State v. Hoppe

• Decision Date: 22 May 2003
• Docket Number: No. 00-1886-CR.,00-1886-CR.
• Citation: 661 N.W.2d 407,261 Wis.2d 294,2003 WI 43
• Parties: STATE of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Appellant-Petitioner, v. Paul D. HOPPE, Defendant-Respondent.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

261 Wis.2d 294

2003 WI 43

661 N.W.2d 407

STATE of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Appellant-Petitioner, v. Paul D. HOPPE, Defendant-Respondent.

No. 00-1886-CR.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Oral argument December 6, 2002.

Decided May 22, 2003.

For the plaintiff-appellant-petitioner the cause was argued by James M. Freimuth, assistant attorney general, with whom on the briefs was James E. Doyle, attorney general.

For the defendant-respondent there was a brief and oral argument by William E. Schmaal, assistant state public defender.

¶ 1. ANN WALSH BRADLEY, J.

The petitioner, State of Wisconsin, seeks review of an unpublished court of appeals decision affirming the circuit court's order granting Paul Hoppe's motion to suppress statements he made to police officers during their investigation of the death of Jacqueline Simon, Hoppe's girlfriend.¹ The State argues that the court of appeals erred in giving undue weight to Hoppe's condition when it concluded that Hoppe's statements were involuntary. We agree with the court of appeals that the circuit court's findings as to Hoppe's condition were not clearly erroneous and that, under the totality of the circumstances, Hoppe's statements were involuntary. Accordingly, we affirm.

I

¶ 2. On Saturday, March 6, 1999, shortly after 6:00 p.m., police were dispatched to Paul Hoppe's apartment to investigate a death. The police found Hoppe sitting in the living room with Jacqueline Simon's body on the floor next to him. Simon was Hoppe's girlfriend. Hoppe appeared to be in poor physical condition. He was shaking and was unable to walk on his own. Initially, because of Hoppe's long history of alcohol abuse, they thought he was intoxicated.

¶ 3. Hoppe was transported to the hospital but was not placed under arrest. Blood tests at the hospital indicated that he was not intoxicated. Rather, it was determined that Hoppe was suffering the effects of severe alcohol withdrawal. Captain Kevin Manthey, the officer in charge of the investigation, who had known Hoppe for 25 years, asked and received permission from Hoppe for an interview.

¶ 4. Prior to the interview, a physician prescribed Librium to control possible delirium tremors. However, the police asked a nurse who was preparing to administer the medication whether she could hold off the medication so they could interview Hoppe. The nurse was concerned about withholding the Librium, but she wanted to cooperate with the officers and thought it would be appropriate to delay administering the Librium as the police had requested.

¶ 5. Captain Manthey began the first interview with Hoppe at approximately midnight on March 6 and it ended about an hour and fifteen minutes later, at 1:14 a.m. on Sunday, March 7. This interview was tape-recorded. During this interview, Hoppe was confused about the date and gave confusing and conflicting statements about his whereabouts and the events of the previous couple of days. He denied harming Simon, and said that he found her dead at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. Hoppe also said that he had gone to a local tavern on Saturday afternoon and drank six beers. He insisted that he drank the beer even though Captain Manthey told him his blood alcohol level was .00.

¶ 6. During this first interview, Hoppe agreed to submit to a "voice stress test." Hoppe had difficulty following the instructions for this test, repeatedly answering control questions truthfully when told to answer falsely, even though the officer gave him the actual false answers to repeat. After being told three times how to answer the questions, Hoppe finally answered the control questions falsely, as instructed.

¶ 7. The next morning at 9:00 a.m., Dr. Frederick Bronson, Hoppe's treating physician, saw Hoppe and diagnosed him as suffering from chronic alcoholism, alcohol withdrawal, threatened delirium tremors, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and chronic brain syndrome secondary to alcohol abuse. According to Dr. Bronson, Hoppe was confused and remained confused for the first three or four days of his hospital stay.

¶ 8. The police returned for a second interview with Hoppe at 2:15 p.m. on Monday, March 8. During the 37-hour interval between the first interview and the second, the police placed no restrictions on Hoppe, his visitors, or his medical care. Before beginning the second interview, the police did not talk with any medical personnel about his condition. The police reminded Hoppe that he had agreed they could come back and talk to him. Hoppe acknowledged that this was correct. When asked if he was taking any medications, Hoppe said "no" even though he was on Librium.

