Judge asked to toss confession in trooper barracks ambush

A man charged in the 2014 ambush slaying of a trooper clearly invoked his right to remain silent before going on to incriminate himself “dozens of times” in a police interview after his arrest, a defense attorney argued Monday on the eve of trial.

William Ruzzo asked a judge to throw out the videotaped confession of Eric Frein, saying troopers quickly developed a rapport with the anti-government survivalist and got him to implicate himself even after he told them he didn’t want to “answer questions about crimes.”

Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin said Frein was ambiguous about asserting his right to remain silent.

Frein, 33, could face a death sentence if he’s convicted in the late-night attack in northeastern Pennsylvania that killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson II and injured Trooper Alex Douglass. He led police on a 48day manhunt in the Pocono Mountains before his capture by U.S. marshals.

Judge Gregory Chelak, who watched portions of the videotaped interview, said he would rule by the end of the day on the defense request to throw out Frein’s confession. Opening statements in the trial are scheduled to begin Tuesday.

The video of the police interview — which was conducted at the same barracks where Frein is accused of opening fire — showed Cpl. Michael Clark reading Frein his rights. Frein told police he didn’t want to talk about crimes but would provide information about the location of a rifle he’d buried in in the woods.

Clark and Trooper Michael Mulvey struck up a friendly conversation with the former fugitive, offering him a cigarette, which Frein accepted, and praising Frein’s parents.

“You know that you’re famous? You’re a national figure,” Clark told him.

The troopers urged him to tell his story because, as Mulvey said, “the world wants to know.”

Frein went on to call Dickson’s slaying an assassination and said he did it to “wake people up” and make a change in government, according to court documents.

“They violated his rights, they did it very skillfully and they got what they came in to get,” Ruzzo said.

The defense also said police blocked an attorney hired by Frein’s parents from seeing him.

Tonkin said “there is a balancing interest at stake” between a police officer’s obligation to collect evidence and a defendant’s obligation to be clear about whether he wants to answer questions. He said Frein opened the door to further questioning by engaging in a discussion about Dickson’s children.

Authorities have said they have a wealth of physical evidence tying Frein to the crime, including spent shell casings in his SUV that matched those found at the crime scene.