Judge Colleen McMahon
Former U.S. Marine Corps corporal Santiago was charged with reckless assault and making false statements. The assault charges stemmed from the 2008 shooting of Navy corpsman Carpeso, and allegedly false statements made to Lieutenant Wang who was conducting a line of duty investigation regarding the shooting. Santiago moved to suppress his statement to Wang on the ground that they were obtained in violation of Article 31 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and Miranda v. Arizona. District court found Article 31 could not be used as the basis of a motion to suppress because it did not apply to civilian courts. Thus, it reviewed Santiago's motion under Miranda. The court noted that the military set an extremely low threshold triggering Article 31 but Miranda by contrast was triggered only when a suspect was questioned while in custody. The circumstances of the line of duty investigation did not quality as "restraints comparable to those associated with a formal arrest." The court reasoned that while Santiago was not in a "happy place" when he spoke with Wang, he was in far better position than many criminal defendants whose statements to police were deemed entirely voluntary under Miranda. Thus suppression was denied.