¶ 9. At the time of the second interview, police knew that Simon had died from a blow to the back of her head. They also believed that she may have died on Friday, the day before her body was found. In this second interview, which lasted an hour and forty-five minutes, the police asked Hoppe several questions about what he and Simon had done on Friday evening and whether they had had an argument that night. He repeatedly denied that he had hit her or pushed her, and insisted that she was alive on Saturday morning. During this interview, Hoppe disavowed that he had consumed six beers on Saturday, but stated that he had consumed brandy Saturday morning. However, later in the interview he claimed that he had gone to a tavern and consumed six beers.

¶ 10. This interview was also tape-recorded. The tape reflects that Hoppe's voice was slurred and that he spoke slowly with long pauses. The police acknowledged that at several points during the interview, Hoppe closed his eyes and did not answer. Captain Manthey believed that at least a few times when Hoppe closed his eyes, he actually fell asleep. Also, during this interview, it seems that Hoppe may have been experiencing hallucinations, for at one point Captain Manthey interrupted the interview to say, "There's no one else here, Paul."

¶ 11. During this second interview, Dr. Timothy Hayes, a psychologist experienced in treating alcoholics, came to see Hoppe. The police told him to return later. Dr. Hayes did so at 5:00 p.m., approximately one hour after the police concluded the second interview. After reviewing Hoppe's chart and talking to him, Dr. Hayes noted that Hoppe was in a somewhat delirious state, in and out of consciousness, and had difficulty concentrating. He also concluded that Hoppe had short-term memory impairment and that his abstract reasoning, judgment, and problem-solving abilities were impaired. He determined that Hoppe was either hallucinating or was delusional.

¶ 12. Hoppe's former wife visited Hoppe at 8:30 p.m. on March 8. She indicated that he was lethargic and falling asleep. She also reported that his movements were delayed and his speech was slow.

¶ 13. Medical personnel noted that Hoppe was confused during the night of March 8 and March 9, though he was oriented to person, time, and place. However, on March 9 medical personnel reported that Hoppe remained confused.

¶ 14. The police returned to the hospital for their third recorded interview with Hoppe at approximately 2:00 p.m. on March 9. This interview lasted two hours. At the start of this interview, the police asked a nurse to put Hoppe in a chair so he would be better able to stay awake. It took two people to get Hoppe to his chair.

¶ 15. By this time, the police had determined that Hoppe was not at the local tavern at all on Saturday. Captain Manthey challenged Hoppe regarding his prior statements in that regard. After Manthey challenged him three times, Hoppe agreed that it was not the truth. Hoppe stated that he told them that because he needed an alibi.

¶ 16. Later during this interview, Hoppe said he could not remember whether some of the details he had previously told the officers about his and Simon's activities were truthful. When Manthey told Hoppe that it appeared that Simon had been dead all day on Saturday, and may have died on Friday, Hoppe initially reasserted his previous statements that Simon was alive on Saturday.

¶ 17. During this interview, Manthey raised emotional topics such as the death of Hoppe's parents, Hoppe's military service, and the death he saw in Vietnam. He also discussed how Simon's family was feeling and their need for an answer as to what had happened to Simon. He told Hoppe that, although he could not make any promises, he would tell the district attorney if Hoppe cooperated.

¶ 18. By the close of the interview, Hoppe admitted that he and Simon had argued on Friday. He said that she hit him and called him a "drunken old bum," and that he had hit her several times. After she fell to the floor, he kicked her a number of times with at least one kick to the head. Hoppe also briefly stated that during the fight Simon had driven away, but agreed that this was not true after Captain Manthey told him the neighbors said the cars had not been moved.

¶ 19. Hoppe's former wife visited him again on March 9 between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. During this visit, Hoppe insisted that there was a woman lying in his bed snoring. After Hoppe's former wife repeated a number times there was no woman in his bed, Hoppe indicated he realized no one was there. She described two other instances during that visit when Hoppe stated that he saw something that was not there. Hoppe told her that he had informed the police that Simon was killed when they were driving to buy some alcohol. He told them that she was killed when he went through a red light and a car struck their car. When Hoppe's former wife reminded him that he did not drive, Hoppe said a taxi cab had driven them to get alcohol and the driver helped him walk back into his apartment and that is when he found Simon dead.

¶ 20. Captain Manthey testified at the suppression hearing that during the three interviews Hoppe seemed confused about some things but not others. Manthey believed that Hoppe's condition was the worst during the second interview. Captain...