People v. Ridley

872 P.2d 1377, 18 Brief Times Rptr. 445, 1994 Colo. App. LEXIS 78, 1994 WL 72539
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 10, 1994
DocketNo. 92CA1924
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 872 P.2d 1377 (People v. Ridley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Ridley, 872 P.2d 1377, 18 Brief Times Rptr. 445, 1994 Colo. App. LEXIS 78, 1994 WL 72539 (Colo. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge ROTHENBERG.

Defendant, Gloria Ridley, appeals the judgment of conviction entered upon a jury verdict finding her guilty of aggravated distribution of cocaine. We affirm.

In March 1992, Ridley’s ex-husband met with undercover agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and provided them information concerning Ridley’s alleged drug trafficking activities. He also agreed to become a paid DEA informant.

On March 23, 1992, Ridley was arrested for aggravated distribution of cocaine. Her ex-husband cooperated in the arrest.

On March 25, 1992, shortly before Ridley was released from jail on bond, she was approached by DEA agents who asked her to become a DEA informant and to broker other large drug deals in that capacity. She agreed, and, upon her release that day from jail, she met with DEA agents, signed a cooperation agreement, and gave them certain information. Her purpose in cooperating was to obtain leniency on her cocaine charge.

On March 27, 1992, Ridley was formally charged with aggravated distribution of cocaine and appointed counsel. Her counsel was not told of her status as a DEA informant.

During the next few weeks, Ridley attempted to set up deals with third parties to sell large amounts of cocaine to undercover agents. However, the deals did not materialize, and, for that and other reasons, she was terminated as an informant and rearrested.

Three months before trial, Ridley formally filed a Notice of Defense advising the prosecution that her defenses were “Entrapment, failure of prosecution to establish mental element beyond reasonable doubt.”

At trial, Ridley’s primary defense was entrapment. She testified that her ex-husband, working as an undercover DEA informant, had initiated the March 23rd drug transaction and had induced her to enter into it with promises of reconciliation. Although she admitted that she previously had sold a small amount of cocaine for a third party on March 11,1992, she otherwise denied involvement in drug transactions before the transaction for which she was arrested.

In view of her entrapment defense, the trial court allowed the prosecution to bring in evidence during its case-in-chief of Ridley’s willingness to arrange large cocaine transactions as a DEA informant shortly after her arrest. The court denied her motion to suppress all such evidence of her statements and activities as an undercover DEA agent, and rejected her contention that her rights under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments had been violated.

I.

Ridley first contends her constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel was denied by the prosecution’s introduction of evidence that she arranged large cocaine transactions for DEA agents following her arrest for aggravated distribution of cocaine. Although we agree Ridley’s Sixth Amendment rights were violated, under the circumstances of this case, we conclude that reversal is not required.

A defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches at or after the time adversary judicial proceedings have been initiated against her whether by way of formal [1379]*1379charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, or arraignment. Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682, 92 S.Ct. 1877, 32 L.Ed.2d 411 (1972). See People v. Anderson, 842 P.2d 621 (Colo.1992).

In Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, 431, 106 S.Ct. 1135, 1146, 89 L.Ed.2d 410, 427 (1986), the Court discussed the scope of the Sixth Amendment protection afforded once.it has attached, stating:

[A]fter the first charging proceeding the government may not deliberately elicit incriminating statements from an accused out of the presence of counsel.

See also People v. Vigoa, 841 P.2d 311, 315 (Colo.1992) (“[E]ven though the interrogation or conversation may be noncustodial, the Sixth Amendment provides a constitutional remedy, independent of the privilege against self-incrimination.... ”).

Here, Ridley’s Sixth Amendment rights attached on March 27, 1992, when she was formally charged. Thus, her initial statements to DEA agents on March 25th were not in violation of her right to counsel.

However, the trial court did not limit the prosecution to the statements and activities that occurred before her right to counsel attached; it allowed all such evidence, concluding that McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U.S. 171, 111 S.Ct. 2204, 115 L.Ed.2d 158 (1991), was dispositive of the issue. We do not give McNeil as expansive an interpretation.

In McNeil, the defendant was charged with armed robbery in West Allis, Wisconsin, and appeared with a public defender at his bail hearing. While in jail on the robbery charge, he was questioned by police about a murder and other crimes occurring in Caledonia, Wisconsin, which were unrelated to the armed robbery. After being advised of his Miranda rights, defendant waived his rights and made incriminatory statements about the Caledonia offenses outside the presence of counsel, which were admitted at trial on the Caledonia offenses.

The court found no violation of McNeil’s Sixth Amendment right because it ruled that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel is “offense-specific.” In other words, a defendant’s request for counsel at a bond hearing on one offense does not preclude police custodial interrogation in the absence of counsel on an unrelated and previously uncharged offense. Thus, the prosecution was free to use McNeil’s incriminating statements at his trial on the Caledonia offenses because his counsel had been appointed to represent him only on the other offense.

Ridley’s circumstances are different. The damaging statements obtained from her by DEA were not introduced in an unrelated trial. They were introduced against her in the trial of the same drug trafficking offense to which her Sixth Amendment right to counsel had already attached.

We therefore conclude that, there being no waiver of Ridley’s right to counsel, the prosecution should not have been permitted to introduce in its case-in-chief the evidence obtained from her in her counsel’s absence after her Sixth Amendment right to counsel attached on March 27, 1992, when formal proceedings were initiated against her. See Michigan v. Harvey, 494 U.S. 344, 110 S.Ct. 1176, 108 L.Ed.2d 293 (1990).

Nevertheless, we also conclude that, under the circumstances at issue, no reversible error occurred.

In Harris v. New York, 401 U.S. 222, 225-26, 91 S.Ct. 643, 645-46, 28 L.Ed.2d 1, 4-5 (1971), the Court held that, even though an accused’s statements were inadmissible to establish the prosecution’s case-in-chief due to a Miranda violation, if the accused took the stand and testified, the statements could be used for impeachment, provided that they were not coerced or involuntary statements:

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872 P.2d 1377, 18 Brief Times Rptr. 445, 1994 Colo. App. LEXIS 78, 1994 WL 72539, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-ridley-coloctapp-1994.