Court Opinion

ID: 9643291
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:24:42.824032+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:59.067304
License: Public Domain

COOPER, Justice,
dissenting.
Appellant’s first interrogation by Detective Lanasa occurred on February 26, 2002, and pertained to a potential misdemeanor offense involving Appellant’s inappropriate touching of his stepdaughter. *407Appellant came to the police station voluntarily, and Detective Lanasa advised him of his Miranda rights. She also told him that he was free to leave at any time; and he did, in fact, leave at the conclusion of the interrogation. On February 27, 2002, Detective Lanasa filed a criminal complaint against Appellant charging him with the misdemeanor offense.
Subsequently, Lanasa received information that Appellant had sexually abused his nephew twenty years before, when Appellant was seventeen years old and the nephew was four years old. If so, that offense would be a felony. KRS 510.110(l)(b)(2). On March 1, 2002, Lanasa contacted Appellant and asked him to return to the station under the ruse of further questioning about the misdemeanor offense. Appellant again voluntarily came to the police station. This time, Lanasa did not advise Appellant of his Miranda rights and did not tell him that he was free to leave at any time. In fact, she had no intention of permitting him to leave, as she had in her possession a warrant of arrest for the misdemeanor charge which she intended to (and did) serve on Appellant at the conclusion of the interrogation. After rehashing the same information discussed during the February 26th interrogation, Lanasa shifted the focus of the interrogation to the felony allegation. Appellant first denied the allegation but ultimately confessed, and Lanasa placed him under arrest.
The Commonwealth did not assert at the trial level and the trial court did not find that the Miranda warnings given by Lana-sa on February 26th were still effective for the March 1 interrogation. See United States v. Hanton, 418 F.Supp.2d 757, 764 (W.D.Pa.2006) (Miranda warnings given at hospital at 2:55 a.m. when Appellant was interrogated only about an alleged misdemeanor insufficient for subsequent interrogation about an alleged felony at state police post four hours later); Jones v. State, 119 S.W.3d 766, 771-75 (Tex.Crim.App.2003) (en banc) (Miranda warnings given in interrogation about one offense insufficient to cure failure to give Miranda warnings prior to interrogation nine days later about different offenses). As noted in Jones, 119 S.W.3d at 774 n. 13, cases holding that the mere passage of time does not obviate previously-given Miranda warnings are all cases in which both interrogations concerned the same crime or the suspect stated prior to the second interrogation that he remembered his Miranda rights, or both. E.g., Biddy v. Diamond, 516 F.2d 118, 122 (5th Cir.1975); United States v. Springer, 460 F.2d 1344, 1352, (7th Cir.1972); Maguire v. United States, 396 F.2d 327, 330-31 (9th Cir.1968); Gorman v. United States, 380 F.2d 158, 164 (1st Cir.1967); Johnson v. State, 56 Ala. App. 583, 324 So.2d 298, 302 (1975); State v. Gilreath, 107 Ariz. 318, 487 P.2d 385, 386 (1971); DeJesus v. State, 655 A.2d 1180, 1195-96 (Del.1995); People v. Hill, 39 Ill.2d 125, 233 N.E.2d 367, 369 (1968); Jackson v. State, 268 Ind. 360, 375 N.E.2d 223, 225 (1978); State v. Russell, 261 N.W.2d 490, 492-93 (Iowa 1978); State v. Brown, 601 S.W.2d 311, 314 (Mo.Ct.App.1980); Koger v. State, 117 Nev. 138, 17 P.3d 428, 431-33 (2001); Ex parte Bagley, 509 S.W.2d 332, 335 (Tex.Crim.App.1974); State v. Blanchey, 75 Wash.2d 926, 454 P.2d 841, 845 (1969); Mitchell v. State, 982 P.2d 717, 722 (Wyo.1999). The Commonwealth only argued and the trial court found that the March 1 confession was not the product of a “custodial interrogation.”
“By custodial interrogation, we mean 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.” Oregon v. Mathiason, 429 U.S. 492, 494, 97 S.Ct. 711, 713, 50 L.Ed.2d 714 (1977) (emphasis added) (quoting Miranda v. Ari*408zona, 384 U.S. 436, 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1612, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966)). The test is objective rather than subjective, and the determination is based on the totality of the circumstances. Id. at 495, 97 S.Ct. at 714. It is not the unexpressed intent of the officer that is decisive but “how a reasonable man in the suspect’s position would have understood his situation.” Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 442, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 3151, 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984) (roadside questioning of stopped motorist). “[GJiven those circumstances, would a reasonable person have felt he or she was not at liberty to terminate the interrogation and leave?” Thompson v. Keohane, 516 U.S. 99, 112, 116 S.Ct. 457, 465, 133 L.Ed.2d 383 (1995) (footnote omitted).
In United States v. Griffin, 922 F.2d 1343 (8th Cir.1990), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit noted that “an accused’s freedom to leave the scene, and the purpose, place, and length of an interrogation” are factors to be considered in making a determination of custody. Id. at 1348. The Court then listed the following indicia of custody:
(1) whether the suspect was informed at the time of questioning that the questioning was voluntary, that the suspect was free to leave or request the officers to do so, or that the suspect was not considered under arrest;
(2) whether the suspect possessed unrestrained freedom of movement during questioning;
(3) whether the suspect initiated contact with authorities or voluntarily acquiesced to official requests to answer questions;
(4) whether strong arm tactics or deceptive stratagems were employed during questioning;
(5) whether the atmosphere of the questioning was police dominated; or,

