U.S. v. Ventura, Criminal No. 94-364 (JAF).
| Decision Date | 18 October 1996 |
| Docket Number | Criminal No. 94-364 (JAF). |
| Citation | 947 F.Supp. 25 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Amado Fernandez VENTURA and Milagros Cedeño, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico |
Antonio R. Bazan, Asst. U.S. Attorney, Guillermo Gil, U.S. Attorney, San Juan, PR, for Plaintiff.
Linda Backiel, Gregorio Lima, Carlos Ramirez-Fiol, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.
In this case, in which the United States is prosecuting Amado Fernández Ventura and Milagros Cedeño for failing to declare the importation of over $10,000, this court previously ordered the suppression of inculpatory statements made in the absence of Miranda warnings. United States v. Fernández-Ventura, 892 F.Supp. 362 (1995). The First Circuit reversed this court's order, and remanded the case for a determination consistent with its opinion. United States v. Ventura, 85 F.3d 708 (1st Cir.1996). The rule has always been that Customs and border controls receive a broader leeway in their official duties regarding Fourth and Fifth Amendment concerns. With this in mind, we apply the principles set forth by the First Circuit in its opinion.
Pursuant to the First Circuit's mandate, a fact-finding hearing was held on September 4, 1996. The government approved this court's findings of fact as published in Fernández-Ventura, 892 F.Supp. at 364. Accordingly, no additional findings of fact are required. A summary of the salient facts reported in our previous opinion follows.
Amado Fernández-Ventura traveled frequently between St. Maarten, N.A., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and had $40,000 of his confiscated several weeks before the present case. Customs returned the money after Fernández-Ventura prevailed in his contest to the seizure. A computerized advisement had tipped off the officers to Mr. Fernández-Ventura's presence on November 12, 1994, the day of his arrest. After clearing Immigration controls at San Juan's Luis Muñoz Marín Airport, he was grabbed by Customs officers and immediately taken to the secondary inspection area. While guarded by four uniformed officers, two of which were armed, Mr. Fernández-Ventura was asked whether he had cash on his person. After he replied that he had $8,000, the officers then searched his suitcase, finding lingerie. Upon learning that the lingerie belonged to Mr. Fernández-Ventura's mujer (wife or girlfriend), the officers had Mr. Fernández direct them to her.
Milagros Cedeño had already cleared Immigration and Customs. Knowing this, she had neared the exit and was using a public telephone. The officers detained Cedeño and brought both defendants back to the same secondary inspection area where they had been questioning Mr. Fernández-Ventura. Upon questioning, Ms. Cedeño testified to having $9,000 in cash. The officers then searched the defendants and found them to be collectively in possession of $16,166, well above the $10,000 limit for each person or family unit requiring declaration according to 31 U.S.C. § 5316 (1988). The officers inquired as to the owner of the money and when Mr. Fernández-Ventura stated that the company of which he was president owned the money, the officers placed both defendants under arrest.
Before the custodial interrogation of a suspect, Miranda warnings are required. Two kinds of situations constitute custody: "[A] formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement associated with a formal arrest," Thompson v. Keohane, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 116 S.Ct. 457, 465, 133 L.Ed.2d 383 (1995) (quotation marks and citations omitted). The latter requires an analysis of whether a reasonable person in the suspect's shoes would have understood the situation to involve a restraint on freedom of movement associated with a formal arrest. Stansbury v. California, 511 U.S. 318, ___, 114 S.Ct. 1526, 1529, 128 L.Ed.2d 293 (1994). There are several common markers of a custodial situation, some of which were outlined in this case's previous appellate decision by the First Circuit. Ventura, 85 F.3d at 711. Other circumstances were laid out in Sprosty v. Buchler, 79 F.3d 635, 641 (7th Cir.1996), cited by the First Circuit. Ventura, 85 F.3d at 711. As the First Circuit noted, the test for custody is a fact-intensive examination. Id. Having reviewed the factors used by different courts, we have extrapolated three that address the principal concerns in this area of the law.
First, we must determine "whether the suspect was questioned in familiar, or at least neutral surroundings," United States v. Streifel, 781 F.2d 953, 961 n. 13 (1st Cir. 1986), and the degree of police control over the environment in which the interrogation took place. United States v. Griffin, 7 F.3d 1512, 1518 (10th Cir.1993); Sprosty, 79 F.3d at 641. The number of law enforcement officers may clarify this first factor. See Streifel, 781 F.2d at 961 n. 13.
