Percifield v. State

814 N.E.2d 710, 2004 Ind. App. LEXIS 1779, 2004 WL 2009432
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 10, 2004
DocketNo. 53A04-0312-CR-643
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 814 N.E.2d 710 (Percifield 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
Percifield v. State, 814 N.E.2d 710, 2004 Ind. App. LEXIS 1779, 2004 WL 2009432 (Ind. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

SHARPNACK, Judge.

In this interlocutory appeal, Morris Per-cifield appeals the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress. Pereifield raises two issues, which we consolidate and restate as whether the trial court abused its diseretion by denying Percifield's motion to suppress. We affirm.

The relevant facts follow. On January 18, 2002, Percifield was arrested as part of an investigation into dealing cocaine, and City of Bloomington Police Department Detective Rick Crussen interviewed him as follows:

Crussen: Do you remember the rights I told you out there in the street. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you in Court, you have the 'right to talk to a lawyer for advice before answering any questions and have them with you during questioning. If you can't afford one one would be appointed for you before any questioning. ©
b eo
Crussen: . If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present you have the right to stop answering at any time.
[712]*712dnote ok
Percifield: Well, let me call an attorney friend of mine.
Crussen: Who's that?
Percifield: He's not in town.
Crussen: Okay. At this point, because we're going to do some other investigation, we've got a couple more of your cohorts involved, if you're going to make a phone call to an attorney I have to bring a phone in here and have you dial the attorney's number out of the phone book. I'm not letting you make any phone calls to anybody besides an attorney.
Percifield: That's fine.
Crussen: Okay. So, if you want to call an attorney ...
Percifield: I've got the number up here. You can see the number here. It is an attorney.
Crussen: Okay. Who is it?
Percifield: It's Deckard. It'll come up Deckard.
Crussen: Okay. Are they in the phone book or is this ...
Percifield: Yeah. Indianapolis phone book.
Crussen: Okay. I'll go get an Indianapolis phone book.
Percifield: Yeah.
Crussen: Because if you decide that you'd rather not do anything along those lines ...
Percifield: And call somebody else?
Crussen: Exactly.
Percifield: No, I'm not going to do that.
Crussen: Because there's somebody else that we know is involved that I don't want you tipping off that ...
Percifield: I'm not going to do that.
Crussen: ... with a call. So, I don't have any problem with you contacting an attorney, you know.
Kok oe ok
Okay. Now, I'm straight up with you as long as you're straight up with me. I don't plan on pushing you to try to get you to make statements against other people. You make whatever statements you're comfortable making. We are going to get a Search Warrant for your house since that's where you just left from and we're going to search your house. Is there any more Dope in there that we need to be concerned about?
Percifield: Maybe.
Crussen: How much?
Percifield: Yes, there is.
Crussen: How much are we going to find? Cause the way it works is if you're, if you're straight up with me and say, "Oh, here's what's there and here's where it's at," that saves us hours of having to search, so if we're going to move from you to your connection, the quicker we do this, the less suspicious it looks for everybody involved.
Percifield: Let me, get me an Indianapolis phone book and I'll call my friend first.
Crussen: Okay. Just sit right there. I'll have to ...
Percifield: Oh, I'm not going anywhere. Obviously. Now, I'll be easy to deal with.
Crussen: I understand, and I don't blame you for wanting to have some idea of what you should do. Just sit tight and I'll be right back.

Appellant's Appendix at 38-45. Later that same day, Detective Kevin Hill sought a warrant to search Percifield's residence. The Monroe Circuit Court held a probable [713]*713cause hearing at which Detective Hill testified that:

Detective Crussen. and I have been conducting a cocaine dealing investigation with Morris Percifield and Robert Hard-wick as the suspects. Morris Percifield resides at the 811 Winding Way address. On yesterday's date, which would have been the 17th of January, we conducted a controlled buy on approximately a half an ounce 'of cocaine from this group. And how the deal went down was, the informant did a tape recorded phone call to Morris Percifield's cell phone. He was out of state and he made arrangements to have his what we would call a "runner" drop the drugs off: We made arrangements for the "runner" [to] show up at the informants [sic] house. They didn't meet one another. This person just showed up and put the drugs on the front porch in the barbeque grill. I was standing inside the house and looking out the window when the person arrived. He was identified in that investigation as Robert Hardwick. I have arrested him for dealing cocaine in 1993 and took a conviction on that case. We didn't arrest him that day; we just let him leave. On today's date the informant was to pay the money for that half ounce that she received yesterday to Morris Perci-field. And then purchase another half ounce for a total of $1,250 dollars and we called Morris Percifield at his home phone number which is at the address on the search warrant and made arrangements to meet him at the, Taco Bell on West Third Street to pay money for yesterday's deal and for the purchase of another half ounce today. That phone call was tape recorded as well. Paul Buckman with D.E.A. was helping us in this investigation and he did surveillance on the house and was watching the house and saw Morris Percifield, or at least an individual matching his de-seription get into the white van that was parked in front of the house and then leave and drive to Taco Bell and meet the informant while we were waiting for him to show up. The informant states that Pereifield works for a book company and drives a white van. The white van that was parked in front of the house is registered to some sort of book company, a company vehicle. When he showed up, he did the deal with the informant. .She paid him the money. He delivered another half ounce of the substance consistent with cocaine. She left and then turned the cocaine over to me. When he left the parking lot Detective Crussen and Captain Qualters stopped him in his vehicle and took him under arrest and search incident to his arrest and was in possession of our serial number recorded by money. We are currently doing surveillance on the house. Captain Qualters and Paul 'Bucknian with D.E.A. are sitting at the house now. Detective Crussen interviewed Percifield at the jail, or at the Bloomington Police Department.

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Bluebook (online)
814 N.E.2d 710, 2004 Ind. App. LEXIS 1779, 2004 WL 2009432, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/percifield-v-state-indctapp-2004.