Lawyer of Luigi Mangione says murder suspect's rights were violated in McDonald's arrest

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Evidence police turned up when arresting Luigi Mangione, the lead suspect in the slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, should not be allowed in court, according to his lawyer.

Police making the arrest at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, failed to follow basic protocol, according to Blair County court filings released Friday. Officers questioned and searched Mangione without reading him Miranda rights afforded by the Constitution, making any statements or evidence they uncovered then inadmissible in court, Mangione’s lawyer argues.

The motion to suppress evidence in Pennsylvania is the latest turn in the case that’s captured global attention as the celebrity suspect has racked up charges in two states and on the federal level. The court documents also reveal new details about how police made the arrest.

Mangione’s capture came at the end of a days-long manhunt for a suspect in the execution-style killing. Police celebrated the ignominious end to the search and touted evidence they found on him. Mangione had a gun in his backpack that investigators linked to shell casings at the scene of the Thompson's murder in Manhattan.

“Any reasonable person in [Mangione’s] position would have thought he/she was being restrained, detained and otherwise not free to leave,” writes Thomas M. Dickey, Mangione’s lawyer in Pennsylvania. "The curtailment of [Mangione's] liberty and the detaining of the Defendant at this time" violated the Fourth and Fourteenth amendments.

State prosecutors in Pennsylvania could not be immediately reached for comment. Dickey did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 

The development in the case in Pennsylvania comes a week after Mangione’s Manhattan attorney argued in New York state court that he had been unlawfully searched during his arrest and that she would try to have any evidence uncovered and excluded from court.

New details on arrest

The filing out of Pennsylvania offers new details on how Altoona police approached and ultimately detained the lead suspect in the CEO slaying. 

On December 9, at around 9:30 a.m., two officers arrived at the McDonald’s where Mangione had been for about 30 minutes, according to the court filings. 

The officers entered and blocked Mangione from leaving as he sat at a corner table by “forming a human law enforcement wall” around him, Dickey writes. The aggressive posture of the officers effectively detained Mangione, he says. Then officers told Mangione to provide identification and ordered him to put his hands on his head.

“At no time did the two (2) officers indicate that [Mangione] was free to go,” Dickey argues. “Nor did they explain the reasons as to why Defendant was being detained; other than that, he looked suspicious and/or overstayed his welcome as a customer at McDonald’s.”

More police soon arrived. As many as 10 officers blocked him from leaving.

The effective detainment and further questioning came without officers reading Miranda rights to Mangione, which include his right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.

At one point Mangione "shook his head" to say he didn't want to talk to police and an officer said he wasn't in custody, according to Dickey. "This was materially false, inaccurate and contrary to law," the lawyer contends.

Police only informed Mangione he was under investigation about 15 minutes into his detainment, Dickey says, and only read him Miranda rights after almost 20 minutes of questioning.

Officers also searched his bag. Among the items police found in Mangione’s backpack were a handgun, a suspected 3D-printed silencer, a red notebook police have called a manifesto, nearly $8,000, almost $2,000 in foreign currency, a Polaroid camera and a Greyhound bus ticket from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

What’s next for Mangione?

Mangione faces a range of changes across different courthouses.

Pennsylvania prosecutors have charged him with forgery, carrying an unlicensed firearm and presenting a false ID to law enforcement, among other charges.

New York state prosecutors delivered an 11-count indictment against Mangione charing him with first-degree murder and murder as an act of terrorism among other crimes.

Federal prosecutors have charged him with murder, use of a firearm silencer in committing a violent crime and interstate stalking. The federal charges carry an added weight: prosecutors could argue Mangione deserves the death penalty if he’s found guilty.