People v. Williams

Opinion

STEPHENS, Acting P. J. Defendant was charged by information with one count of grand theft in violation of Penal Code section 487, subdivision 1, for stealing carpeting worth approximately $30,000 between November of 1977 and June of 1978 from the carpet mill where he was employed as a security guard. His motion to suppress the two confessions he made, one to a private security agent and one to the police, was denied. By stipulation of all parties, the issue of guilt was submitted on the transcripts of the preliminary hearing and the suppression hearing. The court found that both confessions were voluntary and that defendant was guilty; he was placed on probation for five years. This appeal followed.

In June of 1978 an inventory control analysis at the carpet mill where defendant was employed revealed that approximately $30,000 in rolls of carpet was missing from the warehouse. The plant manager called corporate headquarters of his security service to send an agent for the purpose of administering a polygraph test to the security guards employed at the mill. The plant manager testified that on June 15 this security agent gave the test to defendant, the main day shift guards and the main night guards. He further testified that the security service had administered these tests at his plant five or six times in the past, and that taking the tests was a condition of employment for security guards at the carpet mill. Defendant testified that during his polygraph test the security agent switched off the machine several times to call defendant a liar when he denied taking the carpeting; after the test, defendant admitted to the security agent that he took 15 small carpet samples and allowed trucks to go past his security station. Defendant denied that he was ever told he had to take lie detector tests as a condition of his employment; however, he had earlier testified that he took the test because he thought he had to and in fact had been given a polygraph test once before in the course of his employment at the mill. The security agent who administered defendant’s polygraph test did not testify. After his test, defendant confessed to police who had been called to the plant and who advised him fully of his constitutional rights. The police officer who read to defendant his rights from a card testified that he then asked defendant if [739]he understood these rights and was willing to discuss the theft without an attorney present. Defendant replied yes, he did understand his rights and would discuss the case. He told the officer that he had taken the rug samples and allowed trucks to come into the plant seven or eight times between November of 1977 and June of 1978; he had been paid $200 by a fellow employee to allow the trucks in. Though at first he thought the truck was only picking up scrap carpeting, he knew what was happening by the second occasion when he discovered five rolls of carpeting missing from the warehouse after the truck’s departure.