(6)whether the suspect was placed under arrest at the termination of questioning.

Id. at 1349 (emphasis added).
When interrogation occurs in an interrogation room at a police station, a presumption arises that the interrogation is custodial in nature. State v. Clappes, 117 Wis.2d 277, 344 N.W.2d 141, 147 (1984) (“Police station interrogation carries a strong presumption of custody....”). That inference can be overcome by showing, e.g., that the defendant was informed that he was not under arrest, that he was free to leave at any time, and that he did, in fact, leave at the conclusion of the interrogation. In Mathiason, the interrogation was at the police station but the defendant was informed immediately upon arrival that he was not under arrest; and he left the police station without hindrance after his confession. 429 U.S. at 495, 97 S.Ct. at 714. See also United States v. LeBrun, 363 F.3d 715, 721-22 (8th Cir.2004) (interrogation at police station but defendant was told he was free to leave and was allowed to leave at the conclusion of the interview); Callihan v. Commonwealth, 142 S.W.3d 123, 124-26 (Ky.2004) (same). Compare Commonwealth v. Magee, 423 Mass. 381, 668 N.E.2d 339, 343 (1996) (custodial interrogation occurred when defendant was interviewed in closed room at police station, not told she could leave, and where questions focused on criminal involvement in the death of her son); State v. Werner, 9 S.W.3d 590, 596-97 (Mo.2000) (custodial interrogation occurred when defendant was isolated from friends and family and questioned by two officers who did not tell him that he was free to leave).
Although Appellant was not told that he was not free to leave the March 1 interrogation, Appellant had been told during the February 26 interrogation that he was free to leave, and that information was not *409repeated during the March 1 interrogation. From that fact, a reasonable person would assume that the March 1 interrogation was different and that he was not free to leave. The fact that he was not permitted to leave at the conclusion of the interrogation is an indicia that he was, in fact, in custody. Griffin, 922 F.2d at 1349.
In Reinert v. Larkins, 379 F.3d 76 (3d Cir.2004), the defendant made incriminating statements in response to questioning by an emergency medical technician (EMT) and a police officer while being transported to the hospital in an ambulance. It was held that the statement to the EMT was not the product of a custodial interrogation even though the defendant was not told that he was free to leave, id. at 87, but that the statement in response to questioning by the officer was the product of a custodial interrogation because once the officer began questioning him, the defendant “had to know that he was a suspect being questioned by a police officer.” id. Likewise, when Detective Lana-sa ceased questioning Appellant about the misdemeanor allegation and changed the subject to a new felony allegation, Appellant had to know that he was a suspect being questioned by a police officer about that offense. The fact that he initially denied the allegation is another indication that he knew he was being interrogated about a criminal offense.
Under the totality of these circumstances, I conclude that Appellant’s March
I, 2002, confession was the product of a custodial interrogation. Accordingly, I dissent.
LAMBERT, C.J.; and JOHNSTONE, J., join.