U.S. v. Higgins-Vogt

In prosecution on Hobbs Act robbery and firearms charges, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress two inculpatory statements in which he admitted to killing driver of getaway car involved in said robbery, even though defendant argued that both statements were involuntary because they arose out of discussions defendant had with “mental health counselor” who was employed at county jail, where said individual was not licensed mental health professional, and where said individual pledged confidentiality to defendant, but then urged defendant to talk to police after hearing his confession to said killing and elicited inculpatory statements from defendant during both of defendant’s statements given to authorities. While counselor functioned as agent of law enforcement which would typically cut against finding that defendant’s statements were voluntary, record showed that defendants’ statements were voluntary, where: (1) defendant reached out to counselor on his own initiative and confessed to killing driver; (2) counselor never reached out to police about defendant’s confession prior to defendant making statements to authorities; (3) defendant’s statements to authorities came only on defendant’s initiative; and (4) defendant’s confession to authorities about killing came shortly after defendant spoke to girlfriend about killing. Ct. rejected defendant’s claim that counselor was required to give defendant Miranda warnings during his initial conversations with counselor.