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Commonwealth v. Lafleur7/14/2003
Plymouth.
May 7, 2003
Practice, Criminal , Motion to suppress, Admissions and confessions. Constitutional Law, Admissions and confessions.
The defendant sought to suppress statements he made to a police officer while he was strapped to a stretcher and receiving medical assistance. The District Court judge allowed the motion to suppress concluding that the defendant, who had not been given Miranda warnings, was in custody when he made the statements. We reverse.
The judge found the following facts, none of which is alleged to be clearly erroneous: Police Officer Stephen Joy was dispatched to the scene of a two-car accident where he observed the defendant seated in the driver's seat of one of the cars. The officer noted that the defendant appeared to be "dazed and confused" and that his breath smelled of alcohol. Although he had a severe laceration on his forehead, the defendant attempted to get out of his car. Officer Joy prevented him from doing so until emergency medical technicians (EMT) arrived.
Upon their arrival, EMT personnel removed the defendant from his vehicle, strapped him to a stretcher, and placed him in an ambulance. In response to an EMT's question about what had happened, the defendant stated, "I had too much to drink." The EMT informed Officer Joy of this statement, and the officer asked the defendant what he had had to drink. The defendant answered that he had consumed alcoholic beverages at two local establishments during the evening. When the officer asked him if the alcohol had affected his ability to operate his motor vehicle, the defendant responded that it probably had affected his ability to drive. The defendant was thereafter taken to the hospital. Officer Joy asked similar questions of the defendant in the emergency room. The defendant gave the same answers. In addition, at the emergency room, the officer also administered a field sobriety test to the defendant, asking him to recite the alphabet. The defendant failed the test. Officer Joy did not read the defendant his Miranda rights at any time before questioning him.
The motion judge concluded that when the officer first noticed the odor of alcohol on the defendant's breath, he had reasonable suspicion that the defendant had committed a crime, and when he questioned the defendant while he was strapped to a stretcher, the defendant was in custody, and entitled to Miranda warnings. The judge therefore suppressed the defendant's statements to the officer at the accident scene and the hospital.
When reviewing a decision on a motion to suppress, we accept the judge's findings unless they are clearly erroneous, but we review independently the judge's application of constitutional principles to those facts. Commonwealth v. James, 427 Mass. 312, 314 (1998). As the judge's fact-finding is not contested, the question becomes whether these facts establish that the defendant was in custody when the questioning occurred.
The "safeguards prescribed by Miranda become applicable as soon as a suspect's freedom of action is curtailed to a 'degree associated with formal arrest.'" Commonwealth v. Morse, 427 Mass. 117, 123 (1998), quoting from Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 440 (1984). Ordinary traffic stops, including those involving operators suspected of driving under the influence, have not been held to be custodial. See Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. at 437-439; Vanhouton v. Commonwealth, 424 Mass. 327, 331, cert. denied, 522 U.S. 834 (1997); Commonwealth v. Cameron, 44 Mass. App. Ct. 912, 914 (1998). The same is true for many Terry stops, where police "may detain person briefly in order to 'investigate the circumstances that provoke suspicio
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