U.S. v. Marenghi

• Decision Date: 29 July 1996
• Docket Number: No. 96-1268,96-1268
• Citation: 109 F.3d 28
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Michelle T. MARENGHI, Defendant--Appellant. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 28

109 F.3d 28

UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Michelle T. MARENGHI, Defendant--Appellant.

No. 96-1268.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard July 29, 1996.

Decided March 19, 1997.

Robert M. Napolitano, Portland, ME, for appellant.

Helene Kazanjian, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Jay P. McCloskey, United States Attorney, was on brief, for appellee.

Before TORRUELLA, Chief Judge, and BOUDIN, Circuit Judge, and LISI, ^* District Judge.

LISI, District Judge.

Following a three-day trial, a jury convicted defendant-appellant Michelle T. Marenghi of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance containing cocaine base, as well as the underlying substantive offense, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 and 841(a)(1). The appellant was thereafter sentenced to a term of imprisonment of seventy months, to be followed by four years of supervised release. She appeals her conviction on the ground that the district court erred in denying a motion to suppress a written statement elicited from her shortly after her arrest. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

In October 1994, agents from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency ("MDEA") commenced an investigation into the distribution of crack cocaine in Portland, Maine. Specifically, the agents targeted a group of individuals who purchased the substance in Boston, Massachusetts, transported it to Portland, and thereafter sold it out of various hotel rooms and houses in the Portland area. The investigation continued for approximately two months, and was aided on several occasions by the cooperation of a number of "concerned citizens." ¹

The investigation culminated at approximately 11:00 p.m. on December 9, 1994, when agents from the MDEA and officers from the Portland Police Department pulled into a driveway in Portland behind a vehicle driven by the appellant and occupied by five others. All of the occupants, including the appellant, were removed from the vehicle and separately detained at the scene. The agents thereafter proceeded to search the vehicle in which the individuals were riding.

The appellant was handcuffed and placed in the back seat of an unmarked police car in which Portland Police Officer Robert Pelletier sat. Robert Pelletier's brother and brother officer, Scott Pelletier, a detective assigned to the MDEA, got into the car shortly thereafter. Scott Pelletier proceeded to explain to the appellant why the vehicle had been stopped and that she would soon be transported to a Portland police station. Scott Pelletier informed the appellant that a drug-detecting dog had alerted to drugs on the bodies of two of the other individuals who had been riding in the appellant's vehicle, and that the dog would be used to search her as well. Scott Pelletier then exited the vehicle.

At that point, Robert Pelletier told the appellant that the dog could find drugs anywhere on a person, even if a person was carrying the drugs in a body cavity. The appellant responded, stating "I don't have it up there, I have it down here." Transcript, April 4, 1995 Hearing on Motion to Suppress, at 174. Robert Pelletier then got out of the automobile and told Scott Pelletier that the appellant wanted to speak with him. When Scott Pelletier returned to the vehicle, the appellant stated that the officers would not need to use the dog to search her and that she did indeed possess crack cocaine.

At several points during this exchange, the appellant indicated that she needed to use a bathroom. At no time was she advised of her Miranda rights, however. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Approximately ninety minutes after the appellant was first detained, Scott Pelletier transported her to the Portland Police Department. ²

Upon arriving at the police station, the appellant again told Scott Pelletier that she needed to use the bathroom. Scott Pelletier advised her that a female officer would have to accompany her, but that none were present at the police station. Scott Pelletier placed the appellant in a room with Officer Bruce Chase, and left in an effort to locate a female officer.

Scott Pelletier returned ten minutes later. At that point, he advised the appellant of her Miranda rights, inquiring of the appellant after reading each right if she understood what it meant. The appellant indicated that she did.

Scott Pelletier then left to inquire as to whether the efforts to locate a female officer had been successful. Upon learning that they had not, Scott Pelletier returned and asked the appellant whether she had inserted the drugs inside a body cavity or whether they were merely inside her clothing. The appellant stated that the narcotics were easily retrievable and, in the presence of Scott Pelletier and Officer Chase, proceeded to reach into her pants and remove a plastic bag, which she then placed on the floor. The appellant was thereafter permitted to use the bathroom without the accompaniment of a female officer.

