McBride lawyer seeks to have statements tossed

The attorney for Webb City businessman Keith Erwin McBride, who is facing a federal arson charge, filed a motion Monday in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri to have McBride's statements to law enforcement officers suppressed.
Shane Cantin, Springfield, says McBride's rights were violated when he was interviewed April 19, while he McBride was in the middle of a four-day hold for psychiatric and medical treatment.
McBride, 51, was arrested April 15 after allegedly burning his business Coin-Op in Webb City to the ground, as well as his home in Duquesne. He was arrested following an hours-long standoff, in which he "barricaded himself into one of his business properties threatening suicide," according to the court filing.
"Armed with a handgun, Mr. McBride attempted to shoot himself in the head, but the firearm failed to function. After teargas was introduced into the warehouse, Mr. McBride was eventually taken into custody, and without further incident."
He was placed on a 96-hour hold at the Hawthorn Center in Joplin. During that time, according to the court document, "Mr. McBride was diagnosed with 'major depressive disorder-single episode, severe" and 'severe psychological stressors.' Hospital records indicate that Mr. McBride was exhausted, despondent, quiet, and detached from those around him. He suffered from insomnia, and refused to participate in group counseling sessions. Mr. McBride had to be coaxed out of his room to walk around. (He) was given sedatives to assist in his sleeping, and was medicated throughout his stay at the Hawthorn Center."
When officers arrived at the center to question him, they were able to convince him to sign a waiver of his Miranda rights "although Mr. McBride had been sleeping and was otherwise medicated with sedative type drugs," the court document said.
McBride made incriminating statements during that interview, according to the document.
Cantin says his client could not have been able to give thoroughly informed consent due to his condition. "Mr. McBride was suffering from at least three days without any, or very little, sleep, prior to his arrest of April 15, 2005, and continued to suffer from insomnia, depression, and anxiety since arriving at the Hawthorn Center. His symptoms were treated throughout this time with medications which caused him to have unclear through processes, difficulty comprehending and remembering, and which otherwise impaired his ability to understand the complete nature of the rights he was being asked to give up, and the consequences of the decision to abandon them."