Miranda Invocations and Waivers: Timing Is Important When a Suspect Talks After Waiving His Rights

To be legally sufficient, a Miranda invocation, when it follows a previous waiver, must be clear and unequivocal. 

• Miranda v. Arizona 
• Legally effective invocation of Miranda after a previous waiver 
• Defense counsel’s ineffective assistance 

An attempt to invoke one’s Miranda rights after a previous wavier of those rights must be clear and unequivocal to be legally sufficient. 

Defendant Lucio Villegas lived with his wife and their two daughters (“Jane Doe Three” and another daughter) in a house in Napa Valley in 2018 and 2019. “Jane Does One” and “Two” lived with their parents in a garage on the same property. The families were close and Villegas was Jane Doe One’s godfather. Villegas had many opportunities to be alone with each of the victims. As for Jane Doe One, she complained that when she was 11 years old, Villegas would use his hand to touch her breasts and vagina over her clothes, done in a rubbing motion. On one occasion, Villegas put his hand under her shirt, on top of her bra, and moved it around. When this case eventually came to trial, she testified that she wanted Villegas to stop, but she did not tell anyone because she was scared. Jane Doe One’s mother, “L.R.,” observed Villegas touching Jane Doe One’s outer clothing on one occasion in May of 2018, and threatened to call the police. Villegas, however, threatened in return to call immigration on her, which (apparently being in the country illegally) frightened her. A year later, in May 2019, L.R. became suspicious that the molestations were continuing because each day, upon coming home from work, Villegas wanted the girls to come out and play. So she asked both her daughters, Jane Does One and Two. Both said that Villegas had been touching them inappropriately for some time. All of this was then reported to the police.  

Jane Doe Two was subsequently interviewed by city of Napa Detective Dustin Dodd, an experienced forensic interviewer of alleged victims of child molestations. Although unable to remember any of this by the time of trial, as she was 10 years old at the time, Jane Doe Two told Detective Dodd that between the previous Christmas and her birthday, Villegas “tickled her and dragged ....