State v. Madison

160 N.W.2d 680, 281 Minn. 170, 1968 Minn. LEXIS 987
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedAugust 9, 1968
Docket40929
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 160 N.W.2d 680 (State v. Madison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Madison, 160 N.W.2d 680, 281 Minn. 170, 1968 Minn. LEXIS 987 (Mich. 1968).

Opinion

Frank T. Gallagher, Justice.

Appeal from a judgment of conviction.

Defendant, Eugene Madison, was convicted of robbery in violation of Minn. St. 609.245. At the time of his arrest on the charge here, he was on parole and had approximately 125 years to be served on prior sentences. Upon his conviction here, he was sentenced according to law, this sentence to be served concurrently with the others.

On May 12, 1966, at about 10 p. m. a man wearing sunglasses and a black trenchcoat entered Monsour’s Bar in St. Paul, took out a gun, and said that it was a stickup. At the trial, the bartender, Joseph Monsour (a part-owner of the bar), and two customers identified the defendant as the robber. The suspect took the money from the billfolds of the two *172 customers and Monsour, $100 from the cash register of the bar, and $1,000 from the safe after directing Monsour at gunpoint to open it. He then ordered all three men to go into the men’s washroom and instructed them to remain there until he finished looking around. The men stayed there until they heard the front door of the bar slam, at which time they emerged and called the police. The episode took approximately 10 minutes.

The suspect was also observed by two witnesses who were in a parked car behind the tavern. About the time of the robbery, they noticed a white Ford with two men in it park across the street. They saw one of the men get out of the car and walk toward the front door of the bar, which was out of their field of vision. About 10 minutes later, they observed the same man run from what appeared to be the entrance of the bar and get into the parked car, which then sped off with its lights out.

The facts surrounding the arrest of defendant, as found by the trial judge at a Rasmussen hearing, were that about 6 p. m. on Friday, May 13, the day after the robbery, two police officers passed a parked 1963 four-door white Ford sedan. Two men were seated in the car. The one on the passenger’s side of the front seat was wearing a black rain- or trenchcoat. The passenger and the Ford corresponded with descriptions of the robbery suspect and the car thought to have been used in the robbery, which the officers had received earlier over the police radio.

They turned around and pulled up behind the Ford. Officer Robert Page got out and talked to the driver of the Ford, who identified himself as Robert Willey. He was placed in the squad car where Page’s partner, Officer Richard Schmidt, had remained. Page returned to the Ford and asked defendant, the passenger, who he was. Defendant, after some delay, identified himself as Eugene Madison. While neither officer had seen Madison before, they knew of his record, and Schmidt testified that before starting on tour duty that day, he had told other police officers that Madison could be the robber of the bar. In any event, after Madison had identified himself, the officers decided that they had reasonable cause to arrest him. They went to the right side of the Ford and told Madison to get out as they were going to take him to the station. Both officers *173 advised him at some stage of the arrest that he was being arrested for a felony but not that it was for the robbery of Monsour’s Bar.

After the suspect got out of the Ford, the officers attempted to search him, but he resisted them, and they were forced to abandon the search for a time. They endeavored to handcuff him and succeeded in getting the handcuffs on one hand, but it was only with the aid of some firemen that defendant was finally handcuffed, placed in the squad car, and taken to the Public Safety Building.

A search of defendant’s pockets, made at the Public Safety Building, disclosed a gun wrapped in a paper bag, a “pocket secretary” containing a check made out by a Donald Mellom, 1 and bills and change totaling $64.50. Officer Page testified that after bringing defendant to the Public Safety Building he searched the squad car and found a roll of bills amounting to $508 partially stuffed between the seat and backrest of the rear seat.

On Monday, May 16, a complaint was filed in the municipal court of St. Paul charging defendant with robbery of Monsour’s Bar. The complaint was not executed before a judge but before a deputy municipal court clerk. Defendant was brought before the municipal court the next morning. While en route to that hearing defendant told Detectives Erwin Jahnke and Arthur Pagel that $68 of the money found belonged to him. The preliminary hearing, at which a special appearance was made by defendant, occurred on May 31. The information was filed June 1, and arraignment was held the next day. A motion to suppress statements and seized evidence was heard July 11 and denied January 6, 1967. The motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction because of the insufficiency of the complaint under the rule in State ex rel. Duhn v. Tahash, 275 Minn. 377, 147 N. W. (2d) 382, undated but served on the state on December 20, 1966, was also denied on January 6, 1967. The jury trial commenced on that day, and a verdict of guilty was returned January 12. On the following day he was sentenced to prison, and this appeal was taken from the judgment of conviction.

The legal issues raised by defendant on appeal are: (1) Whether the *174 court lacked personal jurisdiction over defendant when he was held about 3Vz days before police brought him before a magistrate; (2) whether it lacked jurisdiction when the complaint was not signed by a magistrate and, according to defendant, did not contain facts so that the magistrate could determine if there was probable cause to believe that defendant was guilty; (3) whether defendant was deprived of a fair trial and due process of law when a statement was admitted into evidence which he claims violated his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and was obtained during an unreasonable delay between the time of his arrest and first appearance in court; and (4) whether he was deprived of a fair trial when the state’s attorney was permitted to introduce evidence which indicated a prior arrest or conviction. The trial court held in the negative on each question.

There is no specific rule in Minnesota as to the length of time a suspect may be detained before being brought before a magistrate for a preliminary hearing. Here, defendant was held from the time of his arrest without warrant on Friday, May 13, until the forenoon of Tuesday, May 17 — about 3Vz days counting the intervening Sunday during which court was not in session.

In State v. Carmichael, 275 Minn. 148, 145 N. W. (2d) 554, the court held that the fact that a defendant was unreasonably detained for 6 days before being brought before a magistrate did not deprive the court of jurisdiction over defendant and the subject matter. Accord, State v. Demry, 260 Minn. 173, 109 N. W. (2d) 587. As stated in Carmichael, the sole effect of the unreasonable delay would be to render the evidence and statements obtained during the period inadmissible at the trial.

It is our opinion that the delay of about 3Vz days between the time defendant was arrested and the time when he appeared before a judge did not deprive the court of personal jurisdiction in the instant case.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
160 N.W.2d 680, 281 Minn. 170, 1968 Minn. LEXIS 987, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-madison-minn-1968.