Bentley v. Scully

• Decision Date: 11 May 1994
• Docket Number: No. 92 Civ. 5050 (RWS).,92 Civ. 5050 (RWS).
• Citation: 851 F. Supp. 586
• Parties: Roosevelt C. BENTLEY, Petitioner, v. Charles SCULLY, Superintendent, Greenhaven Correctional Facility, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

851 F. Supp. 586

Roosevelt C. BENTLEY, Petitioner, v. Charles SCULLY, Superintendent, Greenhaven Correctional Facility, Respondent.

No. 92 Civ. 5050 (RWS).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

May 11, 1994.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Roosevelt C. Bentley, petitioner pro se.

Robert T. Johnson, Dist. Atty., Bronx County, Bronx, NY, for respondent (Raphael J. Berman and Susan L. Valle, Asst. Dist. Attys., of counsel).

OPINION

SWEET, District Judge.

Petitioner pro se Roosevelt C. Bentley ("Bentley" or "Petitioner") has made an application for a writ of habeas corpus, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, on the grounds that he is held in custody in violation of the Constitution of the United States. For the reasons set forth below, the application is granted.

The Parties

Bentley is presently incarcerated at the Green Haven Correctional Facility (the "Facility"), New York, pursuant to a judgment of conviction of the Supreme Court, Bronx County.

Respondent Charles Scully ("Scully" or "the State") is Superintendent of the Facility. Pursuant to an agreement between the Office of the District Attorney of Bronx County and Robert Abrams, Attorney General of the State of New York, the Bronx District Attorney (the "District Attorney") represents Scully.

Facts and Prior Proceedings

The facts underlying Bentley's conviction are set forth in the opinion of the Appellate Division, First Department, which entertained Petitioner's appeal. See People v. Bentley, 112 A.D.2d 109, 492 N.Y.S.2d 381 (1st Dept.1985). As described in the Appellate Division opinion, the State charged that on November 15, 1979, Petitioner shot at a gypsy cab driver ("Bunyarko") who had been called to a Bronx apartment building. Bunyarko identified Petitioner as his assailant shortly thereafter and a police officer arrested Bentley soon afterwards. The next morning, the police recovered a series of items including three handguns and almost four ounces of heroin from the roof of a garage below the window of the apartment in which Bentley had been arrested.

On January 9, 1980, a Bronx County grand jury returned an indictment against Bentley, charging him with second degree attempted murder; criminal possession of a weapon in the second and fourth degrees; reckless endangerment in the first degree; and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the second degree.

A bench warrant was issued for Bentley's arrest after Bentley, who at that time was out on bail in connection with the above charges, failed to appear in court. On April 8, 1980, Bentley was arrested in Florida and charged in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida with various federal firearm violations. He was convicted and sentenced to a term of five years' imprisonment on each of the four counts, with two of the terms to run concurrently with the remaining two terms.

On January 6, 1981, the Bronx County District Attorney filed with the Federal Correctional Institute in Memphis, Tennessee, a request pursuant to Article IV, Section (c) of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, New York Criminal Procedure Law ("CPL") § 580.20 to have Bentley returned to New York to face the charges pending in Bronx County Supreme Court. On April 2, 1981, Bentley was returned to Bronx County.

On January 12, 1982 Bentley filed a motion to dismiss the Bronx indictment pursuant to CPL § 210.20, subd. 1(g) on the grounds that he was denied his right to a speedy trial in violation of CPL § 580.20. The motion was denied.

On February 17, 1982, after a jury trial, Bentley was found guilty of attempted murder in the second degree (New York Penal Law §§ 110, 125.25(1)) and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the second degree (New York Penal Law § 220.18(1)). At trial, the State successfully introduced evidence concerning the ballistics of the alleged assault weapon, the recovered drugs from the neighboring rooftop and testimony concerning the gypsy cab driver's identification of Bentley as his assailant.

On March 31, 1982, Bentley filed a motion to set aside the verdict pursuant to CPL §§ 330.30, 330.40 and 330.50 alleging: (1) that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction; (2) that the indictment was defective; (3) that the prosecutor's summation was improper; (4) that the court's charge was improper; and (5) that the warrantless entry into the apartment violated the Fourth Amendment. On October 27, 1982, the court denied the motion.

