement or that he has ever complained that the trial judge considered any “irrelevant” evidence that might be contained within the written statement.
*789If appellant is arguing that when he made his oral statement to the criminal investigator he was then in “custody”, given this record, that argument is nonsense.
Given the facts of this case, when appellant orally admitted to the criminal investigator, over the telephone, that he “had done it”, it is obvious to me and should be obvious to anyone that he was not then in “custody” and was not then subjected by the criminal investigator to “custodial interrogation”. See and compare, for example, Shiflet v. State, 732 S.W.2d 622 (Tex.Cr.App.1985).
I emphasize: When appellant’s written statement was offered into evidence, appellant only objected to its admission on the following grounds: “Your Honor, I’m going to object on two bases. One is that the statement contains things that are irrelevant to this case, and two, that based on the best evidence, [it is not admissible], and it is unduly prejudicial because of the irrelevant statements.” When the trial judge ruled that the written statement’s admissibility was subject to the prosecutor “bringing the original in” and also ruled that “The Court will ignore any ¡relevancies in the statement”, I find that appellant actually received favorable rulings on his two objections. I do not find anywhere in the record on appeal where appellant ever complained that the prosecutor did not “bring the original in” or where he ever complained that the trial judge considered any “irrelevant” matter that might have been contained in appellant’s written statement.
Therefore dear reader, given what occurred in the trial court, beware of the discussion that is contained on pages 9 through the first line on page 18 of the majority opinion, inclusive, that relates to the discussion about the admission into evidence of appellant's written statement. Otherwise, you, too, like the court of appeals and those judges of this Court who join the majority opinion, might find yourself seeing double. I confess: After carefully reading the court of appeals’ opinion and this Court’s majority opinion, I chased rabbits for about three days until I stopped one day to rest. While resting, I read the entire statement of facts and the briefs that were filed in this cause. I then saw that the issue of the admissibility of appellant’s written statement was not properly before the court of appeals for review purposes.
If, in considering the subject “custodial interrogation”, one wishes to consider other than the facts that were then present when appellant’s written statement was admitted into evidence, as the majority opinion does, I suggest that he first go and read Shiflet, supra, and Paez v. State, 681 S.W.2d 34 (Tex.Cr.App.1984). Given the facts and the law, Paez, supra, of course, should be quickly and expressly overruled by this Court when the opportune time presents itself. This case, however, is not the case that should be used to expressly overrule Paez, supra.
In conclusion, I believe, contrary to the majority opinion, and what this Court stated and held in Paez, supra, which, understandably, I do not find the majority opinion ever mentions, that the legal term “custodial interrogation” can become applicable in other than “a prison setting.”
For the above reasons, I would put this Court’s “improvidently granted with a disclaimer” stamp to appellant’s petition for discretionary review.