No. 28255 (July 31, 2008)
Opinion [pdf]
OPINION OF THE COURT BY RECKTENWALD, C.J.
This case requires us to determine whether a police officer's request to a defendant for consent to search a bag constituted interrogation. We must also decide whether the defendant, who denied ownership of the bag in response to the officer's request, abandoned the bag and thus relinquished any reasonable expectation of privacy in it.
. . . .
We affirm in part and vacate in part, and remand for further proceedings. First, we conclude that Sergeant Cricchio's request that Rippe sign a consent form did not constitute interrogation, because the request was not reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response. Rippe's disclaimer of ownership of the bag is therefore admissible, although Rippe's responses to Cricchio's follow-up questions were properly suppressed because those questions did constitute interrogation.
Second, considering Rippe's disclaimer of ownership of the bag in light of the surrounding circumstances, we conclude that Rippe abandoned the bag. . . . Finally, we conclude that Rippe's statements to police on the day after his arrest were not fruit of the poisonous tree, subject however to the circuit court's determination of the lawfulness of the search of the BMW and seizure of the bag.
