Giakoumelos v. Coughlin
| Decision Date | 20 June 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 1214,D,1214 |
| Parties | John GIAKOUMELOS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Thomas A. COUGHLIN, III, Stephan Vladyka, Correction Officer at Great Meadow Correctional Facility, Arthur Leonardo, Superintendent, and Donald Selsky, Director of Special Housing, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 95-2211. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Stephen M. Latimer, Hackensack, NJ (Loughlin & Latimer, of Counsel), for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Denise A. Hartman, Albany, NY, Assistant Attorney General of the State of New York (Dennis C. Vacco, Attorney General of the State of New York, Peter H. Schiff, Deputy Solicitor General, Peter G. Crary, Assistant Attorney General, of Counsel), for Defendants-Appellees.
Before FEINBERG, CARDAMONE and MAHONEY, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff John Giakoumelos is a prisoner in the custody of the New York State Department of Correctional Services (DOCS). Defendants are various DOCS officials, including those involved in the disciplinary proceedings against Giakoumelos that form the basis of this appeal. Giakoumelos appeals from a judgment filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York in March 1995, in accordance with a decision by Magistrate Judge Ralph W. Smith, Jr., granting summary judgment for defendants in Giakoumelos's civil rights action. The district court ruled that because Giakoumelos had previously litigated the constitutionality of the disciplinary proceedings in New York state court, he could not do so again. For the reasons stated below, we affirm.
During 1991 Giakoumelos was a prisoner at Auburn Correctional Facility (Auburn). In November 1991, he was transferred from Auburn to Green Meadow Correctional Facility (Green Meadow) because prison officials believed that he was involved in a plot to escape with two other prisoners from Auburn (the escape). At Green Meadow, Giakoumelos was issued an Inmate Misbehavior Report by Michael Urban, the DOCS official investigating the escape, charging him with conspiring to escape in violation of DOCS Rule 108.10. See 7 N.Y.Comp.Codes R. & Regs. § 270.2.
A disciplinary hearing was conducted at Green Meadow in December 1991 (the hearing) and was presided over by defendant Stephan Vladyka. Giakoumelos was found guilty, primarily on Urban's testimony, taken by telephone outside Giakoumelos's presence, regarding the results of his investigation and statements made by a confidential informant. Giakoumelos was sentenced to 365 days confinement in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) at Green Meadow; loss of package, commissary and phone home privileges for the same period; and loss of 12 months good time. This decision was affirmed in two subsequent administrative appeals (together with the hearing, "the disciplinary proceedings").
Giakoumelos made a number of requests both prior to and during the hearing. He requested (1) the use of a Greek translator; (2) access to the evidence to be presented against him, including a copy of an Unusual Incident Report (UIR) that he believed was filed in connection with the investigation; (3) the names of the alleged co-conspirators in order to call them as witnesses on his behalf; (4) permission to ask Urban questions about the investigation; and (5) an independent assessment by Vladyka of the informant's credibility. Each of these requests was denied.
Acting pro se, Giakoumelos brought a timely action in New York State Supreme Court pursuant to Article 78 of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) seeking to reverse the decision of the disciplinary proceedings (the Article 78 Proceeding). He claimed that the hearing was not fair and impartial because he was not provided with a Greek translator and because Vladyka had investigated the escape in connection with a concurrent administrative segregation hearing at Green Meadow that was later discontinued. In addition, Giakoumelos claimed that for various reasons he was unable to present an adequate defense. First, he was denied access to evidence presented against him, including the UIR, photographs used by the confidential informant to identify Giakoumelos (the photo array), photographs of a "confiscated cloth" that may have figured in the escape, and a summary of Urban's confidential testimony at the hearing. Second, he was not allowed to ask Urban questions. Third, he was denied the right to call witnesses on his behalf because Vladyka refused to divulge the names of the co-conspirators. Finally, Giakoumelos claimed that Vladyka should have assessed the credibility of the informant. These actions were alleged to be in violation of the United States Constitution, the New York Constitution, and various provisions of the New York Civil Rights Law and New York prison regulations.
