Judicial L'Awesomeness: Goozle Pipe

Context Facts

At a department store, a clerk showed the defendant two diamond rings. He allegedly failed to return one of them to the clerk.

Two of the store's security guards took the defendant to an upstairs room. The defendant was unclothed, his hands were handcuffed to his rear, and the guards checked the defendant's clothing and person. (A guard testified that they handcuffed him because he resisted the strip search.) The searchers were unable to find the ring.

The defendant put his pants back on and his hands were again handcuffed to his rear. One of the guards then thought to look in the defendant's mouth (he thought that the accused had been mumbling). When the accused opened his mouth at the guard's request, the guard thought he saw a gold object in the right rear of the gums.

The defendant resisted the guards' order to spit out what was in his mouth. The defendant started gagging. One of the guards grabbed the defendant's throat in order to prevent him from swallowing the object he thought he had seen in the accused's mouth.

At that point, the guard testified, the defendant said: “Turn me loose; the ring is stuck in my ‘goozle pipe;‘ so, if you turn me loose, I will be able to spit it up.”

(This statement is the basis of the assignment of error. It was objected to on the ground, inter alia, that it was obtained by the use of unreasonable force.)

The guard then released the defendant, who began spitting up blood. No object came out of his mouth, however. Police officers arrived shortly thereafter, placed the defendant under arrest, read him his Miranda rights, and took him to jail. Although bowel movements were watched closely for three days, the ring was never found by the state. Also an x-ray of the defendant at the time showed no foreign object in his body.