United States v. Matchopatow

17 F. App'x 425
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 16, 2001
DocketNo. 01-1458
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 17 F. App'x 425 (United States v. Matchopatow) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Matchopatow, 17 F. App'x 425 (7th Cir. 2001).

Opinion

ORDER

Jordan Matchopatow, a Native American, entered a conditional plea of guilty to one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child on an Indian reservation in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1153, 2241(a), (c). He appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress his confession as involuntary. We affirm.

In August 2000 a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Matcho-patow with sexual abuse of a juvenile female. The government’s evidence included a confession that Matchopatow gave to authorities before charges were brought. Matchopatow ultimately moved to suppress this confession in the trial court. He claimed that: (1) “he did not knowingly, intelligently, or voluntarily waive his constitutional right against self-incrimination”; (2) “his request to the interrogating officer for an attorney was ignored”; and (3) “[he] responded to questions only because he was threatened and intimidated.” A magistrate judge conducted an evidentiary hearing at which both Matchopatow and Menominee Tribal Police detective Chris Delabrue testified.

Delabrue testified that on July 21, 2000, he served on Matchopatow a restraining order, which detailed allegations that Mat-chopatow had sexually assaulted a young girl. On July 26 Delabrue went to the trailer where Matchopatow was staying and asked to speak with him regarding the allegations of abuse. Matchopatow testified that he was “expecting” Delabrue and that he accompanied him to the Menominee police station to “answer the questions that [Delabrue] needed to ask [him].” Matchopatow rode unhandcuffed in the back seat of Delabrue’s unmarked squad car. The car did not have a “cage” divider between the front and back seats, and the back doors could be opened from the inside. At no time was Matchopatow told that he was under arrest. At the station Matchopatow was seated in an unsupervised lobby waiting area while Delabrue [428]*428located a place to conduct the interview. Delabrue ultimately held the interview in a detective’s office. Even though Delabrue did not consider Matchopatow to be under arrest at the time, he believed that Mat-chopatow was going to make incriminating statements and so he read him Miranda warnings from a card and secured a written waiver that also included the printed warnings. Matchopatow testified at the suppression hearing that he understood the Miranda warnings when they were given to him and agreed to answer questions.

The interview lasted approximately one and one-half hours. Delabrue began the interview by “slowly building up to what [he] was there about,” and he admittedly “sweet-talked” Matchopatow by telling him he knew that Matchopatow had not meant to hurt the girl and was feeling guilty, and that it was in Matchopatow’s best interest to tell the truth. During the interview Delabrue granted Matchopatow’s request for water and a cigarette. According to Delabrue, Matchopatow was generally cooperative. Initially Matchopatow denied any sexual abuse and conceded only that he had physically abused the child. At the suppression hearing Matchopatow testified that at some point during the interview Delabrue became agitated, began to glare and speak in a “harsh tone,” and promised to keep all statements “confidential.” Matchopatow also stated that at some point he requested a lawyer, to which De-labrue responded that he could “get [Mat-chopatow] lawyered up if [he wanted]” and could “make this embarrassing for [him].” Matchopatow claims that Delabrue’s demeanor and statements after his request for a lawyer caused him to confess to the sexual abuse. Delabrue flatly denied that Matchopatow requested a lawyer at any time during the interview.

Delabrue testified that he did assure Matchopatow that “any details of what he was saying would not leave that office, would not leave for public consumption.” But in his own testimony Matchopatow acknowledged that he understood from these words that other people within the criminal justice system would have access to his statements and that he merely wanted to avoid the embarrassment of “going public with it” in the newspapers. He knew that his confession would go up the “chain of command” and that the chief of police, “the tribal prosecutor, the tribal judge and/or the federal prosecutor” would find out. By his own account, Matchopa-tow also admittedly understood, based on his prior convictions, that he would be prosecuted because of what he told the officer.

Eventually Matchopatow began detailing the sexual abuse and gave a tearful confession. At the conclusion of the interview Matchopatow requested a visit with his mother, which Delabrue granted before placing Matchopatow under arrest.

In recommending that Matchopatow’s motion be denied, the magistrate judge concluded that Delabrue’s testimony was more credible than Matchopatow’s, and that Matchopatow had not requested a lawyer as he claimed. The magistrate judge also reasoned that Delabrue’s “sweet-talking” tactics and assurances of confidentiality were permissible actions that did not render Matchopatow’s confession involuntary. Matchopatow filed objections to the magistrate judge’s proposed findings, but the district court adopted the recommendations and denied the motion to suppress. Matchopatow then entered a conditional plea of guilty, “reserving the right ... to appeal ... the adverse determination of the defendant’s pretrial motion requesting the suppression of the defendant’s statement to Sergeant Christopher Delabrue on July 26, 2000.”

[429]*429Matchopatow contends on appeal that his confession should have been suppressed by the district court because Dela-brue “misadvised” him concerning the Miranda warnings by telling him during the interview that whatever he said would “not be used for public consumption.” Matcho-patow argues that he confessed only because he believed that his statements would remain private, and therefore his waiver of his Fifth Amendment rights was involuntary.

The government first questions Matchopatow’s ability to raise the Miranda issue on appeal. Matchopatow entered a conditional guilty plea pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(a)(2).1 The government, relying on United States v. Doherty, 17 F.3d 1056 (7th Cir.1994), asserts that Matchopatow waived his right to bring his Miranda argument on appeal because he failed to preserve that specific issue below. In Doherty, the defendant entered a conditional plea of guilty to check kiting in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344. He explicitly reserved for appeal the issue whether the district court erroneously denied his motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground that § 1344 does not cover bank fraud by check kiting. On appeal we rejected Doherty’s argument, but remanded for resentencing. Doherty moved to withdraw his guilty plea on remand, which the district court denied, and Doherty again appealed, arguing that he should have been allowed to withdraw his plea because the indictment was duplicitous.

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Bluebook (online)
17 F. App'x 425, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-matchopatow-ca7-2001.