On May 25, 1982, after conviction but before sentencing, Bentley filed his first federal habeas petition in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, claiming that he had been denied his right to a speedy trial in violation of the Sixth Amendment and CPL § 580.20. In a memorandum opinion and order dated July 2, 1984, the Honorable Mary Johnson Lowe dismissed Bentley's habeas petition on the grounds that he had failed to exhaust his state remedies.

On September 9, 1982, Bentley, with the assistance of trial counsel, formalized his January 1982 pretrial motion, which sought dismissal of the indictment on the grounds it violated his right to a speedy trial pursuant to CPL § 580.20. On October 29, 1982, Judge Daniel Sullivan of the Bronx County Supreme Court denied the CPL § 580.20 motion as well as the motions to set aside the verdict recounted above. Bentley on that date was sentenced to concurrent indeterminate terms of imprisonment of from twelve and one-half to twenty-five years on the attempted murder and possession of controlled substances counts.

On November 9, 1982, Bentley filed a timely notice of appeal requesting review of the denial of his motion to dismiss the indictment on speedy trial grounds and on April 26, 1983, the Appellate Division, First Department, granted Bentley leave to appeal the order of October 29, 1982, and consolidated it with Bentley's appeal from the judgment of conviction also rendered on October 29, 1982.

Bentley raised the following claims before the Appellate Division: (1) his statutory right to speedy trial pursuant to CPL § 30.30 was denied; (2) the circumstantial evidence presented did not exclude as a reasonable hypothesis the possibility that someone other than Bentley constructively possessed the controlled substance; (3) the trial court's constructive possession charge violated CPL § 300.10(2) and denied Bentley his due process right to a fair trial; (4) the People failed to prove Bentley's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt; and (5) the prosecutor deprived Bentley of a fair trial by telling the jury that Bentley's guilt could be inferred from the fact that he was on the telephone with his lawyer while the police were seeking to enter the apartment.

The Appellate Division modified Bentley's judgment of conviction to reverse his conviction of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance, on the basis that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Petitioner constructively possessed the narcotics, and to otherwise affirm Bentley's judgment of conviction. On October 18, 1985, leave to appeal that decision to the Court of Appeals was denied.

On September 4, 1986, Bentley moved the Bronx County Supreme Court for a state writ of habeas corpus pursuant to Civil Practice Law and Rules ("CPLR") § 7003(a) alleging: (1) his return to New York was improper on the grounds that he was arrested by the agents of the State of New York without a warrant and proper papers; and (2) his subsequent detention pursuant to his state conviction was also improper, on the ground that the underlying indictment should have been dismissed. On November 12, 1986, the state habeas petition was dismissed.

In April 1986, Bentley, together with assigned counsel filed a second federal habeas petition in the Southern District of New York alleging: (1) Bentley was denied his Sixth Amendment right to speedy trial; and (2) he was denied due process by prosecutorial misconduct. On April 17, 1989, the Honorable Kenneth Conboy dismissed Bentley's petition without prejudice on the ground that Bentley failed to exhaust his state remedies with respect to his speedy trial claim.

On August 2, 1989, Bentley moved the Supreme Court, Dutchess County for state habeas relief based on the following grounds: (1) his return to New York violated CPL §§ 570.24, 570.26 in that he was detained and returned without proper papers and that he was further deprived of his right to be brought before a court while represented by counsel prior to his release to New York authorities; (2) he was denied equal protection through the trial court's refusal to allow Bentley to review the documents relating to his extradition to New York; (3) he was improperly sentenced as a second felony offender where the prosecutor failed to file a predicate felony statement and further deprived Bentley of an opportunity to controvert his prior felony conviction in violation of CPL § 400.21(3); (4) the court failed to obtain an updated presentence report prior to the imposition of sentence in violation of CPL § 390.20(1); (5) Bentley was deprived of his right to counsel at sentencing; and (6) the court and the Facility failed to furnish Bentley with a copy of his sentencing minutes in violation of CPL § 380.70. This petition was denied on December 12, 1989 by the Honorable Ralph A. Beisner.

On August 23, 1989, Bentley sought to vacate his judgment of conviction in Bronx County Supreme Court, pursuant to CPL § 440.10 on the following grounds: (1) he was deprived of his state statutory and Sixth Amendment right to speedy trial; (2) the People failed to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt as there was only one eyewitness of questionable reliability; (3) the prosecutor denied Bentley a fair trial when he stated to the jury that Bentley's guilt could be inferred from the fact that he was on the phone with his lawyer discussing his Fourth Amendment rights at the time the police sought...