Interrogators
like Mark Wiegert and Tom Fassbender have tactics to get suspects to waive
their Miranda rights, and they have a different set of ploys to get
suspects to tell them what they want to hear—or, in Brendan Dassey’s case, to
get him to agree with whatever they, the interrogators, are saying. (I love it when they get Dassey to agree to
something, but then later discover that what they made him agree with doesn’t
make any sense after all. The dynamic
duo then gets frustrated with the kid, as if he was the one who gave the
bad information to them.)
But before the interrogation begins, detectives like
to warm their suspects up a bit—you know, feign interest in them and build some
rapport before getting too hot and heavy.
To see how Wiegert and Fassbender did this, read chapter 10, “Getting to
Know All About You,” from my soon-to-be-released book, Anatomy of a False Confession: The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey (Rowman
& Littlefield).[1] Order today for delivery by Halloween; but until
then, enjoy a sneak peek of chapter 10, after the jump. (Reprinted with permission of the publisher;
citations to interrogation transcripts omitted for this post.)
Wiegert
and Fassbender had put in a lot of thought and effort up to this point. One thing
they had worked very hard to do was to convince Dassey they were his friends
and were there to help. Among numerous other examples, Fassbender said, “I’m
your friend right now, but I . . . gotta believe in you and if I don’t believe
in you, I can’t go to bat for you.”
This
tactic actually served a dual purpose. It not only eliminated the risk that
Dassey would invoke his right to remain silent mid-interrogation, but it also
helped jump-start the substantive conversation. If Dassey believed that talking
to his new “friend” was to his benefit, because his “friend” would “go to bat”
for him, then Dassey would be more likely to, well, talk. And toward
this same end, there was one more thing the interrogators wanted to do before
unleashing their arsenal of interrogation tactics: build a rapport with Dassey.
Rapport
building is simply commonsense; it’s something we do in many different
contexts. For example, if a person is interested in dating someone who is,
essentially, a stranger, he or she does not simply walk up to that stranger and
ask for a date. Rather, he or she will dramatically increase the odds of
success by first attempting to build a rapport. “Hello.” “How are you doing
today?” “Where do you work?” “That’s a great jacket you’re wearing.” “Oh, you
know John Jones? How is he doing?” And the same thing is true of interrogators.
They don’t just sit a suspect down and start asking questions. An interrogator
knows that the amount and quality of information he will be able to extract
from the suspect is positively correlated with the level of rapport he is first
able to establish.
More
specifically, interrogators “may use pre-Miranda conversation to build
rapport, which is important to obtaining a Miranda waiver.”[2]
Similarly, interrogators also use rapport building post-Miranda to get
the suspect comfortable and talking more freely. That is, rapport building
often occurs “after the suspect waived his Miranda rights,” and is therefore
“directed at eliciting a subsequent confession, rather than an initial Miranda
waiver.”[3]
The
more astute among us can see through attempts at rapport building—whether they
are coming from a would-be date or a government agent. Even so, many otherwise
intelligent defendants have told me how surprised they were upon first learning
they had been criminally charged. Their reason: the detective who questioned
them “seemed like such a nice guy.” In any case, the quiet and withdrawn
Brendan Dassey most certainly was not sophisticated enough to recognize Wiegert
and Fassbender’s rapport-building tactics, which started with feigned interest
in Dassey’s well-being and emotional state.
Fassbender
kicked off one of their interrogations by asking, “So how ya doin’ Brendan
since, ah, the last time we talked to you?” Wiegert also chimed in. “All right.
How you doin’ buddy?” To really build trust, the interrogators would slip into
psychologist mode. “We’re here more ta maybe let you talk . . . about how
you’ve been feeling lately and stuff. . . . Go ahead and tell us what’s been
bothering ya.” And, as we saw in earlier chapters, playing the father figure
doesn’t hurt either: “I’m a father that has a kid your age too. I wanna be here
for you.”
Other
ways they built rapport was to show an interest in Dassey’s family and friends.
For example, Fassbender inquired about his family, “How’s your mom doing?” He
also asked about his friends. “Did Travis tell you I talked to him? He seems
like a pretty cool kid.” Not to be left out, Wiegert got in the mix. “Where
does your girlfriend live? . . . Do you talk to her on the Internet or what?”
When
things bog down, the topic of the weather is always on standby. “The sky, it
looks like it could snow a little bit today,” Fassbender said. But Wiegert was
more concerned about the freezing rain “that’s supposed to come in later.
They’re sayin’ it’s supposed to go up to 40 something today.” And it helps if
the interrogator can actually get the suspect involved in the small talk as
well. Wiegert asked, “So, you like snow? . . . Or would you rather have it warm
up?” And sometimes it’s a good idea to share a personal anecdote to make the
interrogator seem more relatable or maybe even human. Wiegert disclosed, “I
remember being your age, waitin’ for that snow day. That was a, that was a
great thing.”
And
for rapport building, it’s also okay to ask questions to which you already know
the answer. Wiegert attempted to make a connection by asking, “Do you have to
ride the bus to school or, that’s, that’s how you get to school right?” Throw
in a stray comment about a local high school basketball game—“I wonder how bad
Menasha got beat”—and the occasional semi-intelligible question about where
Dassey has lunch—“You eats lunch at school normally, er?”—and you’re off to
the races. You have warmed up the suspect and built the appropriate level of
rapport. It is now show time. Let the interrogation begin.
[1]
Book excerpt from Michael D. Cicchini, Anatomy of a False Confession: The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey (Rowman & Littlefield) ©
2018 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
[2]
Charles D. Weisselberg, Mourning Miranda, Calif. L. Rev. (2008).
[3]
Anthony Domanico, Michael D. Cicchini, & Lawrence T. White, Overcoming Miranda: A Content Analysis of the Miranda portion of Police Interrogations,
Idaho L. Rev. (2012).
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