United States v. Laurita

• Decision Date: 04 May 2016
• Docket Number: No. 15–1137.,15–1137.
• Citation: 821 F.3d 1020
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellant v. Anthony LAURITA, also known as the user of IP Address 108.32.11.73 between November 20, 2012 and November 27, 2012, Defendant–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

821 F.3d 1020

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellant

v.Anthony LAURITA, also known as the user of IP Address 108.32.11.73 between November 20, 2012 and November 27, 2012, Defendant–Appellee.

No. 15–1137.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: Nov. 19, 2015.

Filed: May 4, 2016.

David M. Lieberman, argued, Washington, DC., (Michael P. Norris, Omaha, NE, on the brief), for appellant.

Mark Wesley Bubak, argued, Omaha, NE, for appellee.

Before RILEY, Chief Judge, BEAM and KELLY, Circuit Judges.

RILEY, Chief Judge.

Following the execution of a search warrant at a home in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigators questioned Anthony Laurita at a telemarketing firm where he worked. Laurita successfully moved to suppress his statements from that interview. The United States appeals. Having jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3731, we reverse the district court's suppression order.

I. BACKGROUND

On April 9, 2013, acting on lead from the Omaha, Nebraska, division of the FBI, federal agents executed a search warrant at a home in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, searching for evidence of child pornography. The home belonged to Anthony Laurita's grandmother. Although Laurita had been living at his grandmother's residence, only Laurita's grandmother was home when the agents conducted the search.

During the search, agents seized a desktop computer and, in pursuit of a second computer, Special Agent Patrick Howley contacted Laurita's uncle, who told him Laurita was at work at Teletech, a telemarketing firm. After finishing the search, Special Agent Howley and Brian King, an FBI computer scientist, went to Teletech to talk to Laurita.

Around 2:00 p.m. that day, Special Agent Howley and King, neither of whom were wearing anything that would outwardly associate them with the FBI, arrived at Teletech, located in a former anchor store of a mall in Uniontown. Without disclosing the nature of their investigation, Special Agent Howley asked a security employee at the front entrance of Teletech if he and King could have a short conversation with Laurita. The security employee directed Special Agent Howley and King to go outside, walk around the building, and re-enter through the rear entrance where human resources was located. Upon doing so, Special Agent Howley and King were directed to a small, rectangular conference room in the human resources area of Teletech. Inside the room was an oval-shaped table surrounded by four or five chairs. Next to the door was a narrow glass window.

Meanwhile, Laurita's supervisor approached Laurita, who was on a call with a customer, and handed him a note asking Laurita to come see him after the call. Afterward, Laurita found his supervisor who, according to Laurita, told him, “ ‘I'm going to need you to come with me,’ ” and then escorted Laurita to human resources, which was a “closed door area.” Once they entered the human resources area, Laurita's supervisor left, and Laurita met Special Agent Howley and King.

Special Agent Howley and King had waited only a few minutes before Laurita arrived. Special Agent Howley introduced himself and King to Laurita and they each showed Laurita their credentials. Special Agent Howley told Laurita they would “just like to talk to [him].” By Laurita's account, Laurita sat at the narrow end of the oval table, and Special Agent Howley and King sat on the left and right sides of him two to three feet away. The door was closed.

Special Agent Howley first apologized for coming to Laurita's place of employment and told Laurita they would need “only ... maybe 10 or 15 minutes of his time ... so that he could get back to work.” Special Agent Howley explained a federal search warrant had been executed in Laurita's grandmother's home, relating to someone in the home viewing child pornography on the Internet. Special Agent Howley told Laurita he understood Laurita had a girlfriend with two young children, and his “concern” was whether Laurita had “ever act[ed] on the interests being shown” in the child pornography “on her two young children.” According to Special Agent Howley, Laurita “absolutely denied” that he had acted on those interests and stated “he only viewed it,” “felt bad about it,” and knew “he need[ed] to seek help.”

