Flores v. Stanford

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedSeptember 28, 2021
Docket7:18-cv-02468
StatusUnknown

This text of Flores v. Stanford (Flores v. Stanford) 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
Flores v. Stanford, (S.D.N.Y. 2021).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ---------------------------------------------------------------X CARLOS FLORES, LAWRENCE BARTLEY, DEMETRIUS BENNETT, L’MANI DELIMA, EDGARDO LEBRON, ANTONIO ROMAN, DONTAE QUINONES and SHAROD LOGAN, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated,

Plaintiffs, OPINION & ORDER

-against- 18 Civ. 02468 (VB)(JCM)

TINA M. STANFORD, as Chairwoman of the New York State Board of Parole; WALTER W. SMITH, As Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; SALLY THOMPSON, as Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; JOSEPH P. CRANGLE, as Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; ELLEN E. ALEXANDER, as Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; MARC COPPOLA, as Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; EDWARD SHAKEY, as Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; TANA AGOSTINI, as Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; CHARLES DAVIS, as Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; CAROL SHAPIRO, As Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; ERIK BERLINER, as Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; OTIS CRUSE, as Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; TYCEE DRAKE, as Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole; and CARYNE DEMOSTHENES, as Commissioner of the New York State Board of Parole,

Defendants. ---------------------------------------------------------------X Before the Court is an application from non-party Northpointe, Inc. (“Northpointe”) seeking an order preventing disclosure of certain materials produced by Northpointe to Plaintiffs Carols Flores, Lawrence Bartley, Demetrius Bennett, L’Mani Delima, Edgardo Lebron, Antonio Roman, Dontae Quinones and Sharod Logan’s (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) expert, Dr. Cynthia Rudin (“Dr. Rudin”). (Docket No. 211). Plaintiffs opposed the request. (Docket No. 207). The Court heard oral argument on September 16, 2021. (Docket No. 219). For the reasons that follow, Northpointe’s request is denied.

I. BACKGROUND This dispute stems from the Court’s previous order, dated February 12, 2021 (the “February 12, 2021 Order”), compelling Northpointe to produce to Plaintiffs certain proprietary information pertaining to Northpointe’s Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (“COMPAS”) tool. (See Docket Nos. 181, 186, 209-3; February 12, 2021 Minute Entry). As alleged in the Second Amended Complaint (the “SAC”), COMPAS is a commercial product sold by Northpointe containing “secret algorithms” that is used as a risk assessment tool by defendants Tina Stanford, as Chairwoman of the New York State Board of Parole (the “BOP”), and the individual BOP Commissioners (the “Commissioners”) (collectively, the

“Defendants”), when deciding whether to grant offenders sentenced to life in prison discretionary parole. (Docket No. 110 ¶¶ 10, 209, 211, 213, 215). The SAC further alleges that Defendants rely on COMPAS “without knowing how or whether COMPAS considers the diminished culpability of juveniles and the hallmark features of youth” because Northpointe “considers COMPAS a proprietary instrument and a trade secret.” (Id. ¶¶ 213, 215). Moreover, COMPAS “sometimes treats youth as an aggravating factor” in predicting risk of felony violence. (Id. ¶¶ 211-12). For example, Plaintiff L’Mani Delima (“Mr. Delima”), is twenty-six years old, has been denied parole three times, and has a high “Risk of Felony Violence” COMPAS score even though he was convicted when he was only thirteen. (See id. ¶¶ 47, 49-53, 212). According to Plaintiffs, Defendants’ reliance on this algorithm of which they lack knowledge or understanding deprives juvenile offenders who received life sentences of the individualized parole assessments to which they are entitled under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. (See id. ¶¶ 2-10, 136-46, 222-35).

The Court’s February 12, 2021 Order required Northpointe to produce to Plaintiffs (1) the normative dataset used to create and normalize COMPAS (the “Norm Group Data”); and (2) the regression models for two COMPAS “scales”: (a) the General Recidivism Risk Scale, and (b) the Violent Recidivism Risk Scale (the “Regression Models” and collectively, the “Compelled Materials”). (See February 12, 2021 Minute Entry; Docket No. 209-3; see also Docket Nos. 181, 186). The Norm Group Data is a repository of offender information from several jurisdictions that Northpointe uses to generate the Regression Models, which are sets of inputs used to predict the likelihood of new offenses and new violent offenses after an offender’s COMPAS assessment date. (Docket Nos. 181 at 2; 209-3 at 7:9-8:9; 219 at 20:6-12). Northpointe also uses the Norm Group Data to translate recidivism risk scores into data presented to individual

Defendants before parole hearings. (Docket No. 209-3 at 7:22-8:20; see also Docket No. 181 at 2). To address Northpointe’s concerns that the Compelled Materials constitute trade secrets and/or other proprietary information, (see Docket No. 186), the Court ordered that the Compelled Materials be produced pursuant to a protective order and be designated “attorney’s and expert’s eyes only.” (See February 12, 2021 Minute Entry; Docket No. 209-3 at 37:5-15). Northpointe and Plaintiffs entered into a Second Supplemental Stipulation of Confidentiality and Proposed Protective Order regarding the Compelled Materials on February 26, 2021 (the “Second Protective Order”). (Docket No. 198). The Second Protective Order requires that the Compelled Materials be designated attorneys’ eyes only and “Highly Confidential” as described in the parties’ first Stipulation of Confidentiality and Protective Order (the “First Protective Order”) and the supplement thereto concerning Northpointe (the “Supplemental Protective Order”) (collectively, the “Protective Orders”). (Docket No. 198 ¶¶ 2- 3; see also Docket Nos. 151, 154). Under these earlier Protective Orders, materials designated as

such cannot be “provide[d,] show[n] [or] . . . discuss[ed] . . . with Plaintiffs” without Northpointe’s written consent or a court order. (Docket No. 154 ¶ 4). They “shall not be released or disclosed in any manner to any other person,” with some limited exceptions, and “shall be used by the receiving party solely for the purposes of [the instant] action and solely to the extent necessary for [its] litigation . . . , including any appeals thereof.” (Docket No. 151 ¶¶ 6, 21). At the conclusion of this action, all such materials and any copies thereof must either be destroyed or returned to adverse counsel. (Id. ¶ 22). The Second Protective Order further provides that the Compelled Materials “may not be shared with, shown to, or discussed with a party or a party’s representative;” “can be reviewed by” only eight specific attorneys for Plaintiffs and Defendants; and cannot be disclosed to any expert unless Northpointe provides “express written consent,” or

any objections to such disclosure are overruled. (Docket No. 198 ¶ 3). Furthermore, neither the Compelled Materials nor their contents can be filed publicly. (Id. ¶¶ 4-5). Notwithstanding these protections and Plaintiffs’ efforts to meet and confer, (see Docket No. 207 at 3), Northpointe will not consent to allow Dr. Rudin to access the Compelled Materials. (See generally Docket No. 211). According to Northpointe, these documents contain Northpointe’s “most proprietary information” and “permitting Dr. Rudin access to [it] . . . would threaten [Northpointe’s] very existence.” (Id. at 1). This is because Dr. Rudin, a professor of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and statistical science at Duke University, is an outspoken critic of Northpointe and the COMPAS tool. (See Docket No. 211 at 1-2; see also Docket Nos. 207 at 3; 211-1). Indeed, Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
Flores v. Stanford, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flores-v-stanford-nysd-2021.