The appellant was then moved to a station lunch room, where she proceeded to dictate a statement concerning her involvement in distributing crack cocaine in Portland. When complete, Scott Pelletier had the appellant read each page of the document for inaccuracies. After correcting one sentence, the appellant initialed the corner of each page, as well as the correction, and then signed the statement.

On December 20, 1994, a grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging the appellant with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five grams of cocaine base, as well as possession with intent to distribute cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 and 841(a)(1). On February 9, 1995, the appellant filed a motion to suppress as evidence in her criminal trial "any and all statements and evidence ... obtained on the night of her arrest," including: (1) any statements that she made to the Pelletiers in the unmarked police cruiser (hereafter referred to as the "roadside statements"); and, (2) the written statement made at the Portland Police Station (hereafter referred to as the "written statement").

The district court conducted an evidentiary hearing on the suppression motion and issued a memorandum and order on July 17, 1995 granting the motion in part and denying it in part. The district court found that the roadside statements were made while the appellant was in custody and without benefit of Miranda warnings. See United States v. Marenghi, 896 F.Supp. at 215. The roadside statements were therefore excluded from use at trial. See id.

The district court then proceeded to make two findings with respect to the written statement. First, the court found that the appellant dictated the written statement after she had made a voluntary, knowing, and intelligent waiver of her Miranda rights. See id. at 217-19. Second, the court found that the circumstances surrounding the appellant's written confession were sufficiently attenuated from the constitutional infirmities which rendered the roadside statements inadmissible. See id. at 216. Thus, the district court permitted the government to introduce the written statement at trial.

The appellant challenges the district court's denial of her motion to suppress the written statement.

II. DISCUSSION

At the outset, it is incumbent upon this court to delineate the correct standard of its review. In the context of a motion to suppress, we examine a district court's findings of fact for clear error. See United States v. Mitchell, 85 F.3d 800, 804 (1st Cir.1996); United States v. Valle, 72 F.3d 210, 214 (1st Cir.1995). In contrast, we conduct de novo inquiries into district court determinations with respect to questions of law, including those involving the Constitution. See United States v. Valle, 72 F.3d at 214; United States v. Zapata, 18 F.3d 971, 975 (1st Cir.1994).

In this case, the appellant challenges the validity of the district court's order with respect to the admissibility of the written statement. The suppression of the roadside statements is not at issue. Nevertheless, this court must examine the circumstances under which the roadside statements were made, as the admissibility of the written statement is, in part, dependent upon whether the police conduct at the roadside was coercive.

When law enforcement officials do not deliberately engage in coercive or improper tactics in obtaining an initial statement, but rather only fail to advise a defendant of his or her Miranda warnings, a court's task in determining the admissibility of a subsequent statement is relatively straightforward. Such a statement is admissible if it was obtained after the defendant: (1) was advised of his or her Miranda rights; and, (2) knowingly and voluntarily waived those rights. See Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298, 318, 105 S.Ct. 1285, 1297-98, 84 L.Ed.2d 222 (1985); Bryant v. Vose, 785 F.2d 364, 366-67 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 477 U.S. 907, 106 S.Ct. 3281, 91 L.Ed.2d 570 (1986). This standard reflects the belief that "[w]hen neither the initial nor the subsequent admission is coerced, little justification exists for permitting the highly probative evidence of a voluntary confession to be irretrievably lost to the factfinder." Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. at 312, 105 S.Ct. at 1294-95. "In such circumstances, the finder of fact may reasonably conclude that the suspect made a rational and intelligent choice whether to waive or invoke [his or her] rights." Id. at 314, 105 S.Ct. at 1296.

There is an enormous difference, however, between "the uncertain consequences of disclosure of a 'guilty secret' freely given in response to an unwarned but noncoercive question" and "the direct consequences flowing from coercion of a confession by physical violence or other deliberate means calculated to break the suspect's will...." Id. at 312, 105 S.Ct. at 1295. As such, when the infirmity underlying an initial statement transcends...