House Rules Read online

  Jacob fans a little faster.

  --Was he placed under arrest?||

  --No,|| the detective says.

  --Was he brought in a cruiser?||

  --No.||

  --Did a police officer accompany his mother to the police department?||

  --No. She brought her son in voluntarily.||

  --What did you say when you saw him there?||

  --I asked if he could help me with some cases.||

  --What was his response?||

  --He was extremely excited and very willing to go with me,|| Matson says.

  --Did he indicate that he wanted to have his mother in the room, or that he wasn't comfortable without her?||

  --To the contrary--he said he wanted to help me.||

  --Where did the interview take place?||

  --In my office. I started to ask him about the crime scene he'd crashed a week earlier, which involved a man who died of hypothermia. Then I told him I'd really like to pick his brain about Jess Ogilvy's case, but that it was a little trickier, since it was still an open investigation. I said he'd have to waive his rights to not discuss it, and Jacob quoted me Miranda. I read along as he recited it verbatim, and then I asked him to read over it and initial it and sign at the bottom so that I knew he understood, and hadn't just memorized some random words.||

  --Was he able to answer your questions intelligibly?|| Helen asks.

  --Yes.||

  Helen offers the Miranda form into evidence. --No further questions, Your Honor,||

  she says.

  I stand up and button my suit jacket. --Detective, the very first time you met with Jacob, his mother was there, right?||

  --Yes.||

  --Did she stay the entire time?||

  --Yes, she did.||

  --Great,|| I say. --How about the second time you met with Jacob? Was his mother there?||

  --Yes.||

  --In fact, she's the one who brought him to the station at your request, correct?||

  --That's right.||

  --But when she asked you if she could stay with him, you refused?||

  --Well, yeah,|| Matson says. --Since her son is eighteen.||

  --Yes, but you were also aware that Jacob is on the autism spectrum, isn't that true?||

  --It is, but nothing he'd said previously had led me to believe he couldn't be interrogated.||

  --Still, his mother told you he had a hard time with questions. That he got confused under pressure, and that he couldn't really understand subtleties of language,|| I say.

  --She explained something about Asperger's syndrome, but I didn't pay a lot of attention to it. He seemed perfectly capable to me. He knew every legal term imaginable, for God's sake, and he was more than happy to talk.||

  --Detective, when you told Jacob what happens during an autopsy, didn't he quote Silence of the Lambs to you?||

  Matson shifts in his chair. --Yes.||

  --Does that indicate that he really understood what he was doing?||

  --I figured he was trying to be funny.||

  --It's not the first time Jacob's used a movie quote to answer one of your questions, is it?||

  --I can't recall.||

  --Let me help you, then,|| I say, grateful to Jacob for his verbatim memory of the conversation. --When you asked him if Jess and her boyfriend, Mark, fought, he said Hasta la vista, baby,' didn't he?||

  --That sounds about right.||

  --And he quoted a third movie line to you at one point during your interrogation, didn't he, Detective?||

  --Yes.||

  --When was that?||

  --I asked him why he'd done it.||

  --And he said?||

  --Love means never having to say you're sorry.||

  --The only crime Jacob Hunt committed,|| I argue, --is quoting from a movie as sappy as Love Story.||

  --Objection,|| Helen says. --Are we doing closings now? Because nobody sent me the memo.||

  --Sustained,|| the judge answers. --Mr. Bond, save the editorial commentary for yourself.||

  I turn back to Matson. --How did that third interview, at the station, end?||

  --Abruptly,|| the detective replies.

  --In fact Ms. Hunt arrived with me, saying that her son wanted a lawyer, didn't she?||

  --That's right.||

  --And once she made that announcement, what did Jacob say?||

  --That he wanted a lawyer,|| Matson answers. --Which is when I stopped questioning him.||

  --Nothing further,|| I say, and I sit down beside Jacob again.

  Freddie Soto is a former cop whose oldest son is profoundly autistic. After working for the state police in North Carolina for years, he went back to school and got his master's in psychology. Now, he specializes in teaching law enforcement professionals about autism.

  He's written articles for the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin and for Sheriff magazine. He was a consultant for ABC News on a 20/20 special about autism and the law and false confession. He helped develop the state of North Carolina's 2001 curriculum about why law enforcement needs to recognize autism, a curriculum now in use in police departments around the globe.

  His fee for expert testimony is $15,000 plus first-class plane fare, which I didn't have. But we started talking on the phone, and when he heard that I had been a farrier, he divulged that he had partial ownership of a racehorse that wound up with flat feet. The horse meant everything to his son, so he had fought to keep the animal from being euthanized. When I suggested pads to keep the soles from bruising and wedges on the hooves with integral frog supports and a soft packing material underneath to realign the hoof pasterns by reducing the weight on the heels without crushing the horns and deforming the heels, he said he'd testify for free if I agreed to fly down to North Carolina and take a look at his horse when the trial was through.

  --Can you tell us, Mr. Soto, would someone with Asperger's syndrome have the same difficulties dealing with law enforcement personnel as someone who is autistic?|| I ask.

  --Naturally, since Asperger's is on the autism spectrum. For example, a person with Asperger's might be nonverbal. He might have a hard time interpreting body language, like a command presence or a defensive pose. He may have a meltdown if confronted by flashing lights or sirens. His lack of eye contact may lead an officer to believe he's not listening. He may appear stubborn or angry. Instead of answering a question asked by an officer, he might repeat what the officer has said. He'll have trouble seeing from someone else's point of view. And he will tell the truth--relentlessly.||

  --Have you ever met Jacob, Mr. Soto?||

  --I have not.||

  --Have you had a chance to review his medical records from Dr. Murano?||

  --Yes, fifteen years' worth,|| he says.

  --What in those medical records fits the possible indicators for Asperger's?||

  --From what I understand,|| Soto replies, --Jacob is a very bright young man who has trouble making eye contact, doesn't communicate very well, speaks in movie quotes from time to time, exhibits stimulatory behavior, such as flapping his hands, and sings certain songs repetitively as a means of self-calming. He also can't break down complex questions, has trouble judging personal space and interpreting body language, and is supremely honest.||

  --Mr. Soto,|| I ask, --have you also had a chance to read the police reports and the transcript of Jacob's recorded statement with Detective Matson?||

  --Yes.||

  --In your opinion, did Jacob understand his Miranda rights at the time they were given?||

  --Objection,|| Helen says. --Your Honor, Miranda is intended to prevent violations of an individual's Fifth Amendment rights purposefully by the police; however, there's nothing that requires the police to know all the inner workings of any particular individual defendant's developmental abilities. The test under a motion to suppress is whether the police officer fulfilled his obligation, and that shouldn't be flipped around to ask whether Jacob Hunt has some unknown disorder that the officer should have identified