Carrion v. Clarie

660 F. Supp. 896, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4291
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedMay 22, 1987
DocketCiv. No. H-87-159 (PCD)
StatusPublished

This text of 660 F. Supp. 896 (Carrion v. Clarie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carrion v. Clarie, 660 F. Supp. 896, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4291 (D. Conn. 1987).

Opinion

RULING ON MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

DORSEY, District Judge.

Procedural History

Plaintiffs seek injunctive relief from the exclusion of children under the age of twelve from the courtroom during pretrial proceedings and the trial in United States v. Gerena, Crim. No. H-85-50(TEC) (D.Conn.); for a declaratory judgment that closure of the courtroom violates the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution; and for an order requiring defendant Judge Clarie to repeat all proceedings since January 14, 1987. The parties were heard on March 25, 1987, as to the factual basis for this motion and their respective claims of law. Plaintiffs were provided with the opportunity to cross-examine defendants’ supporting witnesses. By agreement, the hearing was deemed to reach the merits and not merely for a preliminary injunction. Memoranda of law have been filed.

Facts

Plaintiffs Melendez Carrion, Diaz Ruiz, Colon Osorio, Ojeda Rios, Castro Ramos, Antonio Camacho Negron, Isaac Camacho Negron, Maldonado Rivera, Farinacci Gracia, Ramirez Talvera, Ayes Suarez, Gonzalez Claudio, Segarra Palmer III, Berrios Berrios, and Fernandez Diamante are defendants in Gerena; plaintiffs Maximiliano [897]*897Diaz Melendez (age 10), Norberto Diaz Melendez (age 9), and Segismundo Diaz Melendez (age 6), are children of plaintiffs Ivonne Melendez Carrion and Angel Diaz Ruiz, who sue both individually and on behalf of their children. Defendant Clarie is a United States District Judge for the District of Connecticut who is presiding over Gerena. Defendant Mangini is the United States Marshal for the District of Connecticut and is responsible for court security in the District of Connecticut.

On January 13, 1987, Michael Courtney, an agent of the United States Marshal’s Service, who is supervising security for Gerena (Declaration of Michael Courtney at 111), after consulting with Judge Clarie, id. at 117, issued rules and procedures for the suppression proceedings and the trial of Gerena. Included was the provision: “CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF TWELVE (12) ARE NOT PERMITTED IN THE COURTROOM.” 1 (Capitals in original). The adult plaintiffs’ counsel, on January 13, 1987,2 moved to have the rule revoked by Judge Clarie, arguing that, because they were natives of Puerto Rico and strangers to the community where Gerena was being tried, they were thus forced to choose between baby-sitting their children outside the court or attending the court proceedings and trusting the care of their children to a baby-sitter that they did not know. Plaintiffs also argued that the rule was a deprivation of their constitutional right to a public trial and of the childrens’ rights to attend the trial. It was also claimed that the rule could be limited to require that children be dismissed from the proceedings only when, in future proceedings, their behavior warranted such action. These arguments were considered by Judge Clarie who denied the motion, commenting:

Of course we had some experience ... on several occasions previously when children were running up and down the benches during the preliminary hearings and I didn’t say anything. I let it go because it was simply preliminary. ...
If you are going to accomplish justice, you have to do it in an atmosphere—dignified atmosphere with reserve and calm and quiet and not disruptiveness going on in the courtroom.

Gerena, Transcript of Proceedings at 15-16 (January 13, 1987). On January 21, 1987, plaintiffs filed a Joint Motion for Reconsideration of the Order Prohibiting All Children Under Twelve Years of Age from Entering the Courtroom While Proceedings in the Above Matter Are in Progress, wherein essentially the same arguments presented on January 13, 1987, are here were reiterated. On January 21,1987, that motion was denied.

On March 3, 1987, plaintiffs instituted this action alleging five causes of action against the rule:

(1) Deprivation of the adult plaintiffs’ right to a public trial under the sixth amendment;

(2) Deprivation of minor plaintiffs’ right to attend a public trial under the first amendment;

(3) Deprivation of adult plaintiffs’ rights to equal protection under the fifth amendment, as the exclusion of children applies only in Gerena and not in other criminal proceedings;

(4) Deprivation of the rights of plaintiffs Melendez Carrion and Diaz Ruiz to be present at all stages of their criminal proceedings in violation of the sixth amendment and Fed.R.Crim.P. 43; and

(5) Deprivation of plaintiffs' rights to due process under the fifth amendment. Discussion

After consideration of the issues presented and the applicable law, the court declines to grant plaintiffs’ requested relief on the ground that any impropriety in the procedure or the substance of the ruling of Judge Clarie must be discerned, if at all, in an appeal to the circuit court.

“The final judgment rule, embodied in 28 U.S.C. § 1291, requires ‘that a party must ordinarily raise all claims of error in a [898]*898single appeal following final judgment on the merits.’ ” In re Agent Orange Product Liability Litigation, 745 F.2d 161, 163 (2d Cir.1984), quoting Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Risjord, 449 U.S. 368, 374, 101 S.Ct. 669, 673, 66 L.Ed.2d 571 (1981). However, in Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949), the Court carved out a narrow exception to this rule allowing collateral appeals where the trial court’s order meets three conditions:

[FJirst, it “must conclusively determine the disputed question”; second, it must “resolve an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action”; and third, it must “be effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment.”

Agent Orange, 745 F.2d at 163 (citations omitted). In In re Application of the Herald Co., 734 F.2d 93 (2d Cir.1984), the trial court had closed to the public a pretrial hearing on a motion to suppress. The court of appeals heard an intervening newspaper’s appeal of the trial court’s orders as final orders within the collateral order exception noted in Cohen. Id. at 96. See also, United States v. Cianfrani, 573 F.2d 835, 845 (3d Cir.1978); United States v. DeLorean, 561 F.Supp 797, 799 n. 1 (C.D.Cal.1983); but see, United States v. Brooklier, 685 F.2d 1162, 1165-66 (9th Cir.1982) (review by mandamus); United States v. CBS, Inc.,

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Bluebook (online)
660 F. Supp. 896, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4291, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carrion-v-clarie-ctd-1987.