United States v. John R. Duncan, Jr.

Appellant was charged with receipt and conversion of stolen government property in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641 . He was proceeded against as a juvenile pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 5031-5037 , and was found to have committed the charged act of delinquency. The only issue raised on appeal is whether the trial court erred in denying a motion to suppress.

A grand jury subpoena was issued requiring appellant to furnish his fingerprints either to the grand jury on February 8, 1977, or to Postal Inspector David Woods prior to that date. On February 7, 1977, appellant appeared at Inspector Woods’ office in the post office building. In addition to taking appellant’s fingerprints, Inspector Woods obtained a sworn incriminatory statement from appellant, and appellant turned over to Inspector Woods 27 dollars’ worth of stolen postage stamps.

Appellant moved to suppress the statement and the stamps, relying on the provision of 18 U.S.C. § 5038 (d) reading “unless a juvenile who is taken into custody is prosecuted as an adult (1) neither the fingerprints nor a photograph shall be taken without the written consent of the judge . .” Appellant asserted that the government violated the statute by…