State v. Manning

Decision Date05 May 1987
Docket NumberNo. 86-189,86-189
Citation506 So.2d 1094,12 Fla. L. Weekly 1155
Parties12 Fla. L. Weekly 1155 The STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. William MANNING, Appellee.
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Debora J. Turner, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant.

Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and Bruce A. Rosenthal, Asst. Public Defender, for appellee.

Before BARKDULL, HENDRY and JORGENSON, JJ.

JORGENSON, Judge.

This is a state appeal of an order of the trial court suppressing the confession of William Manning. We have jurisdiction. Fla.R.App.P. 9.140(c)(1)(B).

Manning's wife, Margaret, took their five-year-old daughter to a physician who diagnosed the child as having contracted gonorrhea. HRS investigated the incident and asked law enforcement officials to further investigate the apparent sexual battery upon the child. Manning became a suspect, eventually confessed, and was charged with sexual battery upon a person less than twelve years of age. The trial court suppressed his confession on the stated basis that the officers "failed to advise the Defendant as to his true situation" and "exerted undue influence upon the Defendant to obtain a confession or admission." The State appeals, and we reverse.

Manning, a 33-year-old college graduate and former school teacher, was interviewed twice in noncustodial circumstances by Detective Osborn. Osborn informed Manning at the first interview that he was a suspect, and, at both interviews, Osborn informed Manning of his Miranda rights. Manning made no inculpatory statements at these two interviews but did give his written authorization to check his medical records. At the conclusion of his investigation, Osborn secured an arrest warrant for Manning for the offense of sexual battery. On the morning of November 15, 1984, at 10:00 a.m., Osborn located Manning at his place of employment and told Manning that he needed to question him further. He did not tell Manning that he had a warrant for his arrest or that he was under arrest.

At the police station at 10:40 a.m., Manning was advised of his rights, and he signed a waiver of rights form. The interview began. Initially, Manning denied everything, including having a venereal disease. Osborn told him that there was evidence in his medical records that he had had a venereal disease. Including occasional rest breaks, approximately an hour and a half of questioning by Osborn occurred before Manning admitted that he had previously had a venereal disease and that he was currently taking ampicillin for gonorrhea. In fact, there was no definite evidence of venereal disease in his medical records. According to one of the records, Manning had been treated for urinary frequency the year before. The problem was tentatively diagnosed as a kidney infection. A question mark was written next to the initials V.D., and a form of penicillin was prescribed.

At approximately 11:30 a.m., Detective Osborn informed Manning that he was under arrest and showed him the arrest warrant. Following a break for lunch, the interview continued at 12:50 p.m. Manning was again advised of his rights by a new investigator, Lieutenant Brooks. Manning once again signed a waiver of rights form. Brooks told Manning that his wife and daughter had implicated him in the sexual battery of his daughter. Though Manning's wife and daughter did give statements to that effect, Brooks did not know of those statements at the time he spoke to Manning. Like Detective Osborn, Lieutenant Brooks also gave Manning several rest breaks during the questioning that afternoon. During this session, Manning, in response to Brooks' questions as to how his daughter might have become infected with gonorrhea, admitted to an incident when he placed his penis on his daughter's vagina.

At 4:00 p.m., the police took a formal statement from Manning in which he admitted committing sexual battery on his daughter. In that statement, he also responded that he had not been threatened, that he had been treated well, that he felt okay, that he knew what was going on, and that he knew what he had done to his daughter was wrong. The statement was typed up and read back to Manning page by page. He actually signed the statement at 6:15 p.m.

Manning moved to have his confession suppressed. The trial court granted the motion to suppress, making the following findings:

1. The police officers in this case failed to advise the Defendant as to his true situation. Although they had secured an arrest warrant for him and taken him into custody, they failed to tell him he was under arrest. The Court finds the Defendant was under constructive arrest and had he known this he may have refused to answer questions and may have requested an attorney.

2. The officers who testified at the Motion to Suppress misled the Defendant into thinking they had medical records indicating the Defendant had gonorrhea, when in fact they did not have such records. The Defendant was advised that the victim, his daughter, had gonorrhea.

3. The Court finds that because of the above police actions the interrogating officers exerted undue influence upon the Defendant to obtain a confession or admission.

The suppression of the confession was not based on any finding regarding statements made to Manning that his wife and daughter had implicated him in the offense. We now address each of the court's findings in turn.

