United States v. Nguyen

• Decision Date: 05 May 2016
• Docket Number: Case No. 15-cr-00203-BLF-1
• Parties: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. HIEN MINH NGUYEN, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. HIEN MINH NGUYEN, Defendant.

Case No. 15-cr-00203-BLF-1

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN JOSE DIVISION

May 5, 2016

ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO SUPPRESS

[Re: ECF 63]

In the course of an interview with Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") agents, Defendant Hein Minh Nguyen, a priest at St. Nicholas Church in Los Altos, confessed to stealing money from his church and failing to report the stolen money on his tax returns. A grand jury subsequently indicted Defendant on fourteen counts of bank fraud and four counts of tax evasion. Defendant moved to suppress the statements that he made to the IRS agents on the basis that they were: (1) involuntary; and (2) the product of an un-Mirandized custodial interrogation. The Court held an evidentiary hearing on the motion on April 19, 2016, in which Defendant was represented by counsel. Having considered the evidence presented at the hearing, the parties' submissions, and the declarations attached thereto, the Court hereby DENIES Defendant's motion to suppress for the reasons discussed below.

I. BACKGROUND

At approximately 1:45 p.m. on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 17, 2012, Special Agents Juan Saavedra and Andres Gonzales of the IRS Criminal Investigations Unit approached Defendant in the parking lot of St. William's Church, a Catholic church in Los Altos. Hearing Transcript at 7:5, 8:3-16, 27:5-21. Both agents were dressed in plain clothes. Id. at 7:20-21, 31:22-24. As they approached Defendant, they identified themselves, displayed their badges, and asked whether they could ask him questions regarding his tax returns. Id. at 8:10-16, 8:22-9:3, 31:25-32:6. Defendant agreed to speak with the agents, but suggested that they do so instead at the nearby St. Nicholas Church, where he was a priest. Id. at 8:17-21, 9:4-8, 28:11-24. The agents agreed, and the three made their way to St. Nicholas Church, about a ten minute drive away. Id. at 9:9-11, 9:23-25, 29:1-20. Defendant drove in his own car, and Agents Saavedra and Gonzales followed behind in their vehicle. Id. at 9:12-22, 29:4-13. Upon arriving at St. Nicholas Church, Defendant pulled into the rear parking lot of the church while the agents parked in front of the church along the street. Id. at 10:1-4, 29:21-30:3. When Defendant emerged from behind the church minutes later, he greeted the agents, opened the front door, and invited them inside. Id. at 10:5-20, 30:4-7.

Inside the church, Defendant directed Agents Saavedra and Gonzales to a room off to the right side of the church vestibule, and suggested they have their conversation there. Id. at 10:21-11:1, 34:12-17. The room was about fifteen feet square, windowless, and sparsely furnished with only chairs inside. Id. at 11:3-9, 34:22-35:3. Defendant arranged three of the chairs together toward the center of the room and offered the agents to sit down. Id. at 11:10-16, 35:4-5. Defendant sat facing the door, and Agents Saavedra and Gonzales sat together facing Defendant, between Defendant and the door. Id. at 11:12-21, 35:6-20. Agent Saavedra testified that neither his nor Agent Gonzales's seating in the room blocked the door, and that Defendant could easily walk around the agents to exit the room. Id. at 23:25-24:3; 35:12-20.

The agents first asked Defendant about his background, including questions about his education, employment with the church, sources of income, financial assets, and bank account and related assets. Id. at 12:17-22, 36:3-10. Defendant explained that he earned approximately $32,000 a year from the church, not including a housing allowance of $1,000 a month, and gifts from parishioners totaling about $10,000 a year. Id. at 12:23-13:5. When asked about his otherfinancial holdings, Defendant explained that he held assets worth about $2 million in bank accounts, certificates of deposit, a vehicle, and a home whose mortgage was fully paid. Id. at 13:9-13.

Agents Saavedra and Gonzales then questioned Defendant about the presence of large cash deposits in his bank account, totaling approximately $1.2 million. Id. at 13:16-20. On this subject, Agent Saavedra testified that Defendant could not give consistent answers to their questions:

PROSECUTOR: And when you asked Father Nguyen about the cash deposits, what happened?

AGENT SAAVEDRA: He first explained that the cash deposits were gifts from parishioners.

Then he explained that the 1.2 million [dollar] cash deposits were money that his siblings would give him to hold for his parents.

And then he said also that the money was—or the cash deposits were a saving account that he was doing [sic] for the Vietnamese community that couldn't have bank accounts, so he would save money for the Vietnamese community.

