State v. Dodge

441 P.3d 599, 297 Or. App. 30
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedApril 10, 2019
DocketA160194
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 441 P.3d 599 (State v. Dodge) 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
State v. Dodge, 441 P.3d 599, 297 Or. App. 30 (Or. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

HADLOCK, J.

*602*32After defendant's niece, D, alleged that defendant had sexually abused her when she was a child, detectives interviewed defendant at a sheriff's office. During that interview, defendant mainly described a supportive, fatherly relationship with D and denied the allegations of sexual contact. However, he also made some inculpatory statements. Defendant eventually was charged with 46 counts of sexual abuse, rape, sodomy, and unlawful sexual penetration. He unsuccessfully moved to suppress the statements he made during the interview on the ground that he had invoked his constitutional right to counsel and detectives had not honored that invocation. At trial, the statements that defendant had sought to suppress were admitted into evidence. Defendant was convicted of five of the counts charged: four counts of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of second-degree unlawful sexual penetration. On appeal, defendant assigns error to the denial of his suppression motion. As explained below, we agree that the trial court committed reversible error when it denied that motion. Accordingly, we reverse and remand.1

To give context for our description of the facts, we set out foundational principles governing the right to counsel during custodial interrogation. Article I, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution states that "[n]o person shall *** be compelled in any criminal prosecution to testify against himself." The right to counsel during custodial interrogation derives from that right against self-incrimination. State v. Roberts , 291 Or. App. 124, 131, 418 P.3d 41 (2018). The right attaches only when a person is in custody or other compelling circumstances. That is, when a person is not in custody or compelling circumstances, officers may continue interrogating that person even after he or she expresses a desire to contact an attorney, so long as the officers do so in a way that does not render the person's responses involuntary. State v. Anderson , 285 Or. App. 355, 357, 396 P.3d 984, rev. den. , 362 Or. 94, 405 P.3d 154 (2017). However, when a person is *33in custody or compelling circumstances and unequivocally invokes the right to counsel, interrogation must cease. State v. Sanelle , 287 Or. App. 611, 623, 404 P.3d 992 (2017), rev. den. , 362 Or. 482, 412 P.3d 199 (2018). If the person invokes the right to counsel only equivocally, officers may ask clarifying questions, but those questions must be aimed at clarifying whether the person intended to invoke that specific right. Id . at 627, 404 P.3d 992.

We turn to the facts of this case. In reviewing the trial court's denial of defendant's suppression motion, we are bound by the trial court's findings of historical fact so long as evidence in the record supports them. Roberts , 291 Or. App. at 129, 418 P.3d 41. Except for reference to a few undisputed facts described at trial, which we include only to provide background, we "limit our analysis to the record developed at the motion hearing." Id . We summarize the pertinent facts in accordance with that standard.

As noted, defendant is D's uncle. When D was a young child, she moved out of her parent's home and went to live with her grandmother, with whom defendant (the grandmother's son) also lived. Defendant, D, and D's grandmother lived together for the next few years, until defendant got married and moved away.

Several years later, D disclosed to her mother that defendant had sexually abused her when they lived together, beginning when she was about eight or 10 years old. D's mother reported the abuse, and a detective was assigned to investigate. Defendant voluntarily went to a sheriff's office to speak with detectives because he had been told that he "might be a potential witness in a case they were investigating." He thought that detectives were going to question him about what he suspected was drug activity at his neighbor's house. Defendant was taken to an interview room on an upper floor at the sheriff's office via a locked elevator and through a locked door. Because of the locks, *603he could not have left entirely on his own; somebody from the office would have had to escort him out.

Defendant was seated at a table in the interview room, along with two detectives, one of whom-Brulew-asked most of the questions during the interview. The entire interview was video-recorded. The detectives were in plain *34clothes and the tone of their questions was conversational. Brulew thanked defendant for coming in, informed him that the interview was being recorded, and asked some preliminary questions. Brulew then reiterated, as he had "explained on the phone, [that defendant was] not under arrest" and that Brulew had "no intention of arresting [defendant] today at all," short of defendant admitting that he had killed somebody. Brulew told defendant that he was free to decline to answer questions and could leave at any time:

"So you saw how we came in and out. You just have to kind of go through that hallway. And we're [going to] have some questions and answers, and it's not an all or nothing thing. You can answer what you want.

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Related

State v. Thomas
343 Or. App. 560 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2025)
State v. Ribota
341 Or. App. 32 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2025)
State v. Dodge
563 P.3d 339 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2025)
State v. Hadd
523 P.3d 1123 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2023)
State v. Dodge
321 Or. App. 775 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2022)
State v. Joaquin
476 P.3d 1263 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2020)
City of Damascus v. State of Oregon
472 P.3d 741 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2020)
State v. Phillips
459 P.3d 909 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2020)
State v. Reed
452 P.3d 995 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2019)
State v. Sprow
445 P.3d 351 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2019)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
441 P.3d 599, 297 Or. App. 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dodge-orctapp-2019.