Thomas Patrick Keegan v. United States

385 F.2d 260, 1967 U.S. App. LEXIS 4656
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedNovember 2, 1967
Docket21557
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 385 F.2d 260 (Thomas Patrick Keegan v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomas Patrick Keegan v. United States, 385 F.2d 260, 1967 U.S. App. LEXIS 4656 (9th Cir. 1967).

Opinion

DUNIWAY, Circuit Judge:

Keegan appeals from a judgment whereby he was sentenced following the verdict of a jury convicting him of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2312, transporting a stolen vehicle in interstate commerce, knowing that it was stolen.

The evidence, stated most favorably to the government (Keegan offered none), is as follows: On August 14,1966, Gary Barilla, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had left his car, a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville, brown with white vinyl top, Pennsylvania license No. 61286R, serial No. 262376 P 236853, in a parking lot adjacent to the apartment house where he lived. He last saw it at 1:00 A.M. on August 14. At 10:00 A.M., the car was gone. No one had his permission to use it. In the glove compartment was a wallet containing a number of cards, including particularly a Credit Card, exhibit lc, issued by the Pittsburgh National Bank. Keegan was at the apartment of a friend in Pittsburgh, about 10 minutes driving time from the borough where Barilla lived, on August 13 and 14. He left the friend’s apartment late in the evening of the 13th, returned at about 4:00 A.M. on the 14th, and then departed.

On September 30,1966, Keegan arrived at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. He registered under the name of Gary J. Barilla, using the address shown on exhibit lc, and was assigned to Room 326. He had no reservation. The registration card is exhibit 2. By October 2, he had run up a bill for room, meals and other items in excess of $90.00. As a result, Mr. Chappell, the hotel manager, became concerned. He did not know whether Keegan was still at the hotel. He phoned Room 326, got no answer, and then went to the room with a hotel employee, a security guard. Pie knocked and no one answered, and he entered with a pass key. There he saw an identification card of Thomas Keegan. He wrote the Keegan name and address on the regis *262 tration card, exhibit 2. He then returned to his office and called the Clark County Sheriff’s office.

Two deputies arrived, one of whom, Leone, was a witness in the ease. Chappell showed Leone exhibit 2, including his own writing on the back. Leone then called the “Long Island, New York,” police, and they transferred the call to a person who identified herself as Mrs. Keegan, with whom Leone spoke. Chappell and the two officers, who were in plain clothes, found Keegan at the hotel swimming pool. Chappell inquired about Keegan’s hotel bill and asked if Keegan would like to establish credit or pay his bill. Keegan said, “Certainly, I have my billfold in the car out at the rear parking lot. Let’s go out there and I will take care of it,” or “Let’s go out to the car. I can show you plenty of identification.” The four men proceeded to the parking lot, to Barilla’s car. It had a trailer attached to it, carrying a boat. Keegan extracted a key from his bathing suit, opened the car, and produced a wallet. 1 From it he pulled out exhibit lc and handed it to Chappell, saying “This will take care of my bill.”

When Leone saw the name “Gary Barilla” on the card he immediately identified himself as a deputy sheriff and said to Keegan: “You don’t have to say anything without the presence of an attorney. Anything that may be said out of the presence of an attorney could be held against you in a court of law. If you don’t have funds to pay for an attorney, we will appoint one.” Keegan replied: “I don’t have nothing to hide. I will answer anything within reason.” Leone asked if he knew Keegan, and Keegan replied: “No, I have never heard of him.” He also said that the car was his. Asked for its registration, he said he had lost it at the lake, while boating. Asked for a registration for the boat, he gave the same answer.

Keegan asked to go up to his room to change his clothes. Leone said that there was some question as to Keegan’s'identification and asked whether he would mind if they accompanied him. Keegan said, “No, perfectly alright.” The group then went to the room. 2 Chappell gave Leone a key to the adjoining room, and from there Leone telephoned to Barilla, at the address used by Keegan on exhibit 2 when he registered. He talked to Barilla. Meanwhile, Keegan told Chappell that his parents would take care of the bill and that he was A.W.O.L. from the service in New Jersey. Leone returned to Room 326, repeated the warning that he had given at the poolside, and told Keegan that he was under arrest “for a fugitive out of Pennsylvania.” 3 Keegan was taken to jail; the car and boat were towed away for safekeeping. The room was not searched. 4 Leone had neither an arrest warrant, a “fugitive” warrant, nor a search warraht.

On the next day, October 3, F.B.I. agent J. Edgar Howerton examined the car, having been told about it by officer Leone, and obtained a description, the li *263 cense number, and the identification number. He also lifted a latent fingerprint from the car, which is exhibit 3. This proved to be Keegan’s, an exemplar, taken at the jail, being exhibit 7. Howerton removed from the car trunk a pair of New York license plates which are exhibit 4. On October 4, he went to the Clark County Jail where he interviewed Keegan. He first handed Keegan a document, exhibit 5, for identification. 5 Keegan read it and said he did not wish to sign, but would be willing to talk to Howerton without an attorney being present. Howerton said the interview would center around a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville. Keegan said he got the car from a man in the Bronx, New York City, named George, who said he had a car which had been stolen in Pittsburgh and would sell it for $100. Keegan said that he planned to have the car registered in New York through a friend in the Bronx Department of Motor Vehicles section, but did not wait for the registration and left New York, travelling around the country and finally arriving in Las Vegas on September 30. Howerton handed defense counsel his reports of his investigation which were marked exhibit 6 for identifieation. 6 He did not have a warrant to search the car. He filed a complaint with the U. S. Commissioner, a warrant was issued, and the Marshal then took custody of Keegan. This was on October 4 or 5.

We have summarized the record at some length because of the nature of the attack now made on the judgment. Counsel, who did not try the case, now asserts that Keegan’s statements to Chappell and to Leone were unlawfully obtained, that the arrest was unlawful, that the statements to Howerton were unlawfully obtained, and that exhibit lc was unlawfully seized and a motion to suppress it should have been granted. One of the principal barriers to these claims is that trial counsel did not object to any of the evidence in question, with but two exceptions. As to three of the five exhibits received in evidence, including lc, he said, “No objection.” He objected to exhibit 2, after considerable voir dire examination, but stated no grounds. We can think of no valid grounds, nor has appellant’s counsel suggested that the exhibit should have been excluded.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
385 F.2d 260, 1967 U.S. App. LEXIS 4656, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-patrick-keegan-v-united-states-ca9-1967.