Theriault v. Quinlan

638 F. Supp. 159, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24157
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJune 16, 1986
Docket84 Civ. 6007(RWS)
StatusPublished

This text of 638 F. Supp. 159 (Theriault v. Quinlan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Theriault v. Quinlan, 638 F. Supp. 159, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24157 (S.D.N.Y. 1986).

Opinion

SWEET, District Judge.

Petitioner Harry Theriault (“Theriault”) seeks a writ of habeas corpus to vacate the extension of his release date from federal prison based on the parole reconsideration proceedings conducted on July 18, 1985. For the following reasons, the writ will be denied and Theriault’s petition will be dismissed.

Prior Proceedings

This action commenced in August, 1984 with the filing of a habeas corpus petition by Theriault. The petition challenged certain actions of the United States Parole Commission (“Parole Commission”) in connection with the revocation of Theriault’s parole in 1983. The court has finally adjudicated all of the claims contained in the August, 1984 petition. Theriault v. Quinlan, 609 F.Supp. 733 (S.D.N.Y.), on rehearing, 614 F.Supp. 209 (S.D.N.Y.1985), later opinion, slip op. (S.D.N.Y. January 6, 1986) [Available on WESTLAW, DCTU database], on rehearing, slip op. (S.D.N.Y. February 21, 1986) [Available on WEST-LAW, DCTU database].

In moving for reconsideration of the January 6, 1986 opinion, Theriault argued that he was entitled to relief based upon new claims entirely different from those contained in his August, 1984 petition. These hew matters concerned errors allegedly committed by the Parole Commission in connection with a July 18, 1985 parole reconsideration hearing. Specifically, Theriault claimed:

that he was not provided adequate notice of the claimed criminal conduct [which led to the reconsideration] prior to the July 18,1985 hearing on his parole classification, that he was denied an opportunity to present evidence at the July 18 hearing in his behalf, and that the Notice of Action fails to indicate the evidence which supports the reclassification.

Theriault v. Quinlan, slip op. at 2 (S.D.N.Y. February 21, 1986). The government was ordered to answer Theriault’s new allegations. Id.

[160]*160Facts

Upon the revocation of his parole in 1983, Theriault was scheduled for a presumptive reparole on August 27, 1985, after service of twenty-eight months. This decision was made on the basis of information available to the Parole Commission at the time of the revocation in 1983.

On February 14, 1985, the Parole Commission received a letter from the Chief United States Probation Officer for the District of New Hampshire. The letter attached copies of letters written by Theriault to members of his family and threatening violent action against them. Although some of the letters date back to the summer of 1983 and are contemporaneous with Theriault’s parole revocation proceeding, the Parole Commission did not know of the letters at that time. The first time the Parole Commission learned of these letters was when they were forwarded to it by the Chief Probation Officer of New Hampshire in February, 1985. Subsequently, additional information concerning Theriault’s threats against members of his family was provided to the Parole Commission.

Theriault’s letters threaten various forms of punishment and retribution against members of his family in connection with what he apparently viewed as a “betrayal” which led to his arrest on the parole violator warrant in 1983. For example, Theriault wrote in a letter to his sister that “the kiss of death intended for me shall have a funny way of backfiring on the one who did it ...” Similar statements appear in others of the letters. See, e.g., Theriault letter of June 18, 1983 (warning his sister that she would be punished for having betrayed him by lying and turning him in); Theriault’s letter of July 11, 1984 (writing to his sister on the subject of his family’s betrayal by turning him in on the parole violator warrant that “[m]y sentence will be up in a few more years — then then we’ll see who get the ‘sweet revenge’ if that’s what you guys want”).

In addition to Theriault’s own letters, the Parole Commission received a lengthy affidavit from Theriault’s sister Jeannette Hammond. In the affidavit, Ms. Hammond stated that shortly after Theriault was arrested on the parole violator warrant, he called her and said that because he believed she had turned him in to the authorities he would have to “kill [her], Roger and the blessed baby.” She also stated that she understood Theriault’s statements as threats.

On April 26, 1985, Theriault’s case was reopened for reconsideration under 28 C.F.R. § 2.28(f) on the basis of this new, adverse information concerning threats by him against members of his family. Theriault was advised that the reason for the reopening was to consider information concerning his “past history of threats to members of [his] family.” The documents reflecting Theriault’s threats were forwarded to the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution with instructions to let the petitioner review the materials in advance of the reconsideration hearing.

Theriault reviewed the letters relied upon by the Parole Commission to reopen the case and wrote a responsive letter to the Parole Commission in which he stated that the “[p]rison staff have allowed me to review a file of Xeroxes of letters allegedly written by me to family members” and in which he argued that there was no proof that he had actually written the letters in question. Theriault confirmed that he had reviewed the collection of threatening letters in advance of his reconsideration hearing by signing the Parole Commission “Notice of Hearing on Parole Application” form.

At the reconsideration hearing, the hearing examiners considered the documentary evidence of Theriault’s threats against other family members and heard from Theriault on the subject, who was also represented by counsel. Theriault contested the charges by claiming that the Parole Commission lacked proof that he had written the letters. His request to have the threatened family members brought to the hearing for questioning was denied.

The two members of the examining panel issued two separate recommendations after the hearing. One examiner found the charge warranted continuation of Theriault in prison until the end of his jail term, [161]*161which would have required service of approximately eight years. The other examiner recommended that Theriault be paroled on November 27,1985. Since the two examiners could not agree on a recommendation, the case was referred to the Administrative Hearing Examiner who recommended an intermediate date of presumptive parole after service of fifty-three months. This three-way split was resolved by reference to yet another hearing examiner who agreed to the fifty-three month presumptive parole date. The Regional Commissioner approved this recommendation. As the court has already found in this case, Theriault’s new presumptive parole date of September 7, 1987 reflects a reduction of the time to be served on the original parole violation occasioned by this court’s vacatur of one of the findings made at the 1983 revocation hearing. Theriault v. Quinlan, slip op. at 2-3 (S.D.N.Y. January 6, 1986)[Available on WESTLAW, DCTU database].

The August 13, 1985 Notice of Action details the evidence used to support Parole Commission’s decision. This court previously noted that:

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Related

Billiteri v. United States Board Of Parole
541 F.2d 938 (Second Circuit, 1976)
Drayton v. Mccall
584 F.2d 1208 (Second Circuit, 1978)
Robert Bialkin v. Benjamin F. Baer
719 F.2d 590 (Second Circuit, 1983)
Baker v. McCall
543 F. Supp. 498 (S.D. New York, 1981)
Iuteri v. Nardoza
560 F. Supp. 745 (D. Connecticut, 1983)
Butson v. Chairman, US Parole Com'n
457 F. Supp. 841 (D. Colorado, 1978)
Theriault v. Quinlan
609 F. Supp. 733 (S.D. New York, 1985)
Theriault v. Quinlan
614 F. Supp. 209 (S.D. New York, 1985)

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Bluebook (online)
638 F. Supp. 159, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24157, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/theriault-v-quinlan-nysd-1986.