Fugitive Recovery & Miranda warning PDF Print E-mail
In State v. Garcia, 2008 WL 2955881 (Wash.App. August 4, 2008) a recovery agent went to the door of the defendant's motel room while the recovery agent's assistant watched the back window.  A bag was thrown from the window.  On the way to the police station, the defendant told the recovery agent, "I'm glad you guys aren't cops because I had to get rid of something out the window."  The recovery agent reported this to the police who found the bag containing a large quantity of narcotics and a gun.  The defendant moved to suppress his statements to the recovery agent because he had not been given a Miranda warning.  The court held that the basis for the recovery agent's custody of the defendant was contractual, the recovery agent was not a state actor, and so no Miranda warning was required.