The 7/23/11 Monterey Herald recaps recent defense filings in U.S. v. Frederick Scott Salyer with an emphasis on the parties' dramatically different accounts of how FBI agents executed a search warrant and interrogated Salyer at his Pebble Beach home in April 2008:
The government contends Salyer consented to a voluntary, non-coercive conversation at the kitchen table, during which small talk was made about Salyer's dog and, more to the point, a civil suit against SK Foods based on imilar allegations to those in the criminal case against Salyer.
"He decided to talk ... as he sat uncuffed at his kitchen table with the investigators and his dog," prosecutors said last year in response to an earlier defense motion.
In new court filings, the defense paints a chilling picture of more than a dozen armed FBI agents storming inside Salyer's home, circling and pointing rifles at him and removing his 18-year-old daughter from her bed at gunpoint.
Salyer was questioned about criminal activity "in a room full of armed FBI agents," defense attorney John Keker said.
"The entire time, Salyer was wearing nothing more than his boxer shorts and a T-shirt. The setting was anything but non-custodial," the defense attorney said.
Prosecutors maintain that Salyer and his daughter were told they could leave, but the defense maintains that fact wasn't included in agent reports filed immediately after the raid.
Given the number of armed agents in the home "no reasonable person in Salyer's circumstances would have felt free to leave," Keker said.
In a declaration with the defense motion, Salyer's daughter, Caroline, describes what she calls a "terrifying and ... very traumatic event."
In her senior year of high school that day, Caroline Salyer said the sound of slamming car doors woke her about 7 a.m. She looked out a window next to her bed and saw men in black uniforms with rifles and FBI vests, "creeping up the hill in front of the house."
Then four or five of the men stormed into her upstairs bedroom, and she said she jumped from bed with her hands up as the men pointed guns at her.
"They did not say who they were or what was going on. They did not talk to me except to yell at me and scream about who else was with me and who else was in the house," her declaration says.
She said she was taken downstairs, saw her father surrounded by men and rifles, but wasn't allowed to go to him or speak with him.
Finally, a female FBI agent accompanied her to her room so she could get dressed for school. The agent said "the FBI was looking for things like my father's suitcase or documents that could be hidden."
She said the agent searched her backpack and told her that her car would have to be searched, too.
When she got to her car, there were 10 or 15 other vehicles in the driveway, she said. "Someone had even parked a car on the grass," she said.
Two uniformed agents finished searching her car and one was "really rude" when she asked for some of the cars to be moved so she could drive out. The agent threw the keys at her, she said.
"Throughout the whole experience, none of the uniformed agents ever introduced themselves to me, told me what was going on ..., " she said.
In their papers, prosecutors say no threats were made or voices raised during their conversation with Salyer. They say his daughter left for school, and Salyer took a shower while agents were still searching the residence. Then he left.