Q: What happened after that?

A: When we further inquired about, well, who is he saving for, what amounts, who does he owe, he couldn't answer those questions.

Id. at 13:21-14:9. When the agents remarked that Defendant's answers were inconsistent, Defendant asked the agents for legal advice. Id. at 14:10-20. Agents Saavedra and Gonzales answered that they were unable to provide him that information. Id. at 14:10-22. Defendant then pressed the agents on what "the worst case scenario [was] if he accepted responsibility." Id. 14:23-24. Agent Saavedra told him that he could appear before a judge, and may be sentenced to a jail term. Id. at 14:25-15:8. The agent advised Defendant to seek legal counsel from an attorney. Id. at 15:8-10. Defendant asked "what the legal exposure would be, or what type of crimes [the agents] would be investigating if he accepted responsibility." Id. at 15:17-20. Agent Saavedra answered that if the IRS could prove that he stole money, the charges against him would include mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, and structuring cash deposits. Id. at 15:21-24.

At this point, Defendant suggested a break and requested the agents to step outside the room. Id. at 16:3-6, 39:9-12. The agents complied, shut the door behind them, and conversed among themselves while they waited outside. Id. at 16:7-22. About fifteen minutes later Defendant emerged from the room and invited the agents back in. Id. at 17:7-11. Agents Saavedra and Gonzales reentered the room, closed the door behind them, and read to Defendant the IRS Form 5661 Non-Custody Statement of Rights, approximately an hour and a half to two hours into the interview. Id. at 39:9-16. Agent Saavedra testified that the statement he read was as follows:

As the special agent, one of my functions is to investigate the possibility of criminal violations of the Internal Revenue laws, and related offenses.

In connection with my investigation of your tax liability (or other matter), I would like to ask you some questions.

However, first I advise you that under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, I cannot compel you to answer any questions or to submit to any information if such answers or information might tend to incriminate you in any way.

I also advise you that anything which you say and any documents which you submit may be used against you in a criminal proceeding which may be undertaken.

I advise you further that you may, if you wish, seek the assistance of an attorney before responding.

Do you understand these rights?

Id. at 18:5-24. Defendant acknowledged that he understood these rights. Id. at 18:25-19:12.

Agents Saavedra and Gonzales then picked up the conversation and again asked Defendant about the $1.2 million in his bank account. Id. at 19:8-12. Defendant insisted that he did not steal the money, but that instead, the money was cash deposits from savings accounts he held on behalf of the Vietnamese community. Id. at 19:15-18. When asked, however, to provide records for those deposits, the persons who gave him those deposits, or when those deposits were made, Defendant was unable to provide an answer. Id. at 19:19-22. Defendant then asked again what his "legal exposure" could be and what charges could be brought against him if he "accepted responsibility to make the case easier." Id. at 19:23-20:16.

At that point, Defendant then asked for a second break; however, he did not request the agents leave the room. Id. at 20:17-18. Agents Saavedra and Gonzales complied with the request, and the two sat silently in the room while Defendant closed his eyes and rested in a meditative state. Id. at 20:17-21:1. Neither agent spoke during that time. Id. at 21:3-4. After about ten minutes of silence, Defendant reopened his eyes, agreed to speak with the agents about the money, and confessed. Id. at 21:8-22:21. As Agent Saavedra explained in his testimony:

PROSECUTOR: And once you explained to Father Nguyen that there might be a public trial or that he might have to go before the Court, what happened after that?

AGENT SAAVEDRA: At that point he, he stated that he stole money from the church.

Q: Did he tell you anything else?

A: Yes. And he also said he failed to report the stolen money from the church on his tax returns.

. . . .

When we showed him his tax returns, he—we showed him, you know, near the beginning of the interview, and he said they were accurately prepared with the information he provided to his tax return preparer.

. . . .

After he told us that he stole money from the church, then he told us that he failed to report that income on his tax returns.

We then said that, you know, we were concerned—the government was concerned that that money shouldn't be moved, and he promised us that he wouldn't move it and that it would still be there.

Q: And what happened next?

A: After that, we pretty much concluded the interview.

Id. at 21:22-23:2, 26:5-14.

In all, from the agents' first meeting with Defendant in the parking lot of St. William's Church until the end of the interview, their encounter lasted about four and a half hours. Id. at 23:5-7. At no point in the interview did Defendant indicate that he wished to end the interview, or seek an attorney. Id. ...