State v. Najee S. Hudson

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedSeptember 9, 2022
Docket2022AP000191-CR
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Najee S. Hudson (State v. Najee S. Hudson) 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. Najee S. Hudson, (Wis. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. September 9, 2022 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Sheila T. Reiff petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2022AP191-CR Cir. Ct. No. 2021CF56

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT IV

STATE OF WISCONSIN,

PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,

V.

NAJEE S. HUDSON,

DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT.

APPEAL from an order of the circuit court for La Crosse County: RAMONA A. GONZALEZ, Judge. Reversed and cause remanded for further proceedings.

Before Fitzpatrick, Graham, and Nashold, JJ. No. 2022AP191

Per curiam opinions may not be cited in any court of this state as precedent

or authority, except for the limited purposes specified in WIS. STAT. RULE 809.23(3).

¶1 PER CURIAM. The State appeals a circuit court order granting Najee Hudson’s motion to suppress statements made during a custodial interrogation. The State argues that the circuit court applied the wrong legal standard in determining that Hudson’s statements should be suppressed, and that the court improperly cut short the presentation of evidence at the suppression hearing by issuing its ruling before the State had finished presenting its case. We agree. The circuit court’s ruling—that Hudson did not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waive his Miranda rights, that his subsequent statements were involuntary, or both—was based almost exclusively on a single fact that is not decisive under either inquiry. When properly applied, both inquiries consider the totality of the circumstances, and the truncated record made during the circuit court proceeding does not allow us to determine whether, under the totality of the circumstances, Hudson’s statements should be suppressed based on reasoning other than that provided by the circuit court. We therefore reverse the suppression order and remand for a full and fair hearing on Hudson’s motion.

BACKGROUND

¶2 Law enforcement executed a search warrant of Najee Hudson’s home to obtain evidence of an alleged sexual assault. Hudson was arrested during the search, transported to a police station, and interrogated by Investigator Brooke

2 No. 2022AP191

Pataska. Pataska’s body camera recorded the entirety of the custodial interrogation, which lasted just over one hour.1

¶3 The State charged Hudson with several counts related to sexual assault and bail jumping. In due course, Hudson moved to suppress all statements made during his custodial interrogation on at least two separate bases: (1) that he did not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waive his Miranda rights consistent with the Fifth Amendment’s privilege against self-incrimination; and (2) that his statements were involuntary, and their use at trial would violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause, because they were not the product of his “free and unconstrained will,” and instead were the product of improper police pressure.

¶4 The circuit court held a Miranda-Goodchild hearing on Hudson’s motion to suppress.2 At the hearing, the prosecutor began to present her case by calling Pataska as the State’s first witness. The prosecutor also moved to admit Pataska’s body camera footage and a transcript of the interrogation into evidence.

¶5 The prosecutor announced her intention to play the video recording of the interrogation from minute mark 00:25 to 09:39, and to periodically pause the recording to ask questions. The 09:39 minute mark is significant because it is

1 The parties agree that the interrogation was “custodial.” Custodial interrogations have been defined to mean “questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom in any significant way.” See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444 (1966). 2 Named after Miranda, 384 U.S. 436, and State ex rel. Goodchild v. Burke, 27 Wis. 2d 244, 133 N.W.2d 753 (1965), such evidentiary hearings are designed to determine the adequacy of Miranda warnings, whether the defendant validly waived his constitutional rights, and whether the ensuing statements were voluntarily made. See State v. Jiles, 2003 WI 66, ¶25, 262 Wis. 2d 457, 663 N.W.2d 798.

3 No. 2022AP191

at 09:39 that Hudson signed a form that contained a “Statement of Miranda Rights” on the top half, and a “Waiver of Rights” on the bottom half. However, as discussed at greater length below, the circuit court cut off the presentation of evidence and issued its ruling before the prosecutor was able to play that portion of the video.

¶6 We now summarize the portions of the video that were played at the hearing. After Hudson and Pataska entered the interrogation room, Hudson started to tell Pataska about being detained at his home, and he indicated that no one had explained to him what was going on. Pataska responded that Hudson had been arrested, and that she had to read Hudson his rights before she could continue to ask him questions.

¶7 During the exchange that followed, which lasted several minutes, Pataska repeatedly told Hudson that she could not talk to him until she read him his rights, and she did in fact read Hudson the statement of rights, as well as a portion of the waiver of rights form. Hudson expressed concern that he was supposed to be home when his mother was done with work and that, if he waited to speak with Pataska until his lawyer arrived, he would have to wait in jail and would not be home to help his mother. At times, Hudson asserted that he wanted to talk to Pataska, at other times, he indicated that he did not “want to sign [his] rights over,” and at yet other times, he reviewed the waiver of rights form and expressed confusion and concern about its contents.

¶8 At minute 08:30 of the recorded interview, Hudson, who was looking at the form, said that he should have already left for home. Pataska responded, “that’s where I want to figure out what happened, and figure out what was going on.” Hudson stated “I want to talk to you, I want to talk about this,”

4 No. 2022AP191

and he reached for a pen on the table. He then stated, “I do have a lawyer but like he’ll be contacted ….” Hudson huffed in apparent frustration, picked up the pen, and said: “I really feel like this means something else right now that this is [inaudible] like me signing my fucking rights over.”3

¶9 At that point, the prosecutor paused the recording to ask Pataska a question. As Pataska began to answer, the circuit court interrupted her testimony, stating: “I don’t see anything in the submissions that said that anybody checked to see how long it would take a lawyer to get there. Did anybody do that during the course of this interview?” Pataska said she had not. The court responded: “All right. That’s enough for me. I’m gonna suppress the statement.”

¶10 The circuit court explained its ruling as follows. Hudson was “very clearly not understanding” what was going on, and he was “concerned” about the length of time it was going to take to get a lawyer to speak with him. Pataska should have made efforts to “find out how long it would take an attorney to get there to speak with him.” If Pataska “had at least made the call” and informed Hudson that it would “take a half hour or 20 minutes” for a lawyer to arrive, then Hudson “would have had the information [he] needed to make a knowing and voluntary waiver.”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Miranda v. Arizona
384 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1966)
Moran v. Burbine
475 U.S. 412 (Supreme Court, 1986)
State v. Trecroci
2001 WI App 126 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2001)
State v. Hoppe
2003 WI 43 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2003)
State v. Jiles
2003 WI 66 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2003)
State Ex Rel. Goodchild v. Burke
133 N.W.2d 753 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1965)
State v. Baudhuin
416 N.W.2d 60 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1987)
State v. Ward
2009 WI 60 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2009)
State v. Clappes
401 N.W.2d 759 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1987)
State v. Hanson
401 N.W.2d 771 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1987)
State v. Hambly
2008 WI 10 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2008)
State v. Mendoza
291 N.W.2d 478 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1980)
State v. Lee
499 N.W.2d 250 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1993)
State v. Timothy E. Dobbs
2020 WI 64 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2020)
State v. Adam W. Vice
2021 WI 63 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2021)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
State v. Najee S. Hudson, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-najee-s-hudson-wisctapp-2022.