I. Waiver of Rights

The court's first finding, that if Manning had known he was under arrest he might have refused to answer questions and might have requested an attorney, although not stated in such terms, is a determination that Manning's waiver of his rights was not a valid waiver. There is no question on this record that Manning was in custody and waived his Miranda rights, both orally and in writing. A defendant may waive his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination provided the waiver is made knowingly and intelligently and the waiver is made voluntarily without being coerced from the defendant. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1612, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, 707 (1966). The Supreme Court explained further in Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, ---, 106 S.Ct. 1135, 1141, 89 L.Ed.2d 410, 421 (1986), that two separate inquiries regarding the waiver must be made. The first is whether the waiver was a free choice on the part of the defendant and not the product of intimidation, coercion, or deception. The second is whether the waiver was made with a full awareness of the nature of the right being abandoned and the consequences of its abandonment. Both determinations are made by considering the totality of the circumstances. Fare v. Michael C., 442 U.S. 707, 724-26, 99 S.Ct. 2560, 2571-72, 61 L.Ed.2d 197, 212-13 (1979).

A. Voluntary Waiver

As to the first inquiry, the trial court found that Manning's waiver of rights might not have been made had he known he was under arrest. The fact that Manning was not immediately informed that he was under arrest is insufficient to find that his waiver was not voluntary. When a defendant has not been placed under arrest, determining whether he is constructively under arrest or in custody is necessary for the purpose of determining whether a defendant must be read his rights. See New York v. Quarles, 467 U.S. 649, 104 S.Ct. 2626, 81 L.Ed.2d 550 (1984); Orozco v. Texas, 394 U.S. 324, 89 S.Ct. 1095, 22 L.Ed.2d 311 (1969). There is no question that Manning was read his rights many times. The trial court confused Manning's custodial status with the timing of the officer's acknowledgment to Manning that a warrant for his arrest had been procured. 1 Just as an undercover investigation may continue, notwithstanding the fact that a search warrant has been issued, United States v. Alvarez, 812 F.2d 668 (11th Cir.1987), if all other criteria have been satisfied, an interrogation may take place notwithstanding the fact that an arrest warrant has been issued.

Of those cases which have determined that the police conduct was oppressive, "all have contained a substantial element of coercive police conduct," Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 107 S.Ct. 515, 520, 93 L.Ed.2d 473, 482 (1986), which simply is not present here. See Fare, 442 U.S. at 725-28, 99 S.Ct. at 2571-73, 61 L.Ed.2d at 212-14 (mere indication by police that a cooperative attitude would be to respondent's benefit not sufficient to find waiver coerced).

B. Knowing Waiver

As to the second inquiry, any omissions or misstatements of fact did not affect Manning's full awareness of the nature of the right being abandoned and the consequences of its abandonment. At both preliminary noncustodial interviews Manning was informed of his rights, and, at the first interview, he was told that he was a suspect. He gave his written consent for the police to check his medical records. When Manning was taken to the police station, he was again advised of his rights and he signed a waiver of rights form. Being of normal intelligence and a college graduate, he was surely aware of the import of the questions leveled at him during his time at the police station.

Whether a defendant had a full awareness of the nature of the right being abandoned and the consequences of its abandonment was the issue examined by the Supreme Court in Moran. In that case, unbeknownst to the defendant his sister had hired an attorney who was trying to reach him while he was being interrogated. The Supreme Court held that failing to inform the defendant that the attorney was trying to reach him did not constitute "trickery" forbidden by Miranda. Withholding such information, the Court stated, is only relevant "if it deprives a defendant of knowledge essential to his ability to understand the nature of his rights and the consequences of abandoning them." Moran, 475 U.S. at ----, 106 S.Ct. at 1142, 89 L.Ed.2d at 422. Because Burbine was aware of and comprehended "all the information Miranda requires the police to convey,"...

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  • State v. Pitts
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of Florida (US)
    • August 4, 2006
    ...waived and the consequences of abandoning them." State v. Mallory, 670 So.2d 103, 106 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996) (citing State v. Manning, 506 So.2d 1094, 1096 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)); see also State v. Wallace, 673 So.2d 914, 915-16 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996) (following reasoning of Manning to uphold validit......
  • Perez v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • October 27, 2005
    ...perceived the situation. Id. Davis, 698 So.2d at 1188. The Third District utilized an approach similar to Davis in State v. Manning, 506 So.2d 1094 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987). There, the defendant had voluntarily submitted to two police interviews after being informed that he was a suspect. See id.......
  • Wyche v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • July 10, 2008
    ...and police misstatements of relevant facts, which can be proper." Id. at 1148 (Ervin, J., dissenting) (citing State v. Manning, 506 So.2d 1094, 1097-98 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)). In other words, contrary to our caution in Thomas, the police here engaged in a technique calculated to trick or to de......
  • Wyche v. State, 1D03-5211.
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of Florida (US)
    • June 20, 2005
    ......State, 387 So.2d 1016 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980). An important distinction, however, is made between police misstatements which delude a defendant as to the import of his or her confession, and are thus improper, and police misstatements of relevant facts, which can be proper. State v. Manning, 506 So.2d 1094, 1097-98 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987). The factor requiring suppression, under Manning, is coercion, "and a misstatement of fact is not coercion." Id. at 1098. Although the courts continue to recognize that a confession, otherwise voluntarily acquired, resulting from a misstatement of a ......
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