The second factor relevant to the custody determination is the degree of physical restraint placed on the suspect, and whether the suspect was advised or could have reasonably believed that he or she could interrupt prolonged questioning by leaving the scene. Streifel, 781 F.2d at 961; Griffin, 7 F.3d at 1518; Sprosty, 79 F.3d at 641; United States v. Johnson, 64 F.3d 1120, 1126 (8th Cir.1995). A third factor is the duration and character of the interrogation and, in particular, whether there has been prolonged, coercive and accusatory questioning or whether the police have employed subterfuge in order to induce self-incrimination. Streifel, 781 F.2d at 961 n. 13; Sprosty, 79 F.3d at 641; Johnson, 64 F.3d at 1126.
Interrogation is the second part of the test to determine whether, because of custodial interrogation, rights to counsel and silence have attached. Fortunately, interrogation is more easily spotted than custody. If an officer should know that a question is reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response, and a reasonable person would perceive the question as an interrogative one, there is an interrogation. See Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 301, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 1689-90, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980); United States v. Taylor, 985 F.2d 3, 7 (1st Cir.1993).
The Customs context in which the defendants were arrested raises the degree of scrutiny the above standards require. The policy objective of controlling the borders of the United States necessitates the questioning of citizens and noncitizens by Customs officials. Universally-applied elements of Customs procedures cannot be considered per se custodial, including the "secondary questioning" in which travelers of heightened suspicion are taken in for a further questioning. See Ventura, 85 F.3d at 711; United States v. Pratt, 645 F.2d 89, 90 (1st Cir.1981). In short, for the rights of counsel and silence to attach in a Customs setting, the experience must be perceptibly outside the routine Customs process.
Yet, these policy objectives do not obviate the constitutional requirements regarding custodial interrogation. Rather, these objectives require that the failure to Mirandize suspects be accompanied by especially egregious circumstances to comprise a constitutional violation meriting the suppression of evidence. We find that the facts of the present case demonstrate such an unacceptable violation.
The inquiry required is whether the defendants were subjected to a custodial interrogation that caused their rights to counsel and silence to attach. Turning to the first element, we find that a reasonable person in the suspects' shoes would have understood the situation to be a custodial one.
The first indicator of a custodial situation is whether the surroundings are familiar or neutral, Streifel, 781 F.2d at 961 n. 13, and the degree of police control over the environment in which the interrogation took place. Griffin, 7 F.3d at 1518; Sprosty, 79 F.3d at 641. Customs situations are not generally considered to be neutral, since the Customs officials have extensive powers to search and question travelers. But since Customs situations are not per se custodial, it stands to reason that this lack of neutrality is generally acceptable. Ventura, 85 F.3d at 712. However, in this case, the Customs officials created an atmosphere that easily surpassed the routine Customs situation. First, Customs officers did not conduct a general primary inspection; Mr. Fernández-Ventura was taken immediately to secondary questioning after leaving the Immigration control area. This action created an atmosphere of custody beyond routine Customs investigations, which begin in the primary questioning area. Although the intent of the officers is not a valid consideration in determining how a reasonable person in this situation would have felt, Stansbury, 511 U.S. at ___, 114 S.Ct. at 1529, the officers' behavior would have communicated the serious nature of the investigation to any reasonable person in the suspects' shoes. The number of officers present further elaborates on the degree to which the situation occurred in a police-controlled environment. The fact that there were four uniformed officers with the defendants at all times, two of whom were armed, indicates the degree to which the situation was out of the ordinary and, therefore, a custodial one.
The second indicator is whether there was physical restraint placed on the suspect, and whether the suspect was advised or could have reasonably believed that he or she could interrupt prolonged questioning by leaving the scene. Streifel, 781 F.2d at 961 n. 13; Griffin, 7 F.3d at 1518; Sprosty, 79 F.3d at 641; Johnson, 64 F.3d at 1126. Although neither Mr. Fernández-Ventura nor Ms. Cedeño were physically restrained, they were unaware of any ability to leave and were in fact unable to leave. Any reasonable person in this situation would experience a heightened sense of being in custody. In...
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United States v. Lorenzo
...or constituted an arrest. “There were four officers with the defendants at all times two of whom were armed.” United States v. Ventura, 947 F.Supp. 25, 29 (D.P.R.1996). However, the officers were not present simultaneously. Ventura II, 132 F.3d at 847. In Pratt, the First Circuit found that......
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U.S. v. Fernandez-Ventura, FERNANDEZ-VENTURA and M
...the degree of physical restraint placed on the suspect; and (3) the duration and character of the questioning. United States v. Ventura, 947 F.Supp. 25, 29 (D.Puerto Rico 1996). The district court held that the surroundings were indicative of custody because the officers sent Fernandez-Vent......