People v. Kocik

63 A.D.2d 230, 407 N.Y.S.2d 929, 1978 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11340
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJuly 13, 1978
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 63 A.D.2d 230 (People v. Kocik) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Kocik, 63 A.D.2d 230, 407 N.Y.S.2d 929, 1978 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11340 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Witmer, J.

These cases against two brothers arise out of charges of rape, first degree, robbery, first degree, and subordinate crimes allegedly committed by them on October 9, 1975. Each of the defendants was interrogated by the police at the police station later that day and gave statements implicating themselves. After Huntley hearings to determine the voluntariness of such statements and court determinations denying defendants’ motions to suppress the statements, defendant Kenneth Kocik pled guilty of sexual abuse, first degree, in violation of section 130.65 of the Penal Law in full satisfaction of the charges against him, and defendant Richard Kocik pled guilty of attempted rape in the first degree in violation of sections 110.00 and 130.35 of the Penal Law in full satisfaction of the charges against him. Kenneth was adjudicated a youthful offender and was sentenced to an indeterminate term with a maximum of four years. Richard was sentenced to an indeterminate term of seven years with a minimum of two years and three months. Both judgments were entered in October, 1976. Since the issues raised in the two appeals rest upon different treatment of the defendants at the police station, the cases will be considered separately.

RICHARD KOCIK

On the early morning of October 9, 1975 Officers Bogardus [233]*233and Vinch of the North Syracuse Police Department had been asked to investigate the alleged rape and robbery of Susan Nielson, who told them that she had talked with Richard Kocik early the previous evening at Dee II’s Restaurant on route 11. The officers spoke with a Bruce Lamb who told them that he had been with Wesley Cooper who might have been involved in the crimes against Ms. Nielson and that Richard Kocik had been with Cooper that night.

At 7:50 a.m., that day, without a warrant, the two police officers, in uniform, rapped on the door of the home of Mrs. Betty Kocik, mother of Richard Kocik, and asked to enter. On admittance they told Mrs. Kocik that they were investigating a crime which had occurred earlier that day and would like to talk with her son Richard. She told them that Richard had been home all the previous night and was upstairs in his bedroom. They assumed that the reply was an invitation to go upstairs, and they went up to a bedroom where Richard was lying on the bed. They called to him and he got up. They told him of their mission and asked him to get dressed and accompany them to the police station, and he said that he would.

Although the officers testified that Richard left with them voluntarily, he and his mother and sister testified that when he came downstairs his hands were handcuffed behind his back. They put him in the back of the police vehicle from which the doors could only be opened from the outside, and they drove to Cooper’s home, picked him up and placed him in the police car with Richard, whence they drove to the police station, arriving at 8:30 a.m. Richard and Cooper were placed in separate rooms at the police station; the Miranda rights were read to Richard and he answered that he understood them and was willing to answer questions without an attorney. Officer Bogardus then questioned Richard for about an hour, following which Officer Vinch questioned him for another 10 minutes, but Richard did not admit his involvement in the crime. Two officers, O’Donnell and Zender, talked with Richard thereafter, and at 11:30 a.m. Officer Bogardus arrested Richard for rape, first degree.

During the questioning by Officers O’Donnell and Zender, Richard continued to deny his involvement in the crime, but finally agreed to make a statement, and they took him to another room for that purpose. While they were preparing a statement for him to sign, they received a telephone call from [234]*234a person (Mr. Beardsley) who said that he was Richard’s attorney and asked them to cease questioning him and asked to speak on the telephone with Richard, which he was permitted to do. The questioning of Richard was then stopped, and he did not sign his statement.

Mrs. Kocik testified that the officers told her that Richard was under arrest when they brought him downstairs in handcuffs; that she called her attorney (Beardsley) and, with her daughter, went to the police station, arriving before 8:45 a.m. The woman clerk at the desk told her that her son was being questioned; that she could not go in but had to wait. She made no further effort at that time to see Richard, but was permitted to see him after the police finished questioning him around noon. She testified that Richard had a nervous condition and had been under mental health care in a psychiatric center and was not attending school or employed.

Defendant Richard Kocik testified in his own behalf and stated that the two officers threatened "to get me 25 years” on each count, and that as Officer Vinch questioned him he was "hitting” him in the chest with the officer’s index finger. Defendant testified that he did not know what they were talking about when referring to his Miranda rights; that when they said that they were reading his rights to him, he made no response; and he was not asked whether he understood his rights. He testified that he told the officers that he did not wish to make a statement; and also that the officers refused his request to leave.

Upon that evidence the court found that defendant’s oral statements to the police were voluntary and admissible upon trial.

Defendant contends that his statements should have been suppressed as the fruit of an unlawful detention; that the police lacked probable cause to take him into custody for interrogation; and that, although the police gave him the Miranda warnings, their insistent questioning of him for several hours without a break rendered the statements involuntary.

A confession obtained through detention without probable cause may be excluded as the fruit of the poisonous tree (see Brown v Illinois, 422 US 590; Wong Sun v United States, 371 US 471; People v Oden, 36 NY2d 382; and see People v Martinez, 37 NY2d 662; People v Dunaway, 61 AD2d 299, 303). The evidence does not support the court’s finding that [235]*235the officers had probable cause to question defendant. They only had an indication from the victim that she had talked with defendant and Wesley Cooper earlier that morning or the previous evening at a restaurant, and the statement of Bruce Lamb that he had been with Cooper who he thought might have been involved in the crime, and that defendant was with him. They also found that defendant had been out of his home that night. The People concede that the officers lacked probable cause for an arrest, but contend that they had the right to "detain” defendant upon reasonable suspicion for questioning.

In People v Morales (42 NY2d 129, 135) the court reiterated its view expressed in an earlier Morales decision (22 NY2d 55) that "[l]aw enforcement officials may detain an individual upon reasonable suspicion for questioning for a reasonable and brief period of time under carefully controlled conditions which are ample to protect the individual’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights.” The court added (p 137), " 'a policeman’s right to request information while discharging his law enforcement duties will hinge on the manner and intensity of the interference, the gravity of the crime involved and the circumstances attending the encounter’ ” (quoting from People v De Bour, 40 NY2d 210, 219; see, also,

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Bluebook (online)
63 A.D.2d 230, 407 N.Y.S.2d 929, 1978 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11340, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-kocik-nyappdiv-1978.