United States v. Brian Flewell

MEMORANDUM

Appellant Brian Flewell (Flewell) challenges the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress his confession and evidence of child pornography found on his computer. Flewell maintains that his confession and consent to search his computer were involuntary because Flewell was not advised of his Miranda rights prior to an in-home interrogation.

The district court properly denied Flewell’s motion to suppress. The interrogation was non-custodial, as “a reasonable person in [Flewell’s] position would [not] have felt deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way ...” United States v. Craighead, 539 F.3d 1073, 1082 (9th Cir.2008); see also United States v. Bassignani, 575 F.3d 879, 883 (9th Cir.2009), as amended (“An officer’s obligation to give a suspect Miranda warnings before interrogation extends only to those instances where the individual is in custody.”) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

The officers’ deceptive tactics did not render Flewell’s confession involuntary. See United States v. Crawford, 372 F.3d 1048, 1060-61 (9th Cir.2004) (en banc) (“Trickery, deceit, even impersonation do not render a confession inadmissible, certainly in…