In Re the Welfare of D.S.M.

710 N.W.2d 795, 26 A.L.R. 6th 851, 2006 Minn. App. LEXIS 28, 2006 WL 618892
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedMarch 14, 2006
DocketA05-638
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 710 N.W.2d 795 (In Re the Welfare of D.S.M.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re the Welfare of D.S.M., 710 N.W.2d 795, 26 A.L.R. 6th 851, 2006 Minn. App. LEXIS 28, 2006 WL 618892 (Mich. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

KLAPHAKE, Judge.

Appellant D.S.M. was adjudicated delinquent for second-degree criminal sexual conduct based on admissions made during a police interrogation. He argues that the admissions should be suppressed because he was not informed of his Miranda rights before being interrogated. The district court concluded that the interrogation was not custodial and that appellant thus was not entitled to receive a Miranda warning. We reverse and remand for a new hearing, and vacate appellant’s extended jurisdiction juvenile (EJJ) status.

FACTS

In December 2001, Brooklyn Center Police learned that seven-year-old T.M.H. had reported that he had been sexually molested by then-14-year-old appellant, who lived with his mother and her fiancé, T.M.H.’s father. T.M.H. primarily resided with his mother in Douglas County, Wisconsin, but he visited his father during summers and holidays; the alleged conduct occurred during late 2000 and the summer of 2001, while T.M.H. was visiting his father.

Detective Peggy Broberg of the Brooklyn Center Police contacted appellant’s mother and requested to speak with appellant. On January 15, 2002, appellant’s mother and T.M.H.’s father brought appellant to the Brooklyn Center police station. Broberg conducted a private interview of appellant, although Broberg and appellant knew that his mother was in a waiting room. Broberg said to appellant, “If you don’t want to talk to me, just tell me so and I’ll take you downstairs.” They spoke for 25 to 35 minutes about the allegations of sexual molestation, and appellant denied having any sexual contact with T.M.H.

Thereafter, at Detective Broberg’s suggestion, a Wisconsin social worker conducted a second interview of T.M.H. During the interview, T.M.H. elaborated on his original allegation that appellant had touched his penis with his hand, and alleged that appellant had twice put his mouth on T.M.H.’s penis and had twice anally penetrated him.

On January 28, 2002, Dr. Chris Campbell examined T.M.H. Dr. Campbell’s med *797 ical report indicated that T.M.H. had an “anal fissure at the six o’clock position” that appeared “very small.” Dr. Campbell concluded that he “could not state one way or the other whether there has been past history of anal intercourse or sexual abuse.”

Detective Broberg interviewed appellant a second time on February 17, 2002. Again, his mother and her fiancé brought him to the police station, and again they were not invited to attend the interrogation. Without giving appellant a Miranda warning, Broberg intensely questioned appellant for 55 minutes, shouting at him, suggesting that he would not be able to leave until he confessed and that the interview could continue all day, and causing appellant to break down sobbing several times. Broberg did not inform appellant that he was free to leave the interrogation. Eventually, appellant admitted to some sexual contact with T.M.H., although he strongly denied that sexual penetration had occurred. After being asked numerous times, however, whether penetration had occurred and denying it numerous times, appellant finally conceded with a “sigh” that he guessed it had occurred if that was what T.M.H. said.

Appellant was charged with first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct under Minn.Stat. §§ 609.342, subd. 1(a), 609.343, subd. 1(a) (2000). The district court granted the state’s motion for EJJ designation under Minn.Stat. § 260B.130, subd. 1(3) (2002), a decision that was affirmed by this court in an unpublished opinion. See In re Welfare of D.S.M., No. A03-949, 2004 WL 771680 (Minn.App. Apr. 13, 2004), review denied (Minn. June 29, 2004).

After the district court denied appellant’s pretrial suppression motions, appellant agreed to submit the case to the district court on stipulated facts. The district court found appellant guilty of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and adjudicated him delinquent. The court later denied the state’s motion for reconsideration based on a claim that the facts found by the court would have supported a finding of guilt on the first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge and denied appellant’s motion to vacate the EJJ designation. Appellant received a stayed prison term of 21 months, was ordered to complete sex-offender treatment, provide a DNA sample and register as a sex offender, and was placed on probation until he reached the age of 21.

ISSUE

Did the district court err in declining to suppress appellant’s admissions, even though they were elicited without a prior Miranda warning?

ANALYSIS

“[W]hethér a defendant was ‘in custody’ at the time of an interrogation is a mixed question of law and fact, requiring the appellate court to apply the controlling legal standard to historical facts as determined by the trial court.” State v. Wiernasz, 584 N.W.2d 1, 3 (Minn.1998). The appellate court reviews the district court’s findings of fact under the clearly erroneous standard of review but reviews de novo the district court’s custody determination and the need for a Miranda warning. Id.

Before being subjected to a custodial interrogation, a defendant must be given a Miranda warning to advise the defendant of his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The test for determining whether a person is in custody is objective-whether the circumstances of the interrogation would make a reasonable person believe that he was under *798 formal arrest or physical restraint akin to formal arrest. State v. Rosse, 478 N.W.2d 482, 484 (Minn.1991). The fact that an interrogation occurs at a police station does not always lead to the conclusion that it was custodial. Wiernasz, 584 N.W.2d at 3. However, the determination of whether a juvenile would reasonably believe he or she was in custody must be made from the perspective of the juvenile. See In re Welfare of G.S.P., 610 N.W.2d 651, 657 (Minn.App.2000).

The circumstances surrounding appellant’s interrogation support a conclusion that he reasonably would have believed that he was in custody at the time he made his admissions. Appellant had some experience with police when he was part of a diversion program resulting from a 1997 burglary charge, but the record does not indicate any other criminal conduct or that appellant had ever been interrogated by police or been to a police station. Appellant’s mother and her fiancé brought him to the police station at Detective Broberg’s request, but they were asked or told to sit in a waiting room while he was escorted to a private room on a different floor of the station.

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In the Matter of the Welfare of: L. S. H., Child.
Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2015

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710 N.W.2d 795, 26 A.L.R. 6th 851, 2006 Minn. App. LEXIS 28, 2006 WL 618892, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-welfare-of-dsm-minnctapp-2006.