Auten v. State

542 N.E.2d 215, 1989 Ind. App. LEXIS 777, 1989 WL 89806
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 8, 1989
Docket35A02-8807-CR-286
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 542 N.E.2d 215 (Auten v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Auten v. State, 542 N.E.2d 215, 1989 Ind. App. LEXIS 777, 1989 WL 89806 (Ind. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinions

ROBERTSON, Judge.

Appellants-defendants Harry Auten, Martha McFall and Barbara Winchester ap[217]*217peal their convictions of professional gambling, a class D felony.

We affirm the convictions of Auten and McFall, and reverse that of Winchester.

After investigating the Midway Reecreation Center, police arrested the owners and several of the employees, including the defendants herein. Each was charged with one count of professional gambling. Police had observed Auten selling bingo cards and McFall selling tip cards. The police could not recall Winchester's activities, but she had given a statement implicating herself in selling bankers at the Midway. Auten and McFall had also given statements to the police.

After a jury trial, the defendants were convicted of professional gambling. They appeal, raising these five issues:

I. Whether the statements of the defendants were voluntarily and knowingly given.
II. Whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the convictions for professional gambling.
III. Whether the court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on the offense of unlawful gambling.
IV. Whether the court abused its discretion in sentencing the defendants when it failed to set out its reasons for imposing the sentence and when it imposed a fine on McFall and Winchester but not Auten.
V. Whether subsection 6 of IND.CODE 35-45-5-3 is unconstitutionally vague.

I

Defendants contend that their statements were involuntary because they were induced by assurances that the police were only interested in the owners, not the employees. In addition, Winchester argues that her confession was not voluntary because police continued to question her after she had invoked her right to remain silent.

The issue with respect to Auten and McFall's statements is waived, because the appellate brief does not set out the argument with citation to the record with respect to McFall, and at trial, Auten's attorney indicated he had no objection to the admission of Auten's statement. R. 462. See, Ferry v. State (1983), Ind., 453 N.E.2d 207; Schweitzer v. State (1989), Ind., 531 N.E.2d 1386.

The specific issue with respect to the voluntariness of Winchester's statement is whether she had invoked her right to remain silent and, if so, whether the police "scrupulously honored" her right. The State contends that the record shows only that Winchester refused to sign the written waiver of rights form, and that her mere refusal to sign the waiver form does not alone constitute an exercise of her rights, citing Norris v. State (1986), Ind., 498 N.E.2d 1203 and Lee v. State (1988), Ind., 531 N.E.2d 1165.

The admissibility of a statement or confession is controlled by determining from the totality of circumstances whether or not a confession was given voluntarily and not through inducement, violence, threats or other improper influences so as to overcome the will of an accused. Moore v. State (1986), Ind., 498 N.E.2d 1. The burden is on the State to show beyond a reasonable doubt that police scrupulously honored the accused's right to remain silent. Id.

Our supreme court has examined the issue of a defendant's invoking his right to remain silent by refusing to sign a waiver form, and has come to seemingly contradictory conclusions. However, closer seru-tiny of the cases enables us to harmonize them and consequently resolve the issue in this case. The more recent supreme court cases relied upon by the State suggest that the mere refusal to sign the waiver of rights form does not in and of itself constitute an exercise of Miranda rights. Norris, supra; Lee, supra. These cases relied on Hill v. State (1978), 267 Ind. 480, 371 N.E.2d 1303, in which the court stated that the defendant, who had earlier refused to sign a waiver but had initiated a statement later, could not contend that his right against self-inerimination was "violated simply because he refused to sign a waiver form." Id. at 1306. In Norris, the defendant refused to sign a waiver form because [218]*218an attorney had told him never to sign anything without an attorney being present. He then stated "T'll be more than happy to cooperate and tell you what happened." Hence, because the defendant's volunteered narrative was in no way encouraged by police questioning, his mere refusal to sign the waiver form was not an exercise of his right to remain silent. In Lee, the defendant was not presented a waiver form to sign, but had spoken freely about the incident after receiving Miranda warnings. Lee, supra at 1167. The State's interpretation of Norris and Lee would require us to hold that the refusal to sign a waiver of rights form, by itself, is never enough to show that defendant invoked his right to remain silent. While that interpretation seems fair given the wording of the rule, we nevertheless conclude that the import of those cases is that the defendant's refusal to sign a waiver form will not overcome other evidence that defendant's decision to talk was freely self-determined. See Jackson v. State (1986), Ind., 496 N.E.2d 32. Accordingly, a defendant may invoke his right to remain silent by refusing to sign a waiver of rights form, but such refusal may not necessarily serve as an invocation.

We reach that conclusion because of the continued vitality of Benton v. State (1980), 273 Ind. 34, 401 N.E.2d 697, in which the court relied on Brown v. State (1971), 256 Ind. 558, 270 N.E.2d 751. In Benton, defendant's refusal to sign the waiver of rights form was an explicit, voluntary and knowing refusal to waive his rights. The court observed that "by refusing to sign the form, appellant was repudiating the notion that he was 'willing to make a statement and answer questions' and that he did 'not want a lawyer at this time.'" Id., 401 N.E.2d at 698. The court distinguished the circumstances in Penton from those cases in which the defendant volunteered a statement without prodding by the police.

Hence, we must examine the circumstances of the case at bar to determine whether Winchester had invoked her right to remain silent and, if so, whether the police scrupulously honored her right to cut off questioning at any time. See Moore, supra.

Police officer Farthing testified that he read Winchester her rights and the waiver statement on two occasions after she was arrested: at 11:12 p.m. the night of her arrest, and again at 2:25 a.m., over 8 hours later. Both times she refused to sign the form, which contained on one sheet both an advisement of her rights and a waiver statement. Preliminary questions asked by Winchester's attorney of the interrogating officer Farthing established what occurred after Winchester refused to sign the waiver form:

Q. Officer, what does it mean when the witness refuses to sign the waiver of rights? f
A.

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Auten v. State
542 N.E.2d 215 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1989)

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Bluebook (online)
542 N.E.2d 215, 1989 Ind. App. LEXIS 777, 1989 WL 89806, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/auten-v-state-indctapp-1989.