Oct 19, 2016 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – The alleged confession of a Nemacolin man accused of raping and kidnapping a 12-year-old girl earlier this year was thrown out by Greene County Judge Lou Dayich after a suppression hearing last week.

In his order dated Oct. 13, Dayich said the Cumberland Township officers who arrested Martin Folan Jr., 21, of 45 Bliss Ave., used “unlawful enticement” to get Folan to talk. Dayich said according to testimony from Folan and Cumberland police Officer John Lingo, the officers continued to question Folan even after he requested an attorney following his March 26 arrest.

“It is apparent to the court that the officers did not respect the defendant’s right to remain silent or his request for counsel,” Dayich wrote in his order. “Thus, the defendant did not voluntarily waive that right. The court finds that the defendant’s confession was obtained in violation of law.”

Police arrested Folan after he allegedly kidnapped the girl in the early hours March 26. The girl had been living at his home that month, and testified at his preliminary hearing he had been like a father figure to her.

According to court document and the girl’s testimony, Folan had sex with her multiple times before she returned to her mother’s home nearby in Nemacolin March 26. That same morning, Folan allegedly barged into her mother’s home, found the girl hiding in an upstairs closet and carried her out over his shoulder, according to court documents.

During the suppression hearing last week, Lingo testified he had spoken with Folan on the phone earlier in the day.

“I told him, ‘I’m gonna get you,'” Lingo said in court last week.

The following day Folan was picked up on an unrelated warrant and brought to Cumberland’s holding center around 3:30 p.m., according to court documents. Lingo testified that he came into work between 4 and 5 p.m. that day to talk to Folan.

Lingo testified that he said to Folan “I told you I’d get you,” before calling him a derogatory name. Lingo said he read Folan his Miranda Rights and Folan said he wanted an attorney shortly before 6 p.m. that evening.

Lingo told the court that he had returned to the room Folan was shackled in every 30 minutes to check on him, but that’s not how Folan remembered it. Folan testified that Lingo came in every 15 or 20 minutes to see if Folan would change his mind and make a confession.

After hearing both sides, Dayich believed Folan that the officer came in every 20 minutes.

“The court does not believe that this was designed to determine whether or not the defendant had changed his mind with regard to his seeking counsel, rather an attempt to entice the defendant to abandon his right to remain silent,” Dayich wrote in the court order.

Lingo also testified that after Folan said he wanted an attorney, Lingo asked him where his cell phone was and sent another officer to Folan’s home to try to retrieve the phone. Folan’s father, Martin Folan Sr., told the officer to come back with a search warrant, according to his own testimony.

Lingo said one of the times he had gone into check on Folan and said, “It looks like you want to talk to me.”

When asked how Lingo knew Folan would want to talk, Lingo said it was “just the way he was looking at me – I’ve been doing this a long time.”

Folan testified that he had asked to be taken to the jail several times because he was tired, thirsty and hungry. He said that Lingo threatened to keep him there for 22 hours, so around 7:30 p.m. he signed to waive his Miranda Rights and wrote a voluntary confession.

“He wouldn’t leave me alone,” Folan said in court. “I thought if I did it, he would take me to the jail.”

Dayich also mentioned in his order that Folan was “never permitted the ability to use the telephone and never had the advice of counsel” before signing the waiver.

Folan is awaiting trial on all charges, including five counts each of rape and statutory sexual assault, eight counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, and one count each of burglary, kidnapping, contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault of a minor, corruption of a minor, reckless endangerment and indecent exposure.

Folan’s attorney David Pollock said he thinks the decision is “significant” for the upcoming trial. A court date has not yet been set.