Felner: Defense Tactic #1

This from C-J:

Felner wants statements,

evidence suppressed

The lawyer for former education dean Robert Felner says federal authorities violated his client’s rights when they interrogated him for more than six hours at the University of Louisville last June.

As a result, attorney Scott C. Cox of Louisville has filed a motion asking that Felner’s statements during the interrogation be excluded in the case.

He also asks, in a related motion, that Felner’s books and papers seized during a search at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside where Felner was going to start work be suppressed on the grounds that the search was unconstitutional....

And more from C-J:

...In his motion to exclude Felner's statements during questioning by federal agents, Cox argues that "Felner, and any other reasonable person, would not have believed they were free to leave during the six-hour interrogation."

According to the motion, armed federal agents arrived at Felner's U of L office June 20 and demanded to speak to him.

"Felner was then escorted to a conference room adjacent to his office for an interrogation that exceeded six hours in length," the motion states.

The door to the conference room was closed, and at no time was Felner read his Miranda rights, the motion states.

"Mr. Felner was never free to leave the premises but, instead, believed at all times that he was in custody," the motion states. "The few times that he was allowed to leave the room to use the bathroom, he was always escorted by armed federal agents, who accompanied him inside the restroom."

The motion includes a transcript of a tape-recorded exchange between Felner and an unidentified agent at the end of the interrogation, in which the agent asks Felner if he understands that he is not under arrest and can leave without talking to the agents.

Felner indicates, during the exchange, that he knew he was not under arrest, but he did not know he had the option of leaving or not talking to the agents.

"I felt like I was escorted everywhere. I couldn't go anywhere. If I made a move to get up and leave, then I was in trouble," Felner told the agent, according to the motion. "… I didn't feel like I could leave the premises."

The motion also notes that "on multiple occasions" Felner invoked his right to an attorney. On his final request, Felner was allowed to call his lawyer, but the agents continued their questioning, violating his Miranda rights, according to the motion...