Babyrev v. Belfi

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMay 2, 2022
Docket1:19-cv-11693
StatusUnknown

This text of Babyrev v. Belfi (Babyrev v. Belfi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Babyrev v. Belfi, (S.D.N.Y. 2022).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK -------------------------------------------------------x

VADIM BABYREV,

Plaintiff,

-v- No. 1:19-CV-11693-LTS

BRIAN BELFI and ANN MARIE T.,

Defendants.

-------------------------------------------------------x

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Petitioner Vadim Babyrev (“Babyev” or the “Petitioner”), having been adjudicated pursuant to a plea as not responsible by reason of mental disorder or defect (“NRRMDD”), see N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 220.15 (McKinney’s 1984), of the charge of murder in the second degree and thereafter placed at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center (“KPFC”), commenced pro se this petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. section 2254. (Docket entry no. 1 (the “Petition”).) Petitioner alleges that he has received ineffective assistance of counsel and that his right to due process as protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States has been violated. He also challenges, on grounds of vagueness, the constitutionality of New York Civil Procedure Law (“CPL”) section 330.20, and argues that KFPC staff have prevented exhaustion of his claims in state court. The Court appointed counsel to represent Petitioner (docket entry no. 8) and Petitioner thereafter, again on a pro se basis, filed an additional pleading requesting that the Court deem the Petition supplemented to include a claim that KFPC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic violated his rights to due process as protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. (See docket entry no. 20 (the “Supplemental Pleading”).) With the consent of the parties, the Court construes the Supplemental Pleading as asserting a claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. section 19831 (“Section 1983”) that certain aspects of his confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic violate Petitioner’s constitutional rights.2

Petitioner sues Brian Belfi, Executive Director of KFPC (“Director Belfi”), and Ann Marie T. Sullivan, Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health (“Commissioner Sullivan”) (collectively, the “Respondents”). In his Petition, Babyrev seeks as relief (a) release from the custody of the New York State Office of Mental Health (the “OMH”); or (b) in the alternative, transfer to a non-secure facility; or (c) in the alternative, withdrawal of his plea of Not Responsible by Reason of Mental Disease or Defect. (Petition at 15). The Court has carefully considered the parties’ submissions. For the reasons set forth below, Respondents’ motion to dismiss the Petition (docket entry no. 32) is granted. Respondents’ motion to dismiss the Supplemental Pleading (docket entry no. 38) is also granted, but Petitioner is granted leave to file a new complaint restating and expanding his Section 1983

claim to allege personal involvement on the part of the Respondents in the constitutional

1 Because Petitioner has not been convicted of a crime, the Court therefore consider whether the conditions complained of are violative of Petitioner’s right to Due Process under the Fourteenth Amendment, rather than under the Eighth Amendment. See infra at 11.

2 See docket entry no. 30 (Letter from counsel for Petitioner, stating that, “Respondents . . . assert[] that [Mr. Babyrev’s supplemental claim] should be brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 as a civil rights action” and requesting that, “[s]hould the Court agree, Mr. Babyrev requests leave to assert his constitutional claim under § 1983 and asks the Court to accept it as such without further need for revised filing”); docket entry no. 33 (letter from Respondent, stating that “[r]espondents do not object” to that construction); docket entry no. 34 (Order from the Court stating that, “[o]n consent of the parties, Docket Entry Number 20 is construed as a pleading asserting a claim of violation of the Eighth Amendment pursuant to 42 U.S.C. section 1983 without the need for further revised filing”). violations alleged therein, as well as to request appropriate relief for the alleged constitutional violations.

BACKGROUND

In 2001, Petitioner pled not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect to a charge of murder in the second degree in New York State Supreme Court, Kings County. (Docket entry no. 32 (“Resp. Mem.”) at 3.) He has since been committed to the custody of the OMH under CPL section 330.20, and has been held at KFPC, a maximum-security psychiatric facility, since January 2015. (Resp. Mem. at 3.) Under New York State law, a court order authorizing the commitment of an NRRMDD defendant is time-bound and expires after one or two years, depending on whether it is a “First Retention Order,” see CPL §§ 330.20(1)(g), 330.20(8), or a “Second or Successive” Retention Order, see CPL §§ 330.20(1)(h-i), 330.20(9), and each order must be based on a judicial determination that the defendant has a “dangerous mental disorder”3 or is “mentally ill.”4

Any defendant who is “dissatisfied” with such an order may, upon timely request, obtain rehearing and review of the determination. CPL § 330.20(16); New York Mental Hygiene Law (“MHL”) § 9.35.

3 “Dangerous mental disorder” is defined under the CPL as follows: “(i) that a defendant currently suffers from a ‘mental illness’ as that term is defined in subdivision twenty of section 1.03 of the mental hygiene law, and (ii) that because of such condition he currently constitutes a physical danger to himself or others.” See CPL § 330.20(1)(c).

4 “Mentally ill” is defined under the CPL as follows: “that a defendant currently suffers from a mental illness for which care and treatment as a patient, in the in-patient services of a psychiatric center under the jurisdiction of the state office of mental health, is essential to such defendant’s welfare and that his judgment is so impaired that he is unable to understand the need for such care and treatment. . .” See CPL § 330.20(1)(d). In 2016 and 2017, Babyrev twice filed timely notices for a jury rehearing and review of orders signed on June 1, 2016 (the “First Retention Order”) and May 3, 2017 (the “Second Retention Order”) (collectively, the “Retention Orders”). (See Petition, Exhibit A(4) at 21.) However, at least partly due to repeated requests for adjournment by his counsel, these

proceedings never took place. (See, e.g., Petition at 5 (“[My current lawyer] did not file the appeal of the last bench trial decision to retain me, even though I repeatedly asked him to do so . . . the previous attorney, Don Graham, adjourned my appeal/rehearing & review and agreed to unreasonable adjournments by opposing counsel until the issues to review became moot.”).) Petitioner asserts that the proceedings were adjourned by his counsel without Petitioner’s knowledge or consent. On or about November 5, 2018, Petitioner, proceeding pro se, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus by requesting an order to show cause under New York Civil Practice Law & Rules (“CPLR”) Article 70 in New York County Supreme Court. (See docket entry no. 42 (“Pet. Mem.”).) In his petition and appellate filings, Petitioner asserted, inter alia, the following

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Babyrev v. Belfi, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/babyrev-v-belfi-nysd-2022.