People ex rel. Stracci v. Warden

72 A.D.2d 393, 424 N.Y.S.2d 704, 1980 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 9693
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 7, 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 72 A.D.2d 393 (People ex rel. Stracci v. Warden) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. Stracci v. Warden, 72 A.D.2d 393, 424 N.Y.S.2d 704, 1980 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 9693 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Fein, J.

This is an appeal from the dismissal of petitioner’s application for a writ of habeas corpus releasing petitioner from the custody of the Warden of the Men’s House of Detention.

Petitioner was sentenced to 10 to 20 years imprisonment in 1958 upon conviction for third degree robbery in Queens. He was released on parole on September 14, 1971. During the next three years he reported regularly to his parole officer, but in late 1974 he sought permission to relocate to another [394]*394State in order to facilitate finding a better job. This would entail transferring parole supervision to that other State. Permission was denied.

The Parole Board subsequently determined petitioner to be delinquent for leaving his approved residence on or about January 5, 1975, and for failing to report as scheduled on January 7. Investigative report by the Parole Board indicated that petitioner’s uncle had been arrested by the New York City police for a series of liquor and clothing store robberies. There was a question whether petitioner was implicated in some of those robberies. A fugitive warrant and also a robbery warrant were apparently issued for petitioner’s arrest, but by this time he had absconded to Florida where he took up residence under an assumed name.

In the summer of 1976 petitioner was arrested in Florida on a charge of possession of pills. That charge was later dropped, but as a result of his detention it was learned through routine identity checks that there were outstanding New York fugitive and robbery warrants for petitioner in Queens County. Dade County authorities held petitioner in custody, but released him after 90 days when no extradition request from New York was forthcoming, although the New York police had been advised of his detention.

Three years later, Sergeant Blake of the Dade County Public Safety Department summarized the events of 1976 in a letter to petitioner’s Legal Aid attorney: "A detective attempted to check on [petitioner’s] status and was informed that [petitioner] had not been extradited because of the expenses involved, the amount of time [petitioner] had served on his original sentence and that he was being terminated from parole. [Petitioner] was thus advised in 1976 that he was no longer on parole.”

On January 20, 1979 petitioner was again arrested in Florida on a New York Division of Parole "wanted” notice. A parole violation warrant was forwarded to Florida. The specifications this time were confined to petitioner’s failure to report, and his unauthorized departure from his approved residence and from the State in January, 1975. No mention was made of the alleged involvement in illegal activities with his uncle. Petitioner was detained this time in Broward County. A certified parole violation warrant was sent there on January 23, on the basis of which a Florida fugitive warrant was issued on February 7.

[395]*395In view of petitioner’s stable life and employment record, and his co-operation with Dade County authorities over the past several years, that agency interceded with the New York Division of Parole on petitioner’s behalf in the hope of having extradition proceedings discontinued and parole supervision transferred to Florida. This request was considered by New York parole personnel. Although the New York City area supervisor recommended transfer to Florida control in a memo to the Parole Board chairman on February 21, this was overruled because petitioner’s relationship with Dade County authorities had developed after petitioner had absconded to Florida.

The New York Governor’s extradition warrant took some time in arriving in Florida. Petitioner was released from Broward County custody on April 24, but was rearrested after the April 20 warrant was sent to Florida on May 9. Petitioner was returned to custody in Queens on June 14, and this habeas corpus proceeding ensued pro se.

The issue is whether the delay of New York authorities in extraditing petitioner entitles him to discharge. This turns on the significance of the period of inaction following this State’s initial interest in 1976. Special Term, finding no actual notice to New York of petitioner’s Florida whereabouts, "reluctantly” dismissed the writ "on constraint of’ People ex rel. Flores v Dalsheim (66 AD2d 381).

The question in Flores involved the duty of the State to execute promptly a warrant based on breach of parole, and whether lack of due diligence in such execution had rendered the warrant unenforceable by reason of staleness, waiver or violation of the "fundamental fairness doctrine embedded in the due process clause” (66 AD2d, at p 386). There the parolee had been sentenced to a maximum five-year sentence in June, 1971, was released on parole in June, 1973, and failed to meet his parole appointment in January, 1975. A warrant for his arrest was issued in April. Flores was apprehended a year and a half later, some 20 months after the maximum expiration date of his parole. His whereabouts from January, 1975 until execution of the warrant in November, 1977 were apparently no secret, Flores having lived openly as a New York City resident for that period, during which he married, filed an income tax return, received public assistance, licensed his dog, participated in publicly funded programs, and maintained public utility accounts—all under his own name.

[396]*396A State cannot, consistent with the fundamental principles of justice protected by due process, compel a parolee to serve out his sentence after the State has manifested a gross disinterest in him (State v Sheehy, 115 NH 175). Flores (supra), acknowledging the impact of due process, noted that although the onus rests initially on the parolee to perform his obligations as a condition of his parole, the State also has a correlative duty to see that the conditions of parole are carried out. The sword of Damocles should not be unnecessarily dangled over the parolee’s head. In balancing these obligations, the court found that the duty to afford a prompt disposition was outweighed by the fact that the parolee could at any time have walked into his Parole Board office or picked up a telephone to notify his parole officer of his whereabouts, notwithstanding the fact that he continued to reside openly at another address in the same city. The Flores court ruled, "We think that a parolee who fails to report and absconds from supervision cannot assert an immunity from apprehension due to delay alone by the State in finding him.” (People ex rel. Flores v Dalsheim, 66 AD2d, at p 388.)

This conclusion is not dispositive here. New York authorities apparently knew of petitioner’s whereabouts as early as the summer of 1976, nearly three years before his ultimate extradition. There is thus a valid question whether the warrant of extradition was void for staleness. As noted in Flores, staleness denotes little more than age, which should not, in and of itself, render a parole violation warrant void. But the Flores court, in dismissing the staleness argument, was addressing the inability to execute the warrant by reason of the parolee’s flight. Such is not the case here. By the summer of 1976, petitioner’s whereabouts, having been discovered and reported to New York authorities, no longer presented an insurmountable obstacle to his extradition (cf. People ex rel. Spinks v Dillon, 68 AD2d 368; Matter of Higgins v New York State Div. of Parole, 72 AD2d 583).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
72 A.D.2d 393, 424 N.Y.S.2d 704, 1980 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 9693, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-stracci-v-warden-nyappdiv-1980.