U.S. v. Faulkingham, No. 01-CR-04-B-S.

• Decision Date: 24 August 2001
• Docket Number: No. 01-CR-04-B-S.
• Citation: 156 F.Supp.2d 60
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. David C. FAULKINGHAM, Defendant
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maine

Page 60

156 F.Supp.2d 60

UNITED STATES of America v. David C. FAULKINGHAM, Defendant

No. 01-CR-04-B-S.

United States District Court, D. Maine.

August 24, 2001.

Timothy D. Wing, Asst U.S. Atty., Daniel J. Perry, U.S. Attorney's Office, Bangor, ME, for U.S.

Kevin Barron, Seal Harbor, ME, for Defendant.

ORDER MODIFYING RECOMMENDED DECISION

SINGAL, District Judge.

Before the Court is Defendant's Motion to Suppress (Docket # 30). The Magistrate Judge held an evidentiary hearing and oral argument on Defendant's Motion and recommended that the Motion be granted in part and denied in part. (See Magistrate Judge's Recommended Decision on Defendant's Motion to Suppress (Docket # 37).)

In accordance with its de novo review of the Magistrate Judge's recommendations, the Court initially noted some apparent disagreement between the Recommended Decision and a subsequently released decision in United States v. Kruger, 151 F.Supp.2d 86 (D.Me.2001). While the Recommended Decision concluded that the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine did not apply to a Miranda violation, in Kruger Judge Carter concluded that the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine could be applied to suppress physical evidence found as the result of a Miranda violation. Hoping to reconcile these divergent opinions, the Court ordered supplemental briefing on July 5, 2001. (See Docket # 45.) The Court has now had an opportunity to consider these supplemental briefs as well as all of the other objections raised by Defendant.

Having reviewed and considered the Magistrate Judge's Recommended Decision and Defendant's objections thereto, together with the entire record, the Court has made a de novo determination of all matters adjudicated by the Magistrate Judge's Recommended Decision. The Court concurs with the Magistrate's recommended factual findings as well as the recommended legal conclusions, with the exception of the "fruit of the poisonous tree" issue upon which the Court ordered supplemental briefing.

As a result of a clear Miranda violation, the Magistrate recommended suppression of statements made by Defendant before he was informed of his Miranda rights. However, she also recommended that the Court not apply the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine to this Miranda violation thereby denying Defendant's Motion to the extent it sought to suppress derivative evidence that included both physical evidence and third party testimonial evidence. For the reasons stated below, the Court finds this derivative evidence is tainted by the Miranda violation in this case and cannot be purged of that taint. Therefore, the Court hereby modifies the Recommended Decision and suppresses the physical and testimonial evidence obtained as a result of Defendant's pre-Miranda statements.

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

Along with his co-defendants, Mark Power and Brennan Spofford, Defendant David Faulkingham is charged with one count of possession of heroin with intent to distribute and one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin. An evidentiary hearing on Defendant Faulkingham's Motion to Suppress was held before the Magistrate Judge on May 11, 2001. Having reviewed the transcript, the Court concurs completely with the Magistrate's recommended findings of fact. Thus, rather than reinvent the wheel, the Court below recites the relevant facts verbatim from the Recommended Decision (Docket # 37):

Shortly before August 1, 2000, Agent Mark Leonard of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency ("MDEA") received information from a known confidential informant that David Faulkingham was a drug user/dealer in the Hancock County, Maine area. Agent Leonard was also informed that Faulkingham lived in Tremont, Maine, and that he drove a tan Lincoln Town Car. Neither Agent Leonard nor the other agent involved in this case, Robert Hutchings, had heard of or met David Faulkingham prior to receiving this information. Nevertheless, they determined that it would be worthwhile to investigate the situation and on August 1 decided to travel from Bangor to Tremont to see what was what.

Prior to going to the Tremont area, they stopped at the Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth, Maine, and spoke with Deputy Sheriff Stephen MacFarland. The agents were provided with a jail photograph from approximately 1996 that showed Faulkingham's appearance at that time. They learned that Faulkingham had lost considerable weight since the date of the photograph. Agent Leonard also did some background investigation and learned that Faulkingham's right to operate a motor vehicle was under suspension. He verified the continuing suspension with the Department of Motor Vehicles while on route to Tremont.

