Goings v. Court Serv.

• Decision Date: 03 May 2011
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 11–501(BAH).
• Citation: 786 F.Supp.2d 48
• Parties: Darnell M. GOINGS, Plaintiff,v.COURT SERVICES AND OFFENDER SUPERVISION AGENCY FOR the DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

786 F.Supp.2d 48

Darnell M. GOINGS, Plaintiff,

v.COURT SERVICES AND OFFENDER SUPERVISION AGENCY FOR the DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Defendant.

Civil Action No. 11–501(BAH).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

May 3, 2011.

Alec George Karakatsanis, David Allen Taylor, Sandra Kay Levick, Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.Harry B. Roback, Christina Anne Cotter, U.S. Attorney's Office, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

BERYL A. HOWELL, District Judge.

In this case, plaintiff Darnell Goings challenges the constitutionality of sex offender conditions imposed upon him by the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (hereinafter “CSOSA”), a federal agency charged with overseeing his five-year probation term. In 2010, the plaintiff was convicted, on his plea of guilty, in a Florida state court of sexual battery for having sex with a 16–year–old female state prison inmate in 1995 while he worked at the prison as a corrections officer. He was sentenced to incarceration for less than one year, followed by five years' probation. After completing his jail sentence, the plaintiff, a District of Columbia resident, was transferred under the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision to the District of Columbia, where he was placed under the authority of CSOSA. CSOSA then unilaterally imposed seventeen special probation conditions upon him, including, among other things, banning the plaintiff from any contact with his children.

On March 9, 2011, the plaintiff filed the instant lawsuit arguing that six of the conditions of his probation were imposed upon him in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The plaintiff simultaneously filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, seeking to enjoin CSOSA from enforcing the challenged conditions until a ruling on the merits of the plaintiff's claim. ECF No. 2.

After reviewing the plaintiff's briefs in support of his motion for a preliminary injunction, the defendant's opposition papers, as well as the accompanying declarations and the applicable law, and following oral argument, the Court grants in part and denies in part plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction. For the reasons set forth below, the Court enjoins CSOSA from enforcing Special Condition 15, banning the plaintiff from having unsupervised contact with minors, only in so far as it applies to the plaintiff's children, but denies the plaintiff's request to enjoin enforcement of the remaining conditions.¹

I. BACKGROUND

In 1995, when he was twenty-three years old, the plaintiff worked as a corrections officer at the Franklin County Jail in Florida. Compl. ¶ 27. While employed at the prison, the plaintiff had consensual sex with a sixteen-year old female inmate. Id.; Def.'s Opp'n Pl.'s Mot. Prelim. Inj., ECF No. 10, Aprille Cole Decl. (hereinafter “Cole Decl.”), ¶ 13. When prison officials became aware of the inmate's pregnancy and the plaintiff's relationship with the inmate, the plaintiff was fired from his job, but not charged with a crime or arrested at that time. Compl. ¶ 28.

Several months after