Aguilera-Tovar v. State

57 A.3d 1084, 209 Md. App. 97, 2012 Md. App. LEXIS 155
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedDecember 20, 2012
DocketNo. 1841
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 57 A.3d 1084 (Aguilera-Tovar v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Special Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aguilera-Tovar v. State, 57 A.3d 1084, 209 Md. App. 97, 2012 Md. App. LEXIS 155 (Md. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

KRAUSER, C.J.

Convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County of one count of sexual abuse of a minor1 and three counts of third-degree sexual offense,2 Guillermo Aguilera-Tovar, appellant, presents two issues for our review. They are: whether the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the post-polygraph statements he made to the police and whether he was denied a fair trial.

Because we conclude that the statements appellant made to the police, following his polygraph examination, were unlawfully obtained and should have been suppressed, we reverse appellant’s convictions and remand for further proceedings, without reaching the second issue, that is, whether appellant was denied a fair trial.

[100]*100Suppression Hearing

Before trial, a hearing was held on appellant’s motion to suppress statements he had made to police detectives during an interview at the building housing the Family Crimes Division of the Montgomery County Police Department. At that hearing, three detectives testified: Karen Carvajal, Miguel Marquez, and Chad Williams.

According to their collective testimony, Fidel Z.,3 on November 2, 2009, contacted the Family Crimes Division to report that his seven-year-old son, Angel Z., had been fondled by appellant one week earlier at the Rockville home that he, his girlfriend, and her children shared with appellant, his girlfriend, and their children.4 Following that disclosure, Detective Williams arranged for Angel to be interviewed by a social worker employed by Child Protective Services of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services. Angel told the social worker, according to the detective,5 that appellant had made him fondle appellant’s “genital area,” and then he had attempted to penetrate Angel’s anus, with his penis.

Accompanied by Detective Carvajal, who was fluent in Spanish, Detective Williams drove to appellant’s Rockville home. The detectives were in plain clothes but wore identification badges about their necks. When they arrived, the two detectives left their car and walked up to the door, where Detective Carvajal was greeted by an unidentified woman. [101]*101After the woman was asked by the detectives whether appellant was home, she left the detectives, only to return, a few minutes later, with appellant.

In Spanish, Detective Carvajal asked appellant whether he could speak with them “privately.” After appellant stepped “outside,” Detective Carvajal suggested that they talk in the detectives’ car. Appellant agreed and accompanied them to that vehicle.

As the detectives and appellant sat inside the detectives’ car, Detective Carvajal advised appellant that “he was not under arrest” and asked him if he knew why they were there. Appellant replied that he did. At the conclusion of the interview, during which appellant, in the court’s words, “denied whatever the accusations were,” appellant agreed to take a polygraph examination the following morning. No mention was made by either detective that an interrogation6 by police would or even might follow that exam.

The detectives and appellant then walked back to the house. Standing just outside the house, the detectives spoke with several members of the family, who, in the words of Detective Carvajal, “came out to talk.” Angela Leiva Aguilera, appellant’s girlfriend (and later his wife),7 agreed to be interviewed, with the couple’s children, at the Family Crimes Division the following morning.

The next morning, appellant, Ms. Aguilera, and their children arrived at the Family Crimes Division. The building housing that division has, in the words of Detective Carvajal, a “big blue sign right outside the door,” indicating that it is a “police facility.” Although the signage was in English, the [102]*102court observed that the Spanish and English words for “police” look “pretty much the same.”8

While Ms. Aguilera and the children were taken by Detective Williams to be interviewed by a social worker from Child Protective Services, appellant was escorted to the polygraph suite by Detective Carvajal, where she left him with Detective Marquez, the polygraph examiner. Detective Marquez conducted the ensuing polygraph examination of appellant in Spanish. The examination lasted about an hour.

At its inception, Detective Marquez explained to appellant that “he was there voluntarily and that he could leave at any time.” When he asked appellant whether he knew why he was being asked to take a polygraph test, appellant acknowledged, according to the detective, that it was because of allegations that he had molested Angel Z. At no time before or during the polygraph test was appellant advised of his Miranda9 rights.

When the polygraph examination ended, appellant, accompanied by Detective Marquez, walked back to the “adult interview” rooms and entered one of them, where they were greeted by Detectives Carvajal and Williams.10 Appellant then expressed a desire to use the restroom. While appellant was being escorted to the men’s room, Detective Marquez advised Carvajal and Williams of the outcome of the polygraph test, telling them that the “results were indicative of deception.”

When appellant finished using the restroom, he was escorted back to an “adult interview” room, where he sat, by [103]*103himself, for about ten to fifteen minutes. The room was windowless and had a single door that closed but did not lock. It contained a table where appellant sat, at one end, in a corner farthest from the door. When Detectives Carvajal and Williams entered the room, Detective Williams sat across the table from appellant, while Detective Carvajal sat between appellant and the door.

Detective Carvajal testified that she was in plain clothes, unarmed, and that, in fact, “[ejveryone” who worked there was in plain clothes. The ensuing interrogation, which lasted about an hour and a half, was conducted in Spanish by Detective Carvajal, and it was video recorded.11 Although Detective Williams was in the room during much of the interrogation, he occasionally left the room for short periods of time and re-entered, because, as he did not speak Spanish, he could not directly participate in the interrogation. At no time before or during the interrogation was appellant advised of his Miranda rights.

After greeting appellant, Detective Carvajal informed him that the detectives “wanted to speak to [him] about the results” of the polygraph test. She then told appellant that Detective Marquez had showed her the test results. “[L]ook, look and see how your results came out____[Y]ou didn’t do well Guillermo. You didn’t pass the test,” she exclaimed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
57 A.3d 1084, 209 Md. App. 97, 2012 Md. App. LEXIS 155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aguilera-tovar-v-state-mdctspecapp-2012.