United States v. Cellemme
United States v. Cellemme
Opinion of the Court
ORDER
This matter is before the Court on defendant’s. motion to suppress the admission of a confession which he made to the police while allegedly intoxicated. The defendant thus asserts that the confession was not made voluntarily. A hearing was held on April 21, 1977 and memoranda have been submitted by the defendant and the govern
The witnesses were sequestered pri- or to testifying. The defendant and the government present two widely disparate accounts of the events surrounding the making of the confession. The inconsistencies can only be resolved on the basis of the credibility of the witnesses involved. While I disbelieve aspects of the testimony of witnesses on both sides, I conclude that the government has not shown by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant’s confession was made voluntarily. Lego v. Twomey, 404 U.S. 477, 489, 92 S.Ct. 619, 30 L.Ed.2d 618 (1972).
Cellemme’s testimony may be summarized as follows. On the evening of November 5, 1976, at approximately 9:00 p. m., he arrived at a friend’s wedding reception after having had “a couple of beers” elsewhere. At the reception he consumed three or four whiskey sours and then eight or nine cans of beer without eating any of the food which was served. Between 12:30 a. m. and 12:45 a. m. he borrowed an automobile, left the reception, and drove approximately three blocks to the China Royal Restaurant in search of Michael Belovitch, a friend. He drove into the parking lot and, not seeing his friend, began to leave. At or near the parking lot exit, Cellemme was stopped by a car containing Secret Service Special Agents Perras and Petro and Fall River Police Detective McDonald. He was then placed under arrest and taken to the Fall River police station. He does not remember whether he was given his Miranda rights when placed under arrest. He does recall responding in the negative to the question whether or not he had a family lawyer. On cross-examination, however, he admitted that he knew his rights as a result of having been informed of them when arrested on previous occasions and that he was actually given his Miranda rights upon arriving at the Fall River police station.
Cellemme insisted that he asked to call his father when he arrived at the police station but was not allowed to do so. He testified that Special Agent Petro told him that he would not see or hear from anyone until he made a statement. The defendant identified his signature on the waiver form,
Two other witnesses testified on the defendant’s behalf. David Charette testified that a wedding reception was held on November 5, 1976 in his honor. Charette noticed the defendant arriving at about 9:00 p. m. when other non-family guests began arriving. There were approximately 30-40 guests present. Charette recalled mixing a
Michael Flores, another wedding guest, also recalled seeing Cellemme at the reception. He remembered seeing the defendant with a styrofoam cup, noting that such cups were used for mixed drinks. He also saw the defendant drinking beer, although he didn’t know how much Cellemme consumed. Flores had gone drinking with Cellemme on prior occasions and shared Charette’s opinion that Cellemme was a poor drinker and could have had five or six beers and become somewhat incoherent. He expressed no opinion whether Cellemme would be able to drive after drinking. Flores also stated he did not know if Cellemme used narcotics.
The government presented two witnesses, Special Agents Petro and Perras. Both agents testified that they were engaged in surveillance
Special Agent Petro testified he took a personal history from Cellemme during which the defendant told him that he was a drug addict. Perras testified that upon arriving at the police station he noticed a lump on Cellemme’s arm when the defendant took off his jacket.
It is not unreasonable that even one who does not normally drink a lot may imbibe more alcohol than usual at the wedding reception of a friend of longstanding. Both defense witnesses testified they observed Cellemme drinking. Charette also noted that the defendant drank at least two mixed drinks as well as beer. Neither Charette nor Flores could corroborate the defendant’s testimony regarding precisely how much alcohol he actually consumed. However, the Court is convinced that the defendant attended the wedding reception and consumed at least some quantity of alcohol. It therefore seems rather curious that the federal officers detected no odor of alcohol on the defendant’s breath. This casts at least some doubt upon the credibility of the officers’ version of events. The Court is also troubled by the government’s contention, as admitted by Special Agent Petro on cross-examination, that, despite the fact that at least some of the information contained in the confession was already known to the federal officers and despite the fact that the defendant allegedly agreed immediately to cooperate, it still took approximately two hours to obtain a signed confession consisting of only one and a half typed pages.
In addition to these two aspects of the government’s version, the Court is somewhat puzzled by the contention that the defendant waited approximately one and a half hours after making a confession to call anyone. No reason is offered for this delay and the Court is left to its own speculation. The existence of this unexplained delay again casts some doubt upon the credibility of the version offered by the federal officers. Moreover, the potential for coercion is increased by the fact that the defendant, after having been drinking at least to some extent and without the assistance of counsel was interrogated at various times by four government officers.
While perhaps none of these factors would independently establish that the defendant was so intoxicated as to be incapable of voluntarily confessing, they are sufficient to raise serious doubts regarding the credibility of the government’s version. Consequently, the Court must conclude that the government has not met its burden in establishing that the confession was voluntarily made.
This does not mean that the Court is not also skeptical about aspects of the defendant’s version of events. The defendant claims that he was beaten by Special Agent Petros and Detective Lynch. Yet the one person who could corroborate his story, Cellemme’s father, was not called to testify,
It is so ordered.
. This form is a waiver of the Miranda rights.
. The agents had had the defendant under surveillance for counterfeit activities.
. Upon arrest, a pat-down of the defendant for weapons produced a coupon book in which counterfeit bills were found.
. Petro was not present during this discussion.
. Cellemme testified that at the time of the hearing on this motion, his father was at home.
. Moreover, I find the federal officer’s testimony regarding the defendant’s drug addiction at the time of arrest to be more credible than the defendant’s testimony. However, acceptance of the officer’s testimony on this subject does not affect my ruling on the voluntariness of the
Reference
- Full Case Name
- United States v. Carl CELLEMME
- Status
- Published