The case was transferred to the Appellate Division, Third Department pursuant to CPLR § 7804(g) because the complaint raised the issue of whether the determination in the disciplinary proceedings was supported by substantial evidence. In April 1993, the Appellate Division confirmed the determination. See Matter of Giakoumelos v. Coughlin, 192 A.D.2d 998, 597 N.Y.S.2d 232 (3d Dep't 1993). The court found that Giakoumelos had waived any argument that Vladyka was biased because he had not made such an objection at the hearing. Id. at 998, 597 N.Y.S.2d 232. In any event, Vladyka was not biased because his interview of Giakoumelos in connection with the administrative segregation hearing did not constitute an "investigation" of the escape. Id. With respect to access to evidence, the court found that (1) there was no evidence that a UIR was ever filed, (2) the photographs of the "confiscated cloth" were not relied upon in the hearing and Giakoumelos had not shown that they would have been significant to his defense, and (3) with a transcript of Urban's telephone testimony submitted in camera before it (the Urban transcript), the denial of access to the photo array was "rationally based upon security reasons." Id. at 998-99, 597 N.Y.S.2d 232. In light of the Urban transcript, the court also found that there was a "rational basis" for Vladyka's determination that the co-conspirators could not be called as witnesses and that Vladyka had "sufficiently detailed and specific" information before him to independently assess the reliability of the informant. Id. at 999, 597 N.Y.S.2d 232. Finally, the court rejected all of Giakoumelos's remaining contentions. Id. In October 1993, the New York Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal. 82 N.Y.2d 658, 604 N.Y.S.2d 557, 624 N.E.2d 695 (1993).
Again acting pro se, Giakoumelos brought this action for damages in January 1994 in the district court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The complaint alleged that defendants had deprived him of due process by (1) using a biased hearing officer, (2) denying him the right to call witnesses as a result of Vladyka's refusal to interview the alleged co-conspirators and the informant, and (3) denying him the right to adequately defend himself by refusing to produce the UIR, the photo array and the photos of the "confiscated cloth".
After the parties consented to proceed for all purposes before Magistrate Judge Smith, a somewhat convoluted chain of events occurred. Defendants moved for summary judgment on the ground that collateral estoppel applied because the claims raised in the complaint had already been decided against Giakoumelos in the Article 78 Proceeding. In June 1994, the Magistrate granted the motion because Giakoumelos had not filed any opposition to it.
Giakoumelos then moved for relief under Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b) on the ground that before the deadline to respond to the summary judgment motion, he had been granted an extension of time to answer by a staff attorney in the district court. The Magistrate, who was apparently not aware of this extension when he granted the motion, vacated his June 1994 decision and ordered Giakoumelos to answer.
Along with his opposition to the summary judgment motion, Giakoumelos offered an affidavit by a prisoner at Auburn named Mark Braun. That affidavit recounted Braun's interview with Urban during the latter's investigation of the escape. In September 1994, the Magistrate denied defendants' motion for summary judgement because Braun's affidavit showed that Giakoumelos had "recently uncovered what appears to be significant new evidence" ( that Braun was possibly one of the co-conspirators) in support of Giakoumelos's claims and such evidence defeated the application of collateral estoppel.
The defendants then moved for reconsideration of the Magistrate's denial of summary judgment. They submitted an affirmation by Urban that Braun was not the informant or one of the co-conspirators and would have had no relevant evidence to offer at the hearing. They also submitted, in camera, the Urban transcript in order to show that Braun was not the informant and that the real informant was unwilling to testify because of safety concerns.
In March 1995, in light of the above submission by the defendants, the Magistrate vacated his September 1993 ruling and again granted defendants' motion for summary judgment. The Magistrate stated that "defendants have introduced evidence that clearly demonstrates that ... [Giakoumelos] has not in fact uncovered significant new evidence in support of his claims." This appeal, in which Giakoumelos is now represented by counsel, followed the entry of final judgment.
We review de novo a grant of summary judgment by the district court.
Under the Full Faith and Credit Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1738, federal courts must give a prior state court judgment the same preclusive effect that such a judgment would be given in the courts of the state from which the judgment emerged. See Kremer v. Chemical Constr. Corp., 456 U.S. 461, 466, 102 S.Ct. 1883, 1889-90, 72 L.Ed.2d 262 (1982). This rule...
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