Newman v. Annucci

District Court, N.D. New York·Decided September 12, 2022·No. 3:17-cv-00918·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

JOHN H. NEWMAN,

Plaintiff,

-against- 3:17-CV-918 (LEK/ML)

ANTHONY ANNUCCI, et al.,

Defendants.

MEMORANDUM-DECISION AND ORDER In 2009, Plaintiff John H. Newman was sentenced to an aggregate prison term of five and a half years and ten years of post-release supervision following his conviction of, among other things, rape in the third degree and criminal sexual act in the third degree. See People v. Newman, 99 A.D.3d 1107 (2012). On August 9, 2013, Plaintiff was released from prison and began a ten-year term of post-release supervision. Dkt. No. 52 (“Second Amended Complaint” or “Complaint”) at 1. After that initial release, the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (“DOCCS”) revoked his parole on four separate occasions: in 2013, 2017, 2019, and most recently, in 2021. Id. at 2; Dkt. No. 123-3 (“Declaration of Senior Parole Officer Scot Cook” or “Cook Decl.”) ¶¶ 6–9. Plaintiff last informed the Court that he is incarcerated at the Elmira Correctional Facility, and that he is “expected to remain so for the next 16 months,” with a release date currently set for January 2024. Dkt. No. 137. In this action, Plaintiff has challenged the constitutionality of his parole conditions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“Section 1983”). When he commenced suit in 2017, Plaintiff broadly challenged the constitutionality of all the conditions imposed upon him in 2013 and 2017, and sought monetary and injunctive relief against two DOCCS officials—Anthony Annucci and Thomas Herzog (collectively, Defendants). Dkt. No. 1 (“Original Complaint”) at 5–6. After years of litigation, and several parole revocations later, Plaintiff’s case has narrowed. Presently, he seeks only to enjoin the application and enforcement of parole conditions related to his computer use and internet access in favor of conditions that are “individualized and tailored to meet [his] personal needs.” Compl. at 10; see also Dkt. No. 125 (“Declaration of Plaintiff’s

Counsel John S. Wallenstein” or “Wallenstein Decl.”) ¶ 2 (“Plaintiff intends to move forward in this case challenging only those conditions of parole which relate to his use of computers and/or access to the internet[.]”). One of those challenged conditions is Special Condition (“SC”) 35, which categorically prohibits Plaintiff from “access[ing] a commercial social networking website.” Dkt. No. 123-2 (“Declaration of Assistant Attorney General Erik Pinsonnault” or “Pinsonnault Decl.”) at 7–13 (“Exhibit B”). This is commonly referred to as the e-STOP condition, which originated as a provision of New York’s Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act, N.Y. Exec. Law § 259-c(15) (2010). See Jones v. Stanford, No. 20-CV-1332, ECF No. 72, at *2 (E.D.N.Y. Jan. 24, 2022) (“Stipulation of Settlement and Order”).1

Plaintiff also challenges SC 40A and SC 40C. SC 40A prohibits Plaintiff from “own[ing], us[ing], possess[ing], purchas[ing], or hav[ing] control of any computer, computer related material . . . and/or the internet,” without “prior written permission from [his] parole officer.” Pinsonnault Decl., Ex. B. Under SC 40C, Plaintiff is required to “provide the parole officer with [his] password and user I.D. for any approved [electronic] device,” and to “acknowledge” that such devices are “subject to monitoring and/or search and seizure.” Id.

1 On January 24, 2022, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York approved a settlement permanently enjoining DOCCS officials from enforcing the e-STOP condition “as to Registrants who have not used the internet to facilitate the commission of their underlying sex offense.” Stipulation of Settlement and Order at *3. Now pending before the Court is Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment. Dkt. No. 123. For reasons set forth below, the Court presently lacks jurisdiction to decide the Motion on the merits and dismisses the action without prejudice. I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff initially commenced this action pro se on August 21, 2017, six months after DOCCS revoked Plaintiff’s parole a second time.2 While incarcerated, he broadly alleged that the prior conditions of his parole, imposed in both 2013 and 2017, violated his rights under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Dkt. Nos. 1 (“Original Complaint”), 17 (“First Amended Complaint”). On March 9, 2018, Defendants moved to dismiss the First Amended Complaint for failure to state a claim. Dkt. No. 24. On September 21, 2018, the Court granted the motion and dismissed the First Amended Complaint without prejudice. Dkt. No. 45. On November 19, 2018, Plaintiff filed his Second Amended Complaint pro se, again alleging that his prior parole conditions, imposed in 2013 and 2017, violated his rights, but this

time only under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Compl. at 1–3. On December 26, 2018, the Honorable David E. Peebles, United States Magistrate Judge, recommended that the

2 DOCCS first revoked Plaintiff’s parole in 2013, ten days after his initial release. Compl. at 2. Plaintiff violated his post-release supervision by entering a public library, id., and according to Defendants, by accessing a computer therein and then absconding to Boston, Massachusetts, “without knowledge and permission from his Parole Officer.” Cook Decl. ¶ 6. “He was unaccounted for until his apprehension on” January 15, 2014, and “was given 36 months at his parole hearing which was held on” March 12, 2014. Id. On January 17, 2017, Plaintiff was released from prison and returned to parole for a second time. Compl. at 2. However, one month later, DOCCS again revoked his parole. Id. According to Defendants, this revocation occurred because Plaintiff “fail[ed] to register email addresses, us[ed] a computer and social media,” and “possess[ed] a computer” without notice or permission. Cook Decl. ¶ 6. On October 11, 2017, an administrative law judge imposed a delinquent time assessment of 24 months. See Newman v. Hoyt, No. 17-CV-808, 2018 WL 5842996, at *3 (N.D.N.Y. Nov. 8, 2018). Second Amended Complaint be dismissed without leave to replead, Dkt. No. 53 (“Report & Recommendation” or “R&R”), to which Plaintiff objected on January 10, 2019, Dkt. No. 55 (“Objections”).3 Before the Court reviewed the Report & Recommendation and Plaintiff’s Objections,

Plaintiff filed a Motion for a Writ of Habeas Corpus on January 2, 2019, making similar claims challenging his conditions of release. Dkt. No. 54 (“Habeas Petition”). On January 28, 2019, the Magistrate Judge directed the Clerk to open a new action concerning the Habeas Petition, which was also assigned to this Court. Dkt. No. 59 (“January 2019 Text Order”); see also Newman v. Stanford, No. 19-CV-118 (“Habeas Docket”). Plaintiff was once again released on parole on February 13, 2019, Cook Decl. ¶ 6, with similar conditions of release to the ones imposed in 2013 and 2017, Dkt. No. 64 (“July 12, 2019, Order”) at 5–6. Yet again, his release was short-lived. According to Defendants, on or about February 22, 2019, Plaintiff violated his parole conditions a third time by, among other things, possessing a computer without permission, in violation of SC 40A. Cook Decl. ¶ 6.

Before Plaintiff was returned to a DOCCS facility in April 2019, Pinsonnault Decl. at 3–6 (“Exhibit A”), the Court dismissed his Habeas Petition for failure to plead exhaustion of state remedies on February 27, 2019. Habeas Dkt. No. 4. Two weeks later, on March 11, 2019, Plaintiff filed an amended habeas petition, again complaining of the parole conditions imposed on him in the previous month. Habeas Dkt. No.

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