People v. Morel

37 Misc. 3d 937
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 24, 2012
StatusPublished

This text of 37 Misc. 3d 937 (People v. Morel) 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
People v. Morel, 37 Misc. 3d 937 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Ralph A. Fabrizio, J.

This issue before the court on this motion to renew and reargue, as it was at the time of the prior decision, is whether this criminal prosecution charging defendant with a single count of criminal contempt based on an allegation he violated a Supreme Court order of protection is barred from proceeding under both state law and federal constitutional double jeopardy principles based on the commencement of a civil hearing in a child neglect proceeding brought pursuant to article 10 of the Family Court Act. One of the allegations in the neglect proceeding involves defendant’s purported violation of an interim order of protection issued by a family court judge. In its earlier decision dated June 15, 2012, this court ruled, inter alia, that the claim of double jeopardy had not ripened because the Family Court hearing was, and in fact still is, ongoing, and no punitive sanction has been imposed. The court denies the motion to renew, but grants the motion for reargument. Upon reargument, based on the specific facts of this case and analysis of federal constitutional principles, the court reverses its original ruling to the extent of finding this prosecution is barred from proceeding as a matter of federal constitutional law.

The case extensively relied on by defendant in the initial motion and which he claims was “overlooked or misapprehended” by this court in its prior decision is People v Wood (95 NY2d 509 [2000]), which defendant still claims is the “controlling” case. [939]*939The court understands the Wood, holding, and in fact cited to that case and distinguished it from this case in its earlier decision. Wood is significantly different from the scenario presented here, and is not, in this court’s opinion, controlling authority as a matter of state or federal law. In that case, following a Family Court hearing brought under article 8 of the Family Court Act, a finding was made that the respondent, Mr. Wood, violated an order of protection previously issued by that court in a pending article 8 matter. The finding was that the violation occurred on December 25, 1996, when Mr. Wood made five “prank phone calls” to an individual he had been ordered not to have any contact with. He was sentenced to six months’ incarceration following the adjudication in Family Court. (Id. at 511.) Mr. Wood had also been indicted based on an allegation he violated an order of protection issued by the Rochester City Court. The Rochester order directed Mr. Wood to have no contact with the same person named in the aforementioned Family Court order. The indictment charged Mr. Wood with “five counts of criminal contempt [and] five counts of aggravated harassment ... as a result of the same five phone calls” made on December 25, 1996. (Id. at 511-512.)

In the criminal matter, the trial court denied Mr. Wood’s motion to dismiss the indictment on double jeopardy grounds. Mr. Wood was subsequently convicted in the criminal action on each of the five counts of criminal contempt and aggravated harassment, following a jury trial. The Court of Appeals found that “[bjecause the same acts violated both orders, it would be impossible for defendant to be guilty of first degree criminal contempt for violating the City Court order of protection without concomitantly being guilty of contempt for violating the Family Court order of protection.” (Id. at 514.) Thus, the Court held that the criminal contempt prosecution was barred because of the previous conviction “under Family Court Act article 8.” (Id. at 515.)

Here, on October 7, 2010, an interim order of protection was issued under section 1029 of the Family Court Act in connection with a civil child neglect proceeding brought under article 10 of that act. Five additional interim orders of protection were issued between that date and August 17, 2011. A subsequent neglect petition, a civil case also brought under article 10, alleges, inter alia, defendant violated those interim orders of protection based on conduct which is said to have occurred on January 4, 2011. The criminal case contains a single count alleging a viola[940]*940tion of an order of protection issued in Supreme Court, Bronx County, on May 26, 2011. Thus, one of the allegations in the civil pleading involves conduct which allegedly took place five months prior to the issuance of the order of protection defendant is accused of violating in this matter.

However, the Family Court petition also alleges defendant violated the Family Court order of protection on August 18, 2011.1 The petition specifically states that on August 18, 2011, Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) caseworker Janice DeFelice made an “unannounced home visit” to defendant’s children’s apartment, she personally observed defendant “inside the subject residence,” defendant told the caseworker he “knew he was not allowed to be inside the subject residence,” and defendant’s children were present. The accusatory instrument in this criminal matter charging defendant with a single count of criminal contempt in the second degree is a sworn pleading signed by Ms. DeFelice. In that pleading, Ms. DeFelice alleges defendant violated the Supreme Court order of protection on August 18, 2011 “when she personally observed defendant inside defendant’s children’[s] apartment.”

To the extent the charge in the criminal case is based on one, but not all, of the events alleged in the civil petition, this scenario is somewhat similar to Wood. But, defendant is alleged to have violated the Family Court order of protection at a time when the Supreme Court had not yet issued its own order of protection, as well as on an occasion that is not charged in the information in this criminal action. And, in this court’s initial opinion, that scenario made it a factually different case from Wood, because no finding had yet been issued in Family Court that defendant violated that court’s order of protection on any occasion. In addition, given the panoply of civil remedies which can be imposed under article 10 of the Family Court Act, this court determined, based on Wood, that a double jeopardy violation could not be found until the outcome of the article 10 proceeding. (Cf. People v Allen, 6 Misc 3d 258, 261 [Sup Ct, Bronx County 2004] [“a disposition under Family Court Act § 841 for a proven violation of an order of protection is considered punitive in nature, thus triggering double jeopardy protections”], citing Wood, and People v Arnold, 174 Misc 2d 585 [Sup Ct, Kings County 1997].)

[941]*941Complicating matters under a Wood analysis is that there is no direct authority within article 10 for a family court judge to sentence an individual to a jail sentence for violating an interim order of protection. The purpose of article 10 is to protect children, and not to punish, criminally, individuals who commit acts of child abuse and neglect. The sanctions within article 10 which may be imposed in pending neglect proceedings are all civil in nature, and a criminal prosecution for the same acts of neglect following a finding in Family Court is therefore “not barred on constitutional double jeopardy grounds.” (People v Daniels,

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Related

Breed v. Jones
421 U.S. 519 (Supreme Court, 1975)
MATTER OF WALKER v. Walker
658 N.E.2d 1025 (New York Court of Appeals, 1995)
People v. Wood
742 N.E.2d 114 (New York Court of Appeals, 2000)
People v. Daniels
194 A.D.2d 420 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1993)
In re Jason MM.
245 A.D.2d 892 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1997)
In re Marquise EE.
257 A.D.2d 699 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1999)
People v. Allen
6 Misc. 3d 258 (New York Supreme Court, 2004)
Fonseca v. Judges of the Family Court
59 Misc. 2d 492 (New York Supreme Court, 1969)
People v. Holloway
173 Misc. 2d 857 (New York Supreme Court, 1997)
People v. Arnold
174 Misc. 2d 585 (New York Supreme Court, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
37 Misc. 3d 937, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-morel-nysupct-2012.