United States v. Swanson

635 F.3d 995, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 6002, 2011 WL 1045843
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 24, 2011
Docket10-2178
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 635 F.3d 995 (United States v. Swanson) 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. Swanson, 635 F.3d 995, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 6002, 2011 WL 1045843 (7th Cir. 2011).

Opinions

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge.

In 2009, an arrest warrant was issued for Thomas Swanson. It was based on his 2008 possession of a firearm without a valid Firearm Owner’s Identification card, which is a violation of Illinois state law. At the time of his arrest, the police presented Swanson with a state court order to turn over all guns in his possession to them as a condition of bond. A police officer also asked him three times to comply with the turn-over order. The arresting officers did not give Swanson notice of his federal constitutional right not to incriminate himself. Approximately forty-five minutes after Swanson’s arrest, while he was being held in custody in an interrogation room of a police station, he said that he wanted to comply with the court turnover order, and admitted that he had a gun hidden under the back seat of his car. As an officer retrieved the gun, another officer gave Swanson his Miranda warnings. Swanson then submitted to a written question-and-answer interview where he again admitted possession of a gun.

Swanson was eventually charged with the federal crime of possession of an unregistered firearm. He moved to have the gun and any statements he made about the gun suppressed, arguing that the police obtained the evidence in violation of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The district court denied Swanson’s motion to suppress, finding that his statements about the gun were spontaneous and voluntary. We disagree. Swanson’s initial statement was the result of an unwarned custodial interrogation, which excuses his failure to invoke his constitutional protection against self-incrimination. And his second Mirandized written statement was tainted by the unconstitutional manner in which the first statement was obtained. The district court’s denial of Swanson’s motion to suppress is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. BACKGROUND

In June 2009, Thomas Swanson was charged in a one-count indictment with knowingly possessing a sawed-off shotgun that was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d). Swanson filed a motion to suppress the shotgun and any statements he made about the weapon. The district court granted Swanson a hearing and ultimately denied the motion, finding, among other things, that the statements surrounding the gun were “spontaneously volunteered” and admissible into evidence. On February 5, 2010, Swanson entered into a conditional guilty plea agreement that allowed him to appeal the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress.

The events giving rise to the 2010 guilty plea began approximately two years earlier, in April 2008. Sergeant David Ford of the Hinckley, Illinois Police Department received information from a confidential informant that Swanson was planning to rob a bank. Sergeant Ford and an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation [998]*998went to Swanson’s home in Sandwich, Illinois to interview him. During the interview Swanson said that his family was having financial difficulties and that he had obtained a pistol and had written a bank robbery note. He said he never actually intended to rob a bank, though, because every time he would think of going through with it he would think of his kids and cry. He also said that he was “off [of his] medications.” He told Sergeant Ford that the pistol he obtained for the robbery was in his car, and he gave him permission to search for it. Sergeant Ford searched the car and found the pistol and bank robbery note.

At some point during the interview Sergeant Ford asked Swanson to produce his state issued Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card, which is required for an Illinois resident to legally possess or purchase a firearm. Swanson showed Sergeant Ford his FOID card, and Sergeant Ford noticed that the card had expired. He confiscated Swanson’s pistol and contacted the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s Office to seek criminal prosecution against Swanson for possession of a firearm without a valid FOID card. The office declined to prosecute.

Approximately one year later, in April or May of 2009, Sergeant Ford learned from the same confidential informant that Swanson had resumed his plans to rob a bank. Sergeant Ford contacted the State’s Attorney’s Office again, and this time charges against Swanson were authorized. Sergeant Ford prepared a criminal complaint for the April 2008 violation of 430 ILCS 65/2(a)(l), which prohibits possession of a firearm without a valid FOID card. Sergeant Ford also prepared an arrest warrant for Swanson for unlawful possession of a firearm. Although the arrest warrant was based on the April 2008 violation, the warrant itself did not state a date of offense.

On May 27, 2009, Sergeant Ford went to a DeKalb County judge to present the complaint and arrest warrant. He was accompanied by an assistant state’s attorney. Sergeant Ford did not have any reason to believe that Swanson had firearms in his possession at the time he went to obtain the arrest warrant. The judge, Sergeant Ford, and the assistant state’s attorney were the only three persons present when the complaint and arrest warrant were presented. The ex parte hearing occurred in the judge’s chambers, and no recording or transcript was prepared. During the hearing, which lasted approximately five to seven minutes, Sergeant Ford detailed the investigation into Swanson’s planning of bank robberies. He explained that the criminal complaint was based on an offense that occurred in April 2008, but that he had recently received information that Swanson was in the process of planning to rob a bank again. He also explained that he had checked with the state police and they had not yet issued a new FOID card for Swanson. The judge asked why the government was not pursuing a charge of attempted bank robbery, and the state’s attorney responded that there had been no specific attempt on any bank. The judge signed the arrest warrant charging Swanson with unlawful possession of a firearm.1

After the judge signed the arrest warrant, the assistant state’s attorney recommended that Swanson be required to turn over all firearms as a condition of bond. He drafted a handwritten order that said, [999]*999“As further condition of bond, Defendant, Thomas Swanson is directed to turn over any firearms in his possession + control to the Hinckley or Sandwich police department.” The judge signed the order.

Armed with the arrest warrant and the turn-over order that had been signed by the judge, Sergeant Ford went to Swanson’s home on May 28, 2009. He was joined by a police officer from Sandwich. When they arrived at the house at 10:01 a.m., they found Swanson outside on the front lawn with his four-year-old son. They asked to speak with Swanson and after Swanson’s son went inside, they presented him with the arrest warrant and told him that he was under arrest for unlawful possession of a firearm. Sergeant Ford also presented the turn-over order and explained that the judge had issued a court order as a condition of bond that required Swanson to turn over all firearms. He then asked Swanson if he had any firearms in his possession “that he wanted to turn over in compliance with the court order.” Swanson said that he had two shotgun eases -in the house under his bed and gave Sergeant Ford permission to enter the house and retrieve them.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
635 F.3d 995, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 6002, 2011 WL 1045843, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-swanson-ca7-2011.