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FOR IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE #020 FROM: CLERK OF SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA

The Opinions handed down on the 16th day of March, 2010, are as follows:

BY KNOLL, J.:

2009-KK-1178

STATE OF LOUISIANA v. AARON BERNARD (Parish of E. Baton Rouge) Kimball, C.J., did not participate in the deliberation of this opinion. For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the lower courts are reversed, vacated, and set aside; the motion to suppress is denied. This matter is remanded to the district court for further proceedings consistent with the views expressed herein. REVERSED AND REMANDED. JOHNSON, J., concurs and assigns reasons. GUIDRY, J., concurs with reasons.

3/16/2010

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA
NO. 2009-KK-1178 STATE OF LOUISIANA versus AARON BERNARD ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT, PARISH OF EAST BATON ROUGE KNOLL, J.* This criminal writ concerns the issue of whether a child protection officer should have given "Miranda" warnings to the arrested and incarcerated defendant, Aaron Bernard, before she interviewed him. This problematic issue was raised by defendant in his pretrial motion to suppress certain incriminatory statements he made to Rosemarice Collins, a child protection officer with the Louisiana Office of Community Services ("OCS"), based on her failure to advise him of his Constitutional rights pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). We are called upon to weigh the delicate balance between the Constitutional rights of a defendant who has been taken into custody and the interest of both the State and the OCS in interrogating suspected child abusers. While defendant was in prison awaiting trial,1 Collins interviewed him as part of an investigation of child abuse or neglect directed at his live-in girlfriend, Claudia. During the interview, which lasted approximately ten minutes, defendant admitted to

*

Kimball, C.J., did not participate in the deliberation of this opinion.

Defendant was charged with two counts of aggravated rape of a juvenile, La. Rev. Stat.

Download 2009-KK-1178 STATE OF LOUISIANA v. AARON BERNARD.pdf

Louisiana Law