State v. Saunders

188 P.3d 449, 221 Or. App. 116, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 884
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 2, 2008
DocketC010764CR and C013567CR A119606 (Control) and A119607
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 188 P.3d 449 (State v. Saunders) 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. Saunders, 188 P.3d 449, 221 Or. App. 116, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 884 (Or. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

*118 ROSENBLUM, J.

This case returns to us on remand from the Oregon Supreme Court for reconsideration in light of its opinion in State v. Shaff, 343 Or 639, 175 P3d 454 (2007) (Shaff II). State v. Saunders, 344 Or 277, 179 P3d 671 (2008) (Saunders II). In our original opinion, State v. Saunders, 211 Or App 73, 83, 153 P3d 144 (2007) (Saunders I), we held that the circumstances under which defendant made statements to police were compelling and that all of his statements to police should have been suppressed. Noting that we had relied on an opinion that was subsequently reversed, State v. Shaff, 209 Or App 68, 146 P3d 389 (2006) (Shaff I), the Supreme Court vacated Saunders I and remanded the case “to determine whether * * * the circumstances * * * ever became compelling and, if so, when that occurred.” Saunders II, 344 Or at 279. In light of the Supreme Court’s clarifications in Shaff about the nature of compelling circumstances, we conclude that the trial court correctly decided defendant’s motion to suppress on the record before it. Accordingly, we affirm defendant’s convictions on all counts.

The state bears the burden to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that a defendant’s statements were voluntary. State v. Stevens, 311 Or 119,137, 806 P2d 92 (1991). In Saunders I, we quoted at length from the officer’s trial testimony recounting his interview of defendant in order to determine whether the admission of the evidence prejudiced defendant at trial. In determining whether the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion to suppress evidence of statements made during that interview, however, we limit our review to the record before the trial court at the time it decided the motion. 1 See State v. Ehly, 317 Or 66, 75, 854 P2d 421 (1993) (appellate courts are bound by express findings of historical fact and must presume implicit factual findings consistent with the trial court’s legal conclusion).

*119 That record reveals that Detectives Marley and Chapman, both armed but in plain clothes, went to defendant’s house to investigate allegations that defendant had sexually abused his former girlfriend’s child. Defendant invited them in and willingly took a seat at his kitchen table across from Marley while Chapman stood nearby taking notes. Marley testified that defendant attempted to stand during “the latter end” of the interview, whereupon both Marley and Chapman asked him, “Please sit down.” He complied, explaining that he had stood to retrieve water and cigarettes, and Chapman retrieved the items for him.

According to Marley, shortly after defendant stood up, Chapman stepped out of the room to call for backup while Marley continued'to question defendant. Chapman clarified that she called for backup shortly after Marley showed defendant a stick-figure drawing. The drawing was not entered into evidence or described at the suppression hearing, but defendant reacted so nervously to seeing the drawing that Chapman was “concerned] that he might flee.” The interview lasted about one and one-half hours, at which point the officers decided to arrest defendant and transport him to the police station, where he received Miranda warnings. Defendant remained seated the entire time with the exception of standing in an effort to retrieve his water and cigarettes.

The transcript of the suppression hearing contains little evidence of the content of the exchange between defendant and the officers during the interview. It does reveal, however, that Marley told defendant that the victim had made credible allegations and that the victim appeared to lack a motive to lie. When Marley asked defendant whether the victim was lying, he responded that he did not know if she was lying. Defendant asked the officers whether they believed him, and both officers replied that they did not.

In Saunders I, we held that the totality of the circumstances of the officers’ asking defendant to remain seated, “even — or especially — in his own home,” as well as the officers’ confronting defendant with incriminating evidence, would have compelled a reasonable person to answer the officers’ questions. 211 Or App at 82-83. In so holding, we relied on ShaffI, in which we held that the fact that the defendant *120 asked the officer for permission to move about his own home — and the fact that the officer granted it — demonstrated the officer’s control over the defendant’s physical environment. Noting that “the fact that the interview occurs in familiar surroundings diminishes the police-dominated atmosphere that Miranda warnings were intended to counteract,” the Supreme Court disagreed. Shaff II, 343 Or at 646. It further concluded that the officer standing in the defendant’s doorway in that case did not “physically restraint]” the defendant “in the ordinary sense of those words,” and that a minimal level of restraint, without more, is insufficient to make the setting a compelling one. Id. at 647. We conclude that, in this case, the officers’ request that defendant “[p] lease sit down” did not, by itself, make the circumstances compelling.

The question before us, then, is whether additional factors combined with Marley and Chapman’s request to remain seated to create a compelling setting. In Saunders I, we concluded that the officers’ confronting defendant with incriminating evidence, namely, the victim’s credible allegations and the stick-figure drawing, contributed to making the circumstances compelling. In so holding, we relied on Shaff I for the proposition that “[d]irect confrontation with the evidence of criminal conduct * * * exerts pressure on a reasonable person to provide an explanation,” particularly where the officer repeatedly asks the suspect for one. 209 Or App at 74. In reversing Shaff I, the Supreme Court clarified that “what matters is not whether evidence of guilt was apparent to the suspect; rather, it is whether the officers used that evidence in a coercive manner.” Shaff II, 343 Or at 650.

In light of that clarification, we now conclude that confronting defendant with incriminating evidence did not make the circumstances compelling. There is no evidence in the record of the suppression hearing that Marley and Chapman used the victim’s allegations or the drawing in a coercive manner.

In short, given the legal principles articulated in Shaff II, we conclude that the trial court did not err in determining that a preponderance of the evidence before it supported the conclusion that the circumstances were not compelling. It follows that the trial court properly denied defendant’s motion to suppress.

*121 Defendant contends in his second assignment of error that the trial court erred by denying his motion to exclude a doctor’s testimony that she had diagnosed the victim as having been sexually abused.

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Bluebook (online)
188 P.3d 449, 221 Or. App. 116, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 884, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-saunders-orctapp-2008.