State v. Law

• Decision Date: 11 January 2002
• Docket Number: No. 26587.,26587.
• Citation: 39 P.3d 661,136 Idaho 721
• Court: Idaho Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Florence LAW, Defendant-Appellant.

39 P.3d 661

136 Idaho 721

STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Florence LAW, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 26587.

Court of Appeals of Idaho.

January 11, 2002.

Molly J. Huskey, Interim State Appellate Public Defender; Paul S. Sonenberg, Deputy Appellate Public Defender, Boise, for appellant.

Hon. Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; Kenneth K. Jorgensen, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent.

LANSING, Judge.

Florence Law was convicted of one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor for having sexual intercourse with her grandson who was under the age of sixteen. Before trial, Law moved to suppress postMiranda statements that she made to the police. The district court denied the motion. Law also filed a motion in limine to exclude evidence that she had participated in the sexual molestation of her daughter when her daughter was a minor. However, the district court admitted the evidence. On appeal, Law challenges both of these rulings.

I. BACKGROUND

Law was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct, Idaho Code § 18-1508, for having sexual intercourse with her grandson. According to the victim, the molestation began when he was twelve years old and continued for a period of three years. The victim's trial testimony described the charged offense as follows. In 1993, when the victim was twelve and Law was sixty-three, the victim came to stay with his grandparents for the summer. One night, shortly after the victim's arrival, Law's husband, who was naked at the time, roused the victim from sleep and asked him to come into his grandparents' bedroom to give them massages. The victim went to the bedroom and massaged both grandparents' backs. After the massages, the victim went back to bed, but his grandfather returned and asked the victim to go back to the bedroom. Once there, the grandfather told the victim to lie on the bed next to Law, who was naked and lying on her side. Law moved over in order to give the victim some room on the bed. After the victim lay down, the grandfather fondled the victim's penis until it became erect. The grandfather then rolled the victim onto his side to face Law's backside. Law parted her legs and her husband inserted the grandson's penis into her vagina. The grandson then had sexual intercourse with Law.

According to the victim, this form of molestation by Law and her husband continued throughout that summer visit and during visits to his grandparents' home during the next two summers. The sexual contact did not stop until the end of the summer of 1996 when the victim was permanently moved to a juvenile facility.

In 1997, Law's grandson reported the incidents of sexual intercourse to authorities, and Law and her husband were charged with lewd conduct. In pretrial motions, Law sought to suppress statements she had made to police and sought to preclude the State from introducing evidence that Law's daughter (the victim's aunt) had been sexually molested by Law and her husband. These motions were unsuccessful, and upon a jury trial, Law was convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct with her grandson.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Miranda Waiver

We first consider Law's challenge to the admission of statements she made to the police during custodial interrogation. When reviewing the trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress evidence on constitutional grounds, we defer to the trial court's factual findings if they are supported by substantial evidence, but we exercise free review in determining whether, on those facts, constitutional standards have been satisfied. State v. Cheatham, 134 Idaho 565, 574, 6 P.3d 815, 824 (2000); State v. Weber, 116 Idaho 449, 452, 776 P.2d 458, 461 (1989); State v. Brennan, 123 Idaho 553, 555, 850 P.2d 202, 204 (Ct.App.1993); State v. Nobles, 122 Idaho 509, 512, 835 P.2d 1320, 1323 (Ct.App.1991).

1. Refusal to sign notification of rights form

Law was interrogated at the county jail in a tape recorded interview. An officer informed Law of her Miranda rights and then asked if she understood those rights. Law responded affirmatively. The officer then asked Law to sign a "notification of rights" form that included a waiver of the rights. The following exchange then occurred:

Officer 1: Sign this if you would like to talk about this situation. Law: I would like to know what's going on, and who's doing it. Officer 1: I need you to sign that, then we can talk. Law: That would be pushing me to sign papers. Officer 1: This is your copy that you un- derstand your rights. Law: As long as I'm not being Officer 2: All you're signing is acknowledging that he read you your rights. That's all you're doing. That doesn't mean anything else at all and that you're willing to talk to him now. You could stop talking to him at any time.

Law then signed the form.

