Colorado Court of Appeals People v. Richardson 10CA2488

Decision here.

   Richardson (hereinafter referred to as creepy MF) had a penchant for going down on his great-grand-nephew.  Who was 11.  Gross.

   Anyway, after the great-grand-nephew let his parents know what was going on, they went to the police.  The police staged a pretext phone call, where the great-grand-nephew confronted Richardson (AKA creepy MF) while they recorded the conversation.  Richardson implicitly acknowledged the accusations, and shortly afterwards found himself under arrest.  After signing a Miranda waiver, he admitted to... you know.  

   Richardson was convicted, and appealed.  His arguments were:

1- The phone call should have been suppressed.  Although he acknowledged that the police can record phone calls if one party consents, and although he acknowledged that his great-grand-nephew consented, he argued that his great-grand-nephew was a juvenile and therefore could not validly consent without a parent's presence or written permission.  Much like is the case in Colorado with custodial interrogation of a juvenile.  Unfortunately for creepy MF (but fortunately for justice and everyone else), the court recognized that consenting to the recording of a phone call for the purpose of arresting the pedophile SOB who victimized you is in no way similar to consenting to an interrogation for the purpose of getting your own ass in trouble.  So the recorded phone call was admissible in court.

2- He attempted to invoke his Miranda rights prior to signing the waiver.  And by "attempted to invoke," he means that he said "I'm not gonna spill my guts or anything."  Obviously, this is not an unequivocal invocation of ones right to counsel or to remain silent.  Hell, this isn't even a hint at either of those.  And so this argument also fails.

   Creepy MF's conviction was affirmed.