SUMMARY SERVICES

WRITING SAMPLES

PARALEGAL SERVICES

WRITING SAMPLE: EXCERPT FROM AN APPEAL, STATEMENT OF FACT

John Doe

The officers didn't tell Doe their names, that he was under arrest, what they wanted with him, that they wanted to question him, or they thought he was a witness to an event, they just told him to get dressed and go with them (RT 606.) When he was transported, Doe wasn't told he was under arrest. At the police station he was taken to a room with no windows (RT 611). He asked the officer that escorted him to the other room if he could make a phone call. The second room had windows. He sat there for 30 or 40 minutes (RT 612.) until two officers came in the room, Foster and another whose name he didn't recall. He was taken to the bathroom before being placed in the second room. At that point Doe didn't ask if he was under arrest, but just asked to make a phone call. The officer answered that he'd be able to do that "after". (RT 613.)

When Foster came to interview Doe, he didn't tell Doe he was under arrest or in custody for a murder. Doe didn't understand what was read to him. He just wanted to go home and didn't know that he was under arrest (RT 614.) Doe thought that when Foster read the Miranda Rights he was just asking the basic questions.

In response, Doe asked Foster why he was down at the police department. Foster answered, "You know what you did." When Doe asked to call his mother, Foster responded, "After we finish talking to you and everything, you'll be able to do that." Doe just wanted Foster to hurry up so he could return home (RT 616.)

Foster asked Doe to sign a piece of paper after Foster read it to him. Doe did not read , he never read it and he signed it because he was asked to. Doe can read and write (RT 618.) He said he understood his rights to Foster, but he didn't. When he asked for a lawyer, Foster told him, "if you didn't do anything what do you need a lawyer for"? (RT 619.)

Doe asked that the tape be turned off because he didn't want to give a taped statement and wanted to go home. He asked them to call his mother. He was told after "we do all this", then he asked to take a lie detector test and was told that "we going to continue on tape". Doe asked to talk to his mother before he made a taped statement, (RT 621) but the officers did not allow him to make a phone call until after the tape. Foster appeared angry with him (RT 622.)

After Doe gave his statement to Foster and the FBI agent and made the tape, he wasn't asked if he wanted to make a phone call. He requested to make a phone call but again wasn't allowed to (RT 624)

Doe was taken into the interview room for the joint interrogation. "Basically, it's the same thing, a bunch of police, they wanted to ask me questions." (RT 625.) Doe remembers being escorted to the office and sitting with Shields and Brown while six or seven officers wearing gun holsters came in and out of the room (RT 626.) Doe wasn't told before the meeting how the interview would be conducted. He didn’t disagree with anything Shields or the police said, "Man, all of them police, I was just basically doing whatever they said.... cause I didn't want to get the police any madder than what they was. I was just"I was quiet, doing what they asked me to do." (RT 627.) "Sergeant Foster, the one that was with me, he was kind of mad at me. He was kind of all in my face, putting his finger in my face, pushing me back in my chair and all that kind of stuff." (RT 628.)

Doe asked to call his mother whenever anybody came near to talk to him, everyone told him no and gave him excuses (RT 629.) He was 17 years old (RT 630.)

Doe felt tired and couldn't think straight. When at the interview room at the Oakland Police Department, Foster and Brazwell, a Caucasian, came in and read him his Miranda Rights from a form. When they were read, he wasn't really listening, just sitting with his head down (RT 638.) thinking that he wanted to go home. Foster was four feet away when he read him his rights. Doe was curious as to why he was there, but he had no idea. (RT 639.) He remembers the form being read, vaguely remembers some words, didn't understand what it meant. He felt he was there to do whatever he was told to do (RT 640.)

He wasn't paying attention to what Foster was reading. He heard the words but wasn't able to concentrate because he was tired, scared and intimidated by Foster yelling close to his (RT 641.) The yelling was loud (RT 642.) He doesn't even know what the Miranda Rights were. Doe repeated that he had asked Foster what he did wrong, and Foster didn't tell him. So Doe felt apathy (RT 647.) and dejection and fear, he put his head down, nothing registered in his head but the thought of returning to his home. He heard the words but didn't understand them (RT 648.)

Even though he didn't understand the meaning of the Miranda Rights, when Foster asked him if he understood and wanted to talk, he said "Yeah," while thinking, "whatever." (RT 650.)

When alone with Foster and Brazwell, he wasn't coerced or threatened into giving a statement, only yelled at and intimidated by Foster, who poked him in the forehead a couple of times and pushed him back in his chair in displays of anger, during the off tape portion of the interview (RT 657.)

During the taped portion of the interview, one minute after starting, Doe asked to stop the tape and the tape was stopped (RT 658.) At that time Doe did not ask for an attorney. The second time that Doe asked that the tape be stopped, he asked for an attorney. The response was "what do you need an attorney for?" Doe then asked to take a lie detector test. He was told no, we'll continue with the tape. The tape was again started (RT 659.)

The court stated that Doe's credibility on the issue of his awareness of why he was being interrogated is about as low as it could possibility get (RT 668.)

Doe's counsel finally asked: "Q. Okay. Mr. Doe, will you explain to the Court what the Bill of Rights is? Mr. Mifsud: Objection, relevance. The Witness: Bill of who? Mr. Cannady: Thank you." (RT 670.)