State v. Diaz-Bridges

In this appeal we consider whether defendant’s request for permission to speak with his mother in the midst of his custodial interrogation was an assertion of his right to silence that required the investigating officers to cease their questioning. The trial court concluded that it was and ordered the suppression of all of the statements made by defendant after that request. The Appellate Division disagreed with that conclusion, but found that defendant did invoke his right to silence during one of his several subsequent reiterations of the request to speak with his mother and ordered the…