United States v. Norris
| Decision Date | 28 May 2014 |
| Docket Number | Criminal No. 13-10077-DJC |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. COREY NORRIS, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts |
Defendant Corey Norris ("Norris") has been charged in an indictment, filed on March 21, 2013, with "conspiracy to sex traffic a child" in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1594(c) (Count I); sex trafficking of a child in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a), (b)(1) (Count II); and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a) (Count III). Norris has now moved to dismiss the indictment for a violation of Fed. R. Civ. P. 5(a), D. 80, and to suppress his statements to law enforcement agents on March 29, 2013, the date of his arrest, on the grounds that his waiver of Miranda rights was not knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily made and that the statements were not voluntary. D. 82. In a supplemental filing to his motion to suppress, D. 97, Norris also asserts that another basis for suppression is the "clear violation of Norris's Sixth Amendment right to counsel." D. 82 at 1. Upon consideration of the motion and after evidentiary hearing held over the course of February11, 2014, March 11, 2014 and April 9, 2014, the Court DENIES the motion to dismiss, D. 80, and DENIES the motion to suppress, D. 82.
The relevant facts are as follows based upon the testimony of Special Agent Eric Weindorf of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement ("Weindorf"), Boston Police Department ("BPD") Detective Kara Connolly ("Connolly") who testified on March 11, 2014 and Norris who testified on March 11, 2014 and April 9, 2014, D. 103, 111, and the various exhibits admitted during the course of the suppression hearing.
Weindorf was the lead federal investigator and Connolly the lead BPD investigator in an investigation of Norris, Darian Thomson and Vanessa Grandoit for human trafficking. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 8-9; 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 85. This investigation began in December 2012. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 8. The investigation began with the interview of the child victim, a subject who had raped the victim in Rhode Island and focused on three people, including Norris, who were allegedly involved in the trafficking of this child in Rhode Island. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 9. The investigation lead to photographs and video of the victim and the three individuals, including Norris, at a hotel in Rhode Island where the child was allegedly assaulted. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 10.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment for sex trafficking charges against Norris and two co-defendants, Thomson and Grandoit, on March 21, 2013. D. 3.1 This Court issued arrest warrants for the three defendants on the same day. D. 4. The agents initially planned to locatethe three defendants and attempt to arrest them at the same time. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 11.
On Tuesday, March 26, 2013, with coordination between the federal agents and BPD, teams of law enforcement officers attempted to locate and arrest the defendants. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 12. Weindorf and Connolly were part of the team attempting to locate and arrest Norris, but attempts to locate him were unsuccessful at that time. Id.; 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 86. Their team went to the Dorchester residence of Norris's grandmother, an address previously associated with Norris, but he was not there. 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 87. The agents explained to Norris's grandmother and brother that they had an arrest warrant for Norris. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 12-13. The agents left their contact information and asked them to contact them if Norris returned. Id. at 13. The agents checked other addresses associated with Norris, but to no avail. Id.; 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 88. Norris having previously been seen over the prior weekend getting out of a rental car, the agents obtained a search warrant to use GPS tracking to locate the vehicle. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 13-14. This information revealed that the rental car was traveling in the Manchester, New Hampshire area, but further investigation revealed that the vehicle had been rented by someone else, not related to this investigation. Id. at 14.
In a further attempt to locate Norris, Weindorf entered the arrest warrant in the NCIC system so that law enforcement nationwide would be alerted to the warrant if Norris was stopped or arrested elsewhere and he provided the warrant information to the Boston Region Intelligence Center and the Massachusetts State Police fusion center for the same purpose. Id. at 15; 3/11/14Connolly testimony at 87-88. As of Friday, March 29, 2013, the agents had not yet located Norris.
On the afternoon of March 29, 2013, a BPD narcotics detective, who had not been involved in the investigation of Norris and the others, contacted Weindorf to inform him that the BPD had located Norris and arrested him2 in Roslindale on the federal warrant. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 16, 17, 54. The BPD had taken Norris to the West Roxbury E-5 police station. Id. at 20. Weindorf initially thought that he received this call sometime around 3 p.m., id. at 16, 53, but upon review of the BPD arrest report (indicating an arrest at 2:00 p.m. and booking at 2:05 p.m.), id. at 53; Exh. E, and the fact that he had contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office around 2:30 p.m., id. at 54, he agreed that he had received this call before 3 p.m. Id. After this call, Weindorf reached out to the U.S. Attorney's Office, eventually making contact with the duty AUSA. In their initial call, the AUSA and Weindorf discussed how long it would take the agents to get Norris to the federal courthouse for his initial appearance. Considering that Norris would have to be processed by BPD, then Weindorf, after having traveled from his office in downtown Boston to West Roxbury, would have to take Norris through a federal booking procedure at the JFK Building and then transport him to the U.S. Marshal's holding facility at the federal courthouse, Weindorf estimated that the process, including allowing for Friday afternoon traffic, would take three hours for the agents to get Norris to the courthouse. Id. at 18-19, 21.3When the AUSA called Weindorf back, he informed him that the magistrate judge had authorized lodging for Norris over the weekend and would schedule his initial appearance on Monday, April 1, 2013. Id. at 27-28, 58-59. There was no mention by the AUSA about whether an attorney had been appointed for Norris. Id. at 28, 58, 60. En route to West Roxbury, Weindorf also called Connolly to inform her of Norris's arrest. Id. at 19; 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 88-89. Although with BPD, Connolly did not know that Norris would be arrested that day and she had not previously spoken to the BPD officers who had arrested him. 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 89.
Weindorf and Connolly arrived at the E-5 police station at about the same time. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 28. BPD had conducted its booking of Norris; neither Weindorf nor Connolly was involved in this process. Id. at 29, 68; 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 92. Although the booking form indicated that Miranda rights had been read to him during booking (and, according to Connolly, this was standard procedure for BPD bookings) and evidences what appears to be his signature, Exh. E, Norris denied that they were read to him during booking and that he was just told to sign the booking form. 3/11/14 Norris testimony at 143. Given that Norris's initial appearance would now not occur until Monday, Weindorf did not conduct the federal booking on Friday since there was now "no rush" to do so and he was the only federal agent at the police station and he would need a second agent to transport Norris back to the JFK building to do so. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 29, 63.
After his BPD booking, Connolly observed Norris in the holding cell. 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 96. She did not observe him sleeping and although he might have asked her what was going on, she did not recall him asking about getting bail, wanting a lawyer or when he was going to court, 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 119-20, although Norris claimed that when heasked her about bail and when he was going to court she responded that he would have to talk to them first. 3/11/14 Norris testimony at 145. When asked if he was willing to speak to the officers, Norris indicated that he was willing do so. 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 97. He was escorted by Connolly and another law enforcement officer, handcuffed to an interview room. Id.4 During the walk from the holding cell, Connolly observed that Norris had no difficulty with his coordination or with walking. 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 98.
In the interview room, Weindorf and Connolly sat on one side and Norris sat on the other side. Id. at 31, 69; 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 97. The officers were not armed at the time, id. at 31-32; 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 98, and although both of Norris's hands were initially handcuffed, they removed one of the handcuffs to allow him to use a pen. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 31; 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 98.
The interview began just before 4 p.m. 3/11/14 Connolly testimony at 98, 122. Weindorf identified himself and that he had been arrested on a warrant for sex trafficking. 3/11/14 Weindorf testimony at 31, 77; 3/11/14 Norris testimony at 145-46 (). Weindorf and Connolly conducted the interview in a normal, conversational tone, with no yelling or...
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