State v. Grimm

414 P.3d 435, 290 Or. App. 173
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedFebruary 14, 2018
DocketA158921
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 414 P.3d 435 (State v. Grimm) 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. Grimm, 414 P.3d 435, 290 Or. App. 173 (Or. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

The interview room had two doors and windows facing the street. It was unlocked, and no security code was needed to enter or leave. It contained a small round table that the officers and defendant sat around; defendant sat in the chair closest to the door to the lobby, Steigleder sat to his right, and Stowe sat to the right of Steigleder. Neither officer blocked defendant's access to the exit door. The room did not have any cameras or police equipment in it, and the temperature was comfortable.

The interview began with Stowe asking defendant to tell his side of the story.2 Defendant was not advised of his Miranda rights *438then or at any point during the interview. The officers never raised their voices, and there was no show of physical force or indication that the officers might engage in physical force.

Defendant first said that he was installing some cable devices in the complainant's home and, while he was in a crouched position, his belt broke and his pants fell down. The complainant came into the room while his pants were still down. He said that his penis was not exposed. He showed the officers the belt, which he had brought with him. It looked like it had been cut rather than torn from use.3 Defendant stood up at some point to show the officers how his pants were fitting; the officers did not tell him to sit down. Otherwise, the officers and defendant remained seated during the interview.

*176Stowe pointed out to defendant that his version of the incident was inconsistent with the complainant's version. The second or third time that defendant told his story, he said that his penis may have been exposed a little through a hole in his underwear. When Stowe told defendant that that was also different from the complainant's account, defendant said that the complainant was lying. Each time that defendant told the story, he added details that he had not included before. Stowe was "unconvinced" by defendant's account of events.

Steigleder, who did the majority of the questioning, told defendant that she did not think his story made sense and communicated that she did not believe he was telling the truth. At the suppression hearing, she testified:

"I would point out the inconsistency [with the complainant's statement] and give him another chance to tell me the story, and he told the story and he changed it a little, and then I'd point out the next inconsistency and he would change it again. And we just kind of-it was kind of I let him tell the story and then I would point out why it didn't make sense and then said, you know, I don't think that's quite the way it happened, you know, is there something else. And then you know, he would change the story."

According to Steigleder, defendant changed his version of events several times to try to make it line up with the complainant's: First, as noted, defendant said that his belt broke and his pants fell down, but that his penis was not exposed; next, he said that maybe the button on his boxers had been undone and slightly exposed his penis; then, he said that he had intentionally dropped his pants to ventilate his testicles.

At that point, Steigleder "changed tactics" and asked defendant whether he watched pornography and how often. Defendant admitted that he watched pornography a couple of times a week with his wife and he also watched by himself. Steigleder then told defendant that she believed he had been aroused by the fact that the complainant was in the house and he might get caught:

"I said what I think happens, this is-you know, you get these urges or you have these fantasies and you act on it and I-you know, I think I even told him, you know, I'm *177sure maybe you didn't really mean for her to come in, it's just the fact that she was there and that you could get caught is where that arousal is coming from."

She also said that she believed he had a sexual addiction problem and that he should get counseling. Steigleder then said, "tell me what really happened," and, at that point, defendant admitted that he had gotten aroused, exposed his penis, and started to play with himself when the complainant walked into the room. The interview concluded without defendant being cited and defendant left on his own.

The interview lasted "at the most" one and one-half hours. Steigleder testified that he had told defendant "[p]robably right about * * * three" times that defendant was free to leave at any time, that he had made those statements throughout the interview, and that defendant appeared to have understood what he had been told. Defendant never asked to stop the interview, leave, talk with anyone else, or take a break. The officers did *439not tell defendant that they knew he had committed a crime or that they could find out the truth through other means. They also did not tell defendant that they planned to arrest him and, in fact, they testified that they did not intend to do that.

After he was charged with private indecency, defendant moved to suppress the statements he had made during the interview, arguing that suppression was required under Article I, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution because they were obtained while he was under compelling circumstances and he was not given Miranda warnings before being questioned.4 The trial court denied suppression, concluding that the circumstances of the interview were not compelling and, therefore, Miranda warnings were not required.

The court reasoned that defendant drove to the police station voluntarily and "clearly was eager to go to present his side of the story," and "the officers were very clear that they told him that he was free to leave." Although the court found that there was "some pressure" on defendant, particularly at the end of the interview, in the totality *178of the circumstances, that pressure did not, in the court's view, "outweigh[ ] the fact that he was there voluntarily, that he was there making up stories voluntarily."

The case was then tried to the court, and the court found defendant guilty of private indecency. Defendant appeals the judgment of conviction, assigning error to the trial court's denial of his suppression motion.

Article I, section 12, which protects a person's right against compelled self-incrimination,5 requires Miranda warnings before the police interrogate a person "who is in full custody or in circumstances that create a setting which judges would and officers should recognize to be compelling." State v. Roble-Baker , 340 Or. 631, 638, 136 P.3d 22 (2006) (internal quotation marks omitted). If an officer fails to give the requisite Miranda warnings in either of those situations, we must suppress the statements made in direct response to the unwarned questioning. State v. D. P.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
414 P.3d 435, 290 Or. App. 173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-grimm-orctapp-2018.