At approximately 3:00 p.m., the agents arrived in the vicinity of the Tremont residence that had been identified to them as Faulkingham's. They drove by the residence and saw a small black vehicle sitting in the driveway with a passenger in it. The driver was not immediately visible nor was the tan Lincoln. The agents drove on and turned around to make another pass by the house. As they did so, they observed two individuals approximately three to four hundred yards from the residence standing in a woods road. The agents parked their vehicle in another woods road closer to the residence where they were able to maintain visual contact with the residence but could not be seen by others. By this time, the Lincoln was in the driveway parked beside the black car.

The black car left the driveway shortly thereafter and the agents followed it for a short way down the road. As the car approached the second woods road where the two individuals had been standing, the black car stopped dead in the middle of the road. The two individuals ran into the road and jumped into the black car. The agents followed the car for a short way and then turned around and returned to their surveillance point. The Lincoln was still in the driveway. At this point in time, Agent Hutchings had a suspicion that illegal drug activity might have just occurred.

At about 3:15 p.m. the Lincoln left the driveway. The agents were able to ascertain that the driver appeared to be a male and that there were two passengers in the vehicle. They could make no further identification at that point. They followed the vehicle for approximately two miles until it started to travel onto the Flat Iron Road. The Flat Iron Road merges with the route they were traveling on, and as the Lincoln entered the intersection the driver slowed and made a type of u-turn so that his car was now facing back in the direction from which it had just come. As the agents' car was directly behind the Lincoln at that point, the vehicles passed driver's side window to driver's side window at an extremely slow speed. In fact, the defendant's vehicle was not moving. Agent Hutchings immediately recognized that the operator of the vehicle matched the photograph of Faulkingham that the agents had clipped onto their sun visor when they left the Hancock County Jail.

Hutchings immediately pulled his vehicle to the side of the road, jumped from his vehicle, and identified himself verbally and by showing his badge to the operator. Hutchings asked Faulkingham to identify himself and when he confirmed that he was David Faulkingham, Hutchings placed him under arrest for operating after suspension. During the patdown search Hutchings found heroin, hashish, and a syringe on Faulkingham's person. Hutchings placed Faulkingham in handcuffs and put him in the back seat of the agents' car.

In the meantime, Agent Leonard was dealing with the two passengers. He obtained identification from them and checked to see if either was wanted for any law enforcement purposes. Finding no reason to hold either of them, he fairly quickly told them they could leave the area, which they did on foot. Leonard then proceeded to search the motor vehicle as part of this traffic stop but did not find anything of further interest for purposes of this case.

While Leonard was dealing with the passengers and the motor vehicle, Hutchings put the evidence seized from Faulkingham's person into his trunk and then returned to the passenger compartment of the vehicle, ostensibly to "complete some paperwork." Included among that paperwork is a form which is used to advise suspects in custody of their rights under the Miranda rule. Hutchings understood that he had a suspect in custody that he intended to interrogate, but he never read the Miranda warning.

Once Hutchings took a seat in the vehicle and explained to Faulkingham that he was planning to review some paperwork with him, Faulkingham announced to him that he was a heroin addict and that within the next two hours he was going to go into withdrawal. At that point, however, Faulkingham appeared normal and spoke without difficulty. After learning of Faulkingham's concerns regarding his addiction, the agents informed him that he could either cooperate with them and provide information concerning his supplier or he would be taken to the Hancock County Jail for processing. Faulkingham then informed them that if he were going to cooperate, time was of the essence because one of the fellows who had just departed was a roommate of his supplier. Once the supplier learned that Faulkingham had been apprehended by the police, obtaining evidence against him would become more difficult. Faulkingham suggested to the agents that his supplier was a major drug dealer and that his apartment currently contained a huge quantity of heroin that Faulkingham had seen the previous day. The agents were lead to believe that this operation could be a "huge bust." They maintain that in the excitement of the moment they simply didn't have time to comply with Miranda. Faulkingham asked them what sort of deal they could give him and the agents responded that they could not make any deals or promises, but they confirmed that his cooperation would make it easier for him.

At about this point in time Shannon Faulkingham, the...