Miranda and the Non-Custodial Interrogation

Miranda and the Non-Custodial Interrogation

Robert C. Phillips
DDA (Retired)
June, 2015

Kim Raymond Kopatz was deeply in debt.  With thirteen maxed-out credit cards totaling some $117,883 of debt, and a family monthly income that covered only half the bills, including the minimum credit card payments, Kopatz’s was living upside down, financially speaking.  His wife, Mary, worked as the manager of a Jenny Craig weight loss center in Riverside.  But Kopatz himself was unable to help with the family income due to injuries he’d suffered in a workplace accident.  And as a stay-at-home father to his two daughters, Kopatz’s efforts to make money in the stock market through day-trading was just not working out.

However, Kopatz did have life insurance policies on his wife and his 3-year-old daughter, Carley, totaling more than $800,000 in value, as well as $13,628 in policies on his wife’s wedding and anniversary rings.  But of course, that money just wasn’t available, . . . unless, . . .

On April 22, 1999, ....