Godfrey v. Preiser

80 Misc. 2d 361, 363 N.Y.S.2d 463, 1975 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2183
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 14, 1975
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 80 Misc. 2d 361 (Godfrey v. Preiser) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Godfrey v. Preiser, 80 Misc. 2d 361, 363 N.Y.S.2d 463, 1975 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2183 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1975).

Opinion

Hamilton Doherty, J.

By order to show cause granted May 13, 1974, the petitioner, at that time an inmate at Attica [362]*362Correctional Facility at Attica, Wyoming County, New York, and presently an inmate ;at the Albion Correctional (Facility at Albion, Orleans ¡County, New York, brought two proceedings seeking parole release and other relief. One proceeding sought relief .under ¡article 78 of the CPLR declaring the policies and/or practices ¡of the respondents ¡violative of the petitioner’s constitutionally protected rights, directing his immediate release on parole, alternatively directing the petitioner’s return to the next possible parole application hearing, alternatively voiding the transfer of the petitioner from Alhion to Attica as violative of law, expunging any records of or mention of tibe said transfer from Albion to Attica, ’and granting compensatory and punitive damages ;as a result of such transfer.

By the same petition the petitioner seeks habeas corpus relief under article 70 of the CPLR. The petition does not distinguish as to (which relief is sought ¡under which article of the CPLR.

By ¡order of the ¡Special ¡Term of Supreme 'Court in Erie County entered October 15, 1974 the article 78 proceeding was dismissed as untimely brought and the habeas corpus proceeding was transferred to. Wyoming County for determination, on the grounds that the petitioner was at that time believed to be an inmate of the Attica Correctional Facility in ,sueh county. It appears that by tihe time proceedings were received in Wyoming County the petitioner had been transferred back to Albion in Orleans County, and by order of the Wyoming County Court dated October 24,1974 and filed October 30,1974, such proceeding was transferred to Orleans County Court for disposition.

A hearing was scheduled before tihe undersigned ¡on November 18,1974. Upon the hearing no testimony was offered but counsel for each side ¡arguéd from the facts set forth in the. petition and return. It appears, there is no dispute about the facts. However, there is .some difference of opinion ,a& to the law to he applied to the facts and tihe result ¡which .justice dictates.

The. defendants are respectively the ¡State Commissioner of Correction (Preiser), the Chairman of the State Parole Department (Regan), ¡the ¡Superintendent of the Albion Correctional Facility (Reid), and the Superintendent .of the Attica Correctional Facility (Smith).

Except as hereinafter set forth tihe People.don’t dispute the facts alleged in the petition which are .briefly as follows: On Márch 15, 1971 the defendant, upon ¡his plea of ¡guilty to the crime of assault in the second degree was sentenced ¡by the Madison County Court to an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment not to exceed seven years and was delivered to tihje Recep[363]*363tion Center at Elmira, New York. At .approximately the same time he received a maximum three-year term of imprisonment from the Oneida County Court for the crime of burglary in the third degree, to run concurrently with the term imposed by Madison County

After spending approximately 27 months in the reformatory at Elmira, the defendant was transferred to the Albion Correctional Facility .(hereinafter referred to as Albion), at One time known as the Albion Community Preparation Center, a minimum security institution to which are transferred inmates within the correctional system who are within a year of their scheduled release date.

A part of the program at Albion is a program of work release, whereby the inmates can live at the correctional facility but work in the surrounding communities at regular jobs and for regular pay. The defendant was so employed in the community near Albion.

On October 1,1978 the petitioner was given a parole release hearing and was advised that he would be released on parole on November 8,1973.

On. October .13, 1978 the petitioner was given a 12-hour furlough to secure a place to live upon his release on parole. During the period of his furlough he was arrested and charged with the violation of harassment (Penal Law, § 240.25) and the crime of aggravated harassment (Penal Law, § 240.30). He was arraigned in Town ¡Court in the Town of Murray and both charges were adjourned in contemplation of dismissal pursuant to OPL 170.55.

The petitioner was returned to Albion where he was placed in solitary confinement and on October 15,1973 was called before the “ Adjustment Committee ” (apparently a penological euphemism for discipline committee). He appeared again . before such committee on October 17 and as a result of such appearance was accused of wrongdoing, the accusations were sustained by such committee, the petitioner was removed from the work release program and confined to the correctional facility grounds.

On October 29 the petitioner appeared before the Parole Board at a meeting at Albion. The board rescinded its prior determination setting the parole date of November 8, and determined that the petitioner should be held for an additional year to reappear before such board in November, 1974. On October 30 the petitioner was transferred to Attica Correctional Facility at Attica, New York (hereinafter referred to as Attica). He [364]*364thereafter .wrote to the defendants Reid and Regan requesting that he ibe transferred back to Albion.

Copies of letters from both Reid and Regan are attached • to the petition. Reid’s letter in substance states that upon the-information he had, all of which is obviously hearsay, he would not change his decision transferring the petitioner to Attica, and that any decision relative to his transfer back to Albion was not up to him ¡but up to the institutional program committee at Attica and the division of classification and movement in Albany.

Regan’s letter refers to the six months’ adjournment in contemplation of dismissal as a sentence, which it is not (since the motion for such adjournment must precede a plea of guilty, and it is by its own definition not a sentence but an adjournment, GPL 170.55) and points out that the Board of Parole might have been much harsher than it was.

The record of the hearing of October 29, 1973 is included as a part of the respondent’s return, and it is set forth here in full, simply to show the lack of fairness of the whole proceeding.

CASE of: BRIO TODD GODFREY ALP-238
COMM, gilbridb:
Q. Erie Godfrey?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Godfrey, you were before the board last month.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. At that time, you were granted an open date for a parole program.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And it was brought to our attention some things that happened, so that you should be reconsidered, or that decision should be reconsidered. Are you aware what those things are?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What do you have to say in reference to them?
A. The warrants I had. I don’t know if they said anything about that.
Q. You were talking about the charge of aggravated harassment ?
A. Yes, sir. They were dismissed in court.
Q.

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Related

Tremarco v. New York State Board of Parole
87 A.D.2d 114 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1982)

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Bluebook (online)
80 Misc. 2d 361, 363 N.Y.S.2d 463, 1975 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2183, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/godfrey-v-preiser-nysupct-1975.