Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 4, 1990 TAG: 9003042102
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE and MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
"All I wanted to do was get the truth," Detective Sgt. Kenneth Beever of the London Metropolitan Police told a judge Saturday. "I didn't want to coerce, threaten or put words in people's mouths."
Beever's testimony came in the third day of a hearing on whether potentially incriminating statements Soering made in 1986 related to the deaths of Nancy and Derek Haysom will be allowed as evidence in Soering's June trial.
Circuit Court Judge William Sweeney's decision on the matter is likely to come down to whom he believes and what he construes as a request for an attorney.
Soering has testified that he was deprived of his right to a lawyer and that Beever threatened to hurt Soering's girlfriend if he did not incriminate himself. But Beever and two other detectives who questioned Soering say he never asked for a lawyer and that they never threatened anyone.
Beever testified Saturday that he did not threaten Soering or make threatening gestures at any time during four days of questioning in a British police station in June 1986.
He denied a scenario Soering described in court Friday. Soering said Beever came to his cell and implied that Soering's girlfriend, Elizabeth Haysom, might "fall down" and get hurt if Soering did not talk to investigators without an attorney. Soering testified that over the next three days of questioning, Beever would raise his eyebrows and point toward Elizabeth Haysom's cell block to remind Soering of the threat.
Beever acknowledged that "the word" attorney was mentioned by Soering over the four days of questioning, but said Soering never said he wanted to see one. Soering only said he would not answer certain questions until he had an American lawyer, Beever testified. "There was no request for an attorney at any stage," he said.
At issue is whether Soering specifically asked for an attorney - a request that would have compelled investigators to stop asking questions.
Commonwealth's Attorney James Updike has relied on the testimony of Beever and the two other detectives, as well as five forms Soering signed advising him of his rights, to try to show that Soering never wanted a lawyer. He also has presented tapes of some of the interviews with Soering, police records of Soering's time in the British police station and notes of other interviews with Soering.
Soering's attorneys, Rick Neaton and William Cleaveland, have argued that threats against Soering prevented him from asking for an attorney in the tapes and records and that when he did, it was conveniently stricken from the record.
Neaton questioned Beever on police notes of an interview with Soering. Mentions of getting a lawyer for Soering included in one investigator's notes were left out of a compilation of notes put together four days after the interview, Neaton said.
Sweeney set closing arguments for 9:30 a.m. Monday in the hearing.
by CNB