MATTER OF McCLUSKEY

652 P.2d 812
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedOctober 13, 1982
Docket56,142-A CA A21212
StatusPublished

This text of 652 P.2d 812 (MATTER OF McCLUSKEY) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
MATTER OF McCLUSKEY, 652 P.2d 812 (Or. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

652 P.2d 812 (1982)
59 Or.App. 812

In the matter of Steven McCluskey, a Minor Child.
State of Oregon, ex rel. Juvenile Department of Multnomah County, Respondent,
v.
STEVEN MCCLUSKEY, a Minor Child, Appellant.

No. 56,142-A; CA A21212.

Court of Appeals of Oregon, In Banc[*].

Argued and Submitted October 21, 1981.
Resubmitted May 4, 1982.
Decided October 13, 1982.
Reconsideration Denied December 10, 1982.

Hap Wong, Portland, argued the cause for appellant. With him on the brief was James J. Kirk, Portland.

Stephen F. Peifer, Asst. Atty. Gen., Salem, argued the cause for respondent. *813 With him on the brief were Dave Frohnmayer, Atty. Gen., and William F. Gary, Sol. Gen., Salem.

Resubmitted In Banc May 4, 1982.

RICHARDSON, Judge.

In this juvenile proceeding, the child appeals from the juvenile court's disposition order. The court found the child to be within its jurisdiction after determining that he had committed acts which, if committed by an adult, would have constituted burglary in the first degree. He contends that his motion to suppress "any and all oral admissions and confessions" should have been granted. We affirm, despite the court's improper admission of a portion of the evidence.

The child was taken into custody by the police at a bus depot on the basis of a report that he was a runaway. The child's father, who had requested that the child be taken into custody, told the police that the child had several knives in his backpack. The police searched the backpack and, in addition to the knives, found three 1/10 pint bottles of alcoholic liquor and seven dollars in pennies. The officer asked the child where he had got the bottles of alcohol and was told by the child that he had taken them from a Pay Less Store. The child was taken to the juvenile detention facility. The officer told him that he did not believe the alcohol came from Pay Less, and the child then said that he and a friend had taken them from a house. At this point the officer advised the child of his constitutional rights and questioned him regarding the burglary. The child gave a detailed account of breaking into the house and stealing certain items.

The father was present at the detention facility when the police advised the child of his rights and was present during a part of the subsequent questioning. Following the child's admissions to the police, he and his father had a private conversation at the detention facility out of the officers' presence. The child confessed details of the burglary to the father.

At the juvenile court hearing, the child moved to suppress all admissions and confessions, but the motion was denied. The state concedes that the court erred in denying suppression of the statements made to the police prior to and immediately after the child was advised of his rights. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694; State v. Mendacino, 288 Or. 231, 603 P.2d 1376 (1979); State v. Paz, 31 Or. App. 851, 572 P.2d 1036 (1977), rev. den. 282 Or. 189 (1978).

The remaining question is whether the confession to his father is evidence that should have been suppressed. The child argues that, under Miranda, Mendacino and Paz, suppression is required, because the confession was made immediately after the improperly obtained admissions were made to the police and at the same location. See State v. Mendacino, supra, 288 Or. at 237, 603 P.2d 1376 (quoting United States v. Bayer, 331 U.S. 532, 540-41, 67 S.Ct. 1394, 1398-99, 91 L.Ed. 1654 (1947)).

The juvenile does not contend that his statement to his father was involuntary in the sense that it was not a product of his free will and was therefore unreliable. He only contends that his father was an agent of the police when he talked to him about the burglary and, thus, that any statement to his father must be suppressed as the tainted fruit of the unlawful confession to the police.

While the confession to the father was very close in time and location to the admissions to the police, those circumstances do not automatically require that the exclusionary rule be invoked. We have noted: "No hard and fast rule has been established for determining when official involvement is sufficient to bring the exclusionary rule into effect. Each case must be evaluated on its own facts." State v. Lowry, 37 Or. App. 641, 652, 588 P.2d 623 (1978), rev. den. 285 Or. 195 (1979).

The statements involved in Lowry were given by the defendant to his cellmate, Reed, who was awaiting transfer to a federal penitentiary. Reed was a known informant. In the past he had obtained information and given it to the police in exchange *814 for a variety of rewards. On the particular occasion involved in that case, Reed contacted the police and told them that he could get incriminating information from his cellmates. The police encouraged him to talk to a particular individual in the jail. Reed, in addition to conversing with that person, talked to the defendant and obtained information linking the defendant to a robbery. Reed contacted the police and told them about the defendant. They discouraged Reed's contacts with the defendant and specifically told him not to talk with the defendant. Despite this warning, Reed subtly questioned him and gained additional information respecting the robbery and disclosed that information to the police. They ultimately encouraged Reed to talk to the defendant, delayed his transfer to the federal penitentiary and had him assigned to the defendant's cell.

The trial court suppressed all statements of the defendant given to Reed. We affirmed the order of suppression only as to the information obtained after the police actively encouraged Reed's activities and delayed his transfer to afford him the opportunity to talk to the defendant. As to the other statements, we held that they were admissible because the police had not been actively involved in Reed's questioning of the defendant. Thus, we held that Reed was not a police agent, even though he consciously desired that status and the police were aware of his propensities.

The appropriate rule, recited in Lowry, is that the exclusionary rule applies to activities of private individuals if the police are "directly or indirectly involved to a sufficient extent in initiating, planning, controlling or supporting his activities." The extent of official involvement in the total enterprise is the crucial element. State v. Becich, 13 Or. App. 415, 509 P.2d 1232, rev. den. (1973). As demonstrated by our holding in Lowry, the involvement and intent of a private individual are relevant only insofar as they are initiated, planned, controlled or supported by the police.

Father's involvement was based on the father-son relationship and his desire to put the 13-year-old runaway in a secure environment. His cooperation with the police reflects understandable parental concern.

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Related

Burdeau v. McDowell
256 U.S. 465 (Supreme Court, 1921)
United States v. Bayer
331 U.S. 532 (Supreme Court, 1947)
Miranda v. Arizona
384 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1966)
In Re GAULT
387 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1967)
State v. Allies
621 P.2d 1080 (Montana Supreme Court, 1980)
State v. Paz
572 P.2d 1036 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1977)
State v. Garrison
519 P.2d 1295 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1974)
State v. Becich
509 P.2d 1232 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1973)
State v. Lowry
588 P.2d 623 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1978)
State v. Mendacino
603 P.2d 1376 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1979)
State v. Ely
390 P.2d 348 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1964)
State v. Keller
402 P.2d 521 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1965)
State v. Quinn
623 P.2d 630 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1981)
State ex rel. Juvenile Department v. McCluskey
652 P.2d 812 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1982)

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