Gonzalez v. Dooling

98 F. Supp. 3d 135, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36849, 2015 WL 1316107
District Court, D. Massachusetts·Decided March 23, 2015·No. C.A. No. 11-cv-30271-MAP·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER REGARDING DEFENDANTS’' MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

PONSOR, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

In 2008, Plaintiff Alberto Gonzalez found himself subject to community parole supervision for life (CPSL), despite the fact that his state sentencing judge explicitly declined to include this requirement in his sentence. He contends that his mis-designation resulted in substantial injuries to him. He brought this civil rights action under state and federal law against twelve named Defendants and five unnamed Defendants, all past or current members of the Legal Unit of the Massachusetts Parole Board or individual parole officers. Proceedings up to now have reduced the number of defendants to three, and these — Michelle Goldman, Ina Howard-Hogan, and Heather Hall — have filed motions for summary judgment (Dkt. Nos. 187, 189, & 195). For the reasons set forth below, the court will allow the motions, in part.

II. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND1

A. Factual Allegations

Plaintiff is a convicted level-three sex offender. On February 2, 1994, Plaintiff pleaded guilty to the offense of rape of a child, a violation of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 265, § 22A and/or § 13B. Again, in 2001, Plaintiff pleaded guilty to assault and battery upon a child, a violation of ch. 265, § 13B. Pursuant to Massachusetts’ sexual offender registry law, ch. 6, § 178H, a person who has been convicted of certain offenses, including ch. 265, § 13B, “shall, in addition to the term of imprisonment authorized by this section, be punished by a term of community parole supervision for life.” § 178H(a)(l).

[138] On July 28, 2007, the Massachusetts State Police arrested Plaintiff for, among other crimes, failure to register as a sex offender in violation of § 178H. On October 31, 2007, Plaintiff pleaded guilty to this charge. At sentencing, though the Commonwealth moved for imposition of a sentence of CPSL pursuant to § 178H, the judge declined to do so. Instead, the judge sentenced Plaintiff to six months in the house of corrections, ninety days time served, with the balance suspended for one year. The court’s denial of the Commonwealth’s motion to impose CPSL was explicitly noted in writing in the criminal court docket in unmistakable terms: “No Action taken by [trial judge] on GPS2 life time parole.” (Ex. E (PB00168), Dkt. No. 201.)

During this time John P. Talbot, Jr.,3 was General Counsel for the Parole Board. On July 11, 2008, he issued a memorandum, called the “Talbot Memo,” which provided guidance for the Parole Board’s Legal Unit attorneys in determining whether a particular individual would be subject to CPSL. (Talbot Memo, Def.’s Mot. for Summ, J., Dkt. No. 195, Attach. 12 (hereinafter “Talbot Memo”).) The Talbot Memo also delineated the prerequisites for placing an individual on CPSL — specifically, that a sentence of CPSL had to be found on the offender’s mittimus and criminal docket. (Id. at 1.) The Talbot Memo stated:

It is the Parole Board’s position that the Courts must impose the sentence in order for the Board to have jurisdiction over the offender. Although the Parole Board has jurisdiction to supervise offenders on lifetime parole pursuant to G.L. c. 127, § 133D, the Board does not have the jurisdiction to impose a sentence to lifetime parole; only the Courts may impose such a sentence.

(Id. at 2.)

In cases where an offender had been convicted of a crime that would appear to subject him or her to CPSL, but a specific sentence to this effect did not appear on the mittimus or docket, the Parole Board was directed to investigate whether the sentencing judge intended to impose lifetime parole. (Id. at 3.) A member of the Legal Unit’s staff would be expected to call the court or the District Attorney’s office to “get clarification on cases where the conviction warranted a lifetime parole sentence,” but no such sentence was documented on the mittimus or docket. (Def. Hall’s Answer to Interrog. No. 6, Pl.’s Statement of Facts, Dkt. No. 221, Attach. 19.) Following this inquiry, authority to verify whether a particular offender was subject to CPSL rested with the attorneys of the Legal Unit. (O’Neill Letter ¶ 7, Pl.’s Statement of Facts, Dkt. No. 221, Attach. 23.) There was no practice in the Legal Unit by which the individual attorney who made the CPSL decision would record the fact that he or she was the one who made it. (Noble Dep. 35:9-20, Dkt. No. 221, Attach. 5.)

Plaintiff completed his sentence, including the probation on his suspended sentence on November 18, 2008. Upon his discharge from the suspended sentence, his parole officer told Plaintiff to appear at the parole office for the purpose of determining whether he would be placed on CPSL. On December 1, 2008, Plaintiff reported to the Region 5 office of the Parole Board in Springfield, Massachusetts.

[139] It is uncontested that, on that day, Defendant Heather Hall was the only staff attorney responsible for CPSL determinations on duty in the Legal Unit.4 (Pl.’s Statement of Facts ¶ 44, Dkt. No. 221.) During this period, Defendant Michelle Goldman was also occasionally called upon to answer questions or even make CPSL determinations if the Legal Unit was overburdened, even though she worked mainly as special counsel to the Chair of the Parole Board. It is undisputed that, though Defendant Ina Howard-Hogan was later employed by the Parole Board Legal Unit, she was not yet on board in December 2008.

Subsequent to Plaintiffs self-report to the parole office, someone — indisputably either Defendant Hall or (perhaps less likely) Defendant Goldman — reviewed Plaintiffs case to determine whether, he was subject to CPSL. The criminal court docket noting the judge’s refusal to impose a sentence of CPSL was among the documents available for review by that individual. Nonetheless, the reviewing attorney — again, either Hall or Goldman— erroneously determined that Plaintiff was subject to CPSL.

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Gonzalez v. Dooling, 98 F. Supp. 3d 135, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36849, 2015 WL 1316107 (D. Mass. 2015).

98 F. Supp. 3d 135 (Gonzalez v. Dooling) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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