State v. Dionicia M.

2010 WI App 134, 791 N.W.2d 236, 329 Wis. 2d 524, 2010 Wisc. App. LEXIS 678
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedAugust 24, 2010
DocketNo. 2009AP3109
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 2010 WI App 134 (State v. Dionicia M.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Dionicia M., 2010 WI App 134, 791 N.W.2d 236, 329 Wis. 2d 524, 2010 Wisc. App. LEXIS 678 (Wis. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

PETERSON, J.

¶ 1. Dionicia M. appeals a dispositional order finding her delinquent following her no contest plea to misdemeanor battery as a party to a crime. Dionicia contends the juvenile court erred when it failed to suppress inadmissible statements she made to police and when it denied her credit for predisposition time in secure detention. We agree on both points and reverse.

BACKGROUND

¶ 2. On October 15, 2008, Peter Kraeger, a Green Bay Police Department truancy officer, received a request to locate Dionicia and return her to Southwest High School. Kraeger found Dionicia about a half block from school. He asked her to get into the back seat of his squad car so that he could take her back to school, and she complied. Because the back doors of the squad car were locked, Dionicia was not able to open the doors and get out.

¶ 3. Kraeger had previously heard from another officer that Dionicia was a possible suspect in a battery [529]*529case. During the transport back to school, Kraeger asked Dionicia whether she had been involved in the battery. Dionicia replied that she had been involved. Kraeger then asked Dionicia whether she would be willing to give a statement about her involvement in the battery, and she agreed to do so. The conversation in the squad car was not recorded.

¶ 4. Kraeger brought Dionicia into an office at Southwest High School. He estimated about five to ten minutes elapsed between the time he initially stopped Dionicia and the time they arrived at the office. In the office, Kraeger turned on a recording device, read Dionicia her Miranda1 rights, and continued questioning her about her involvement in the battery. Kraeger then prepared a written statement, which Dionicia signed.

¶ 5. The district attorney subsequently filed a petition alleging substantial battery. Dionicia moved to suppress both her oral and written statements to Kraeger, arguing the statements were involuntary and were taken in violation of State v. Jerrell C.J., 2005 WI 105, 283 Wis. 2d 145, 699 N.W.2d 110, and Miranda. The juvenile court denied the suppression motion. It found Dionicia's statements were voluntary and held that failure to record the initial interrogation was not a "substantial violation" of Jerrell C.J. The court did not explicitly address Dionicia's Miranda argument.

¶ 6. Dionicia entered a no contest plea to an amended petition charging misdemeanor battery as a party to a crime. She was adjudicated delinquent, and as relevant here, ordered to spend thirty days in secure detention. During the pendency of the case, Dionicia had been placed in shelter care. She failed to return to [530]*530shelter care on the evening of March 5, 2009. As a result, she was placed in secure detention from March 6 to March 10. Therefore, she requested credit for five days applied to the thirty-day secure detention order. The juvenile court denied her request.

DISCUSSION

I. Dionicia's statements to Kraeger

¶ 7. Dionicia argues the juvenile court should have suppressed her statements because they were obtained contrary to Jerrell C.J. and Miranda. A juvenile court's decision on suppression presents a mixed question of fact and law. See Jerrell C.J., 283 Wis. 2d 145, ¶ 16. When reviewing a motion to suppress, we will uphold the juvenile court's findings of fact unless clearly erroneous. State v. Torkelson, 2007 WI App 272, ¶ 11, 306 Wis. 2d 673, 743 N.W.2d 511. However, the application of the law to those facts presents a question of law subject to independent appellate review. Jerrell C.J., 283 Wis. 2d 145, ¶ 16. Applying this standard, we conclude Dionicia's statements were taken in violation of Jerrell C.J. Therefore, it is unnecessary to address Dionicia's Miranda argument.

¶ 8. In Jerrell C.J., our supreme court announced a bright-line rule requiring all custodial interrogations of juveniles to be electronically recorded where feasible to be admissible. Id., ¶ 3. Thus, to determine whether Jerrell C.J. mandates suppression of Dionicia's statements, we must consider first whether the interrogation in the squad car was custodial and second whether it would have been feasible to record that interrogation.

[531]*531¶ 9. A suspect is in custody whenever he or she is "deprived of... freedom of action in any significant way." Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444. The test for custody is objective. The court asks whether, considering the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable person in the suspect's position would have felt free to leave. State v. Pounds, 176 Wis. 2d 315, 321-22, 500 N.W.2d 373 (Ct. App. 1993).

¶ 10. The juvenile court concluded that Dionicia was in custody while in the back seat of Kraeger's patrol car, and we agree. Kraeger sought out Dionicia at the school's request because she was truant. He told her he intended to take her back to school, and he directed her to the locked back seat of his patrol car. Once she was in the locked car, he questioned her about her involvement in a crime. A reasonable person, particularly a fifteen-year-old, would not feel free to leave the back of a patrol car under these circumstances. From the time Dionicia entered Kraeger's patrol car, she was in custody.

¶ 11. The State argues Dionicia was not in custody because the degree of restraint was minimal, because she was not handcuffed or frisked, and because Kraeger never drew his weapon or made any show of force. While these facts are relevant, they are not required to occur in order for a person to be in custody. See Torkelson, 306 Wis. 2d 673, ¶ 18.

¶ 12. Having determined that Dionicia was in custody, we must consider whether it would have been feasible for Kraeger to record her statements. Jerrell C.J. does not define "feasible." However, Webster's Dictionary gives some guidance, defining "feasible" as "ca[532]*532pable of being done or carried out." Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary 419 (1977).

¶ 13. We conclude it was "feasible" for Kraeger to record his initial interrogation of Dionicia. Kraeger was only half a block from the school when he located Dionicia. Only five to ten minutes elapsed between the time he took her into custody and the time they arrived at the school office, which contained recording equipment. Kraeger could easily have refrained from questioning Dionicia about her involvement in the battery until after they arrived at school. Had Kraeger waited the five to ten minutes before questioning Dionicia, recording the entire interrogation would have been "capable of being done or carried out."

¶ 14. Contrary to the State's argument, the mere fact that Kraeger did not have a recording device in his squad car did not make it unfeasible for him to record the interrogation. "Feasible" in this context is not a synonym for "effortless." Although Kraeger may not have been capable of recording the initial conversation while in the squad car, nothing prevented him from waiting to question Dionicia until after the short time it took to return to school. As Dionicia points out, if the police are excused from complying with Jerrell C.J. whenever the slightest effort is required to record an interrogation, the Jerrell C.J. rule becomes meaningless.

¶ 15.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2010 WI App 134, 791 N.W.2d 236, 329 Wis. 2d 524, 2010 Wisc. App. LEXIS 678, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dionicia-m-wisctapp-2010.