Laurita admitted he had been viewing child pornography at his grandmother's residence for approximately the past year. Laurita told the agents he had used an older computer—which was one of the computers federal agents had seized during the search—in the upstairs of his grandmother's residence near his bedroom. Laurita explained the system on that computer was incompatible with “The Onion Router” (Tor) software, which would have enabled him to access child-pornography websites through a worldwide network and concealed his identity through layers of encryption, so he accessed the pornography through finding links or connections through other websites. At the conclusion of the interview, Special Agent Howley advised Laurita to continue working and recommended counseling “if he fe[lt] he ha[d] a problem,” which Special Agent Howley said “would look very favorably in the court's eyes, [to] be proactive to address this.” Special Agent Howley gave Laurita his business card, they shook hands, and Laurita exited the conference room and returned to work.

The entire conversation lasted no more than twenty minutes. Special Agent Howley never told Laurita he was under arrest, and Laurita was not arrested at the conclusion of the interview. Special Agent Howley never raised his voice, and, according to Laurita, had a “very nice demeanor,” and was “soft-spoken” and “very conversational.” Although Special Agent Howley primarily conducted the interview, Laurita said King “was a little bit more aggressive with his body language and ... would scoff at some things.”

On October 20, 2013, a federal grand jury charged Laurita with knowingly receiving or attempting to receive child pornography through interstate commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252A(a)(2), (b)(1), and accessing with intent to view material containing child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B). Laurita moved to suppress the statement he made to Special Agent Howley and King during the interview at Teletech. Laurita claimed Special Agent Howley and King subjected him to a custodial interrogation and failed to issue a Miranda warning as a procedural safeguard of his rights secured by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966).

A United States magistrate judge conducted an evidentiary hearing. The magistrate judge recommended the district court deny Laurita's motion, finding Laurita was not in custody because “[a] ‘reasonable person’ in Laurita's position would have felt free to leave the room prior to or during the interview.” The district court did not adopt the magistrate judge's findings and recommendation. Evaluating, what it called, the “six nonexclusive factors” of custody outlined in United States v. Griffin, 922 F.2d 1343, 1349 (8th Cir.1990), the district court found the investigators subjected Laurita to a custodial interrogation without giving a Miranda warning. The district court granted Laurita's motion to suppress, and the government appeals.

II. DISCUSSION

“On review of a motion to suppress, we review the district court's factual findings for clear error and review its legal conclusions de novo. ” United States v. Brooks, 715 F.3d 1069, 1075 (8th Cir.2013).

The rule under Miranda prevents the government from using statements “stemming from custodial interrogation of the defendant,” unless the government has used “procedural safeguards effective to secure the privilege against self-incrimination.” Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602 ; see Thompson v. Keohane, 516 U.S. 99, 107, 116 S.Ct. 457, 133 L.Ed.2d 383 (1995) (explaining “suspects interrogated while in police custody must be told that they have a right to remain silent, that anything they say may be used against them in court, and that they are entitled to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed, at the interrogation”). “Although the circumstances of each case must certainly influence a determination of whether a suspect is ‘in custody’ for purposes of receiving Miranda protection, the ultimate inquiry is simply whether there is a ‘formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement’ of the degree associated with a formal arrest.” California v. Beheler, 463 U.S. 1121, 1125, 103 S.Ct. 3517, 77 L.Ed.2d 1275 (1983) (per curiam) (quoting Oregon v. Mathiason, 429 U.S. 492, 495, 97 S.Ct. 711, 50 L.Ed.2d 714 (1977) (per curiam)).

To determine whether a suspect was in custody, we ask “whether, given the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable person would have felt at liberty to terminate the interrogation and leave or cause the agents to leave.” United States v. Vinton, 631 F.3d 476, 481 (8th Cir.2011). We have set forth six non-exclusive indicia of custody:

(1) whether the suspect was informed at the time of questioning that the questioning was voluntary, that the suspect was free to leave or request the officers to do so, or that the suspect was not considered under arrest; (2) whether the suspect possessed unrestrained freedom of movement during questioning; (3) whether the suspect initiated contact with authorities or voluntarily acquiesced to official requests to respond to questions; (4) whether strong arm tactics or deceptive stratagems were employed during questioning; (5) whether the atmosphere of the questioning was police dominated; [and], (6) whether the suspect was placed under arrest at the termination of the questioning.

Griffin, 922 F.2d at 1349. “The first three ... factors may be fairly characterized as mitigating factors,” and the last “three factors may be characterized as coercive factors.” Id. “These factors, however, are not exclusive, and custody ‘cannot be resolved...