Before the officers began asking her questions about the charged offense, they reminded Law several times that she could terminate the interview at any point. The officers also asked Law whether she had memory problems and whether she was currently on any medication. Law denied having memory difficulties and said that she was taking a drug that had been prescribed for kidney problems. When asked if the medication was "mind altering," Law told the officers that it did not affect her mental ability. The officers then began the interrogation, which continued for approximately thirty minutes, until Law terminated the interview on her own initiative. During the interrogation, Law said that if sexual intercourse with her grandson occurred, she must have been asleep at the time or must have thought that the other participant was her husband.

Law contends that her initial expression of reluctance to sign the notification of rights form implicitly expressed an unwillingness to speak to the officers and constituted an invocation of her right to remain silent. According to Law, because of this invocation of her right of silence, the officers were obligated to then cease their interrogation.

After a suspect has been advised of the right to remain silent and the right to counsel pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), police may not proceed with questioning if the suspect indicates a desire to remain silent. Id. at 473-74, 86 S.Ct. at 1627-28, 16 L.Ed.2d at 722-23; State v. Rhoades, 119 Idaho 594, 602, 809 P.2d 455, 463 (1991). An individual's right to cut off questioning is grounded in the Fifth Amendment and must be "scrupulously honored." Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 103, 96 S.Ct. 321, 326, 46 L.Ed.2d 313, 321 (1975).

Nevertheless, police officers are not required to cease questioning unless the invocation of Miranda rights is clear and unequivocal. In Davis v. United States, 512 U.S. 452, 114 S.Ct. 2350, 129 L.Ed.2d 362 (1994), the United States Supreme Court held that in order to effectively invoke the right to counsel, a suspect must "articulate his desire to have counsel present sufficiently clearly that a reasonable police officer in the circumstances would understand the statement to be a request for an attorney.... If the suspect's statement is not an unambiguous or unequivocal request for counsel, the officers have no obligation to stop questioning him." Id. at 459-60, 114 S.Ct. at 2355, 129 L.Ed.2d at 371-72. Several federal courts of appeal have held that the same standard should be applied to a suspect's references to the right to cut off questioning or the right to silence. United States v. Banks, 78 F.3d 1190, 1197 (7th Cir.1996); United States v. Johnson, 56 F.3d 947, 955 (8th Cir.1995) (relying heavily on pre-Davis circuit law); Coleman v. Singletary, 30 F.3d 1420, 1424 (11th Cir.1994). We also implicitly deemed the Davis rule applicable to an assertion of the right to silence in State v. Whipple, 134 Idaho 498, 502-04, 5 P.3d 478, 482-484 (Ct.App.2000). Thus, a suspect's ambiguous or equivocal comment that does not plainly express a desire to remain silent or to terminate the interview will not obligate police to cease questioning.

Further, the refusal to sign a waiver form, standing alone, does not amount to an invocation of Miranda nor prevent a valid waiver of Miranda rights. In North Carolina v. Butler, 441 U.S. 369, 99 S.Ct. 1755, 60 L.Ed.2d 286 (1979), the United States Supreme Court held that where a suspect refused to sign a written waiver form after being orally advised of his Miranda rights, but nevertheless agreed to speak with officers, the suspect's rejection of the written waiver did not preclude a finding that the suspect had waived his rights. As noted by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in United States v. McDaniel, 463 F.2d 129, 135 (1972), "A refusal to sign a waiver may indicate nothing more than a reluctance to put pen to paper under the circumstance of custody.... [A] detainee may make statements that are quite voluntary without signing a written waiver."

Applying these standards, the record fully supports the district court's determination that Law did not invoke her right to silence when she expressed reservations about signing the notification of rights form. Law's comments were not an unequivocal invocation of her right to remain silent but appear to be an effort to gain information about the purpose of the form before she signed it—and perhaps an indication of "reluctance to put pen to paper." Before Law began responding to officers' inquiries about the charged offense, she had been fully informed of her Miranda rights and acknowledged that she understood them. Because Law's statements about the form were ambiguous and did not express a desire to terminate the interview, they did not obligate the officers to cease the interrogation.

2. Use of prescription medication

Law also asserts that she lacked the capacity to make a knowing and intelligent waiver of her rights because she was under the influence of a prescription medication when she was interrogated.

A waiver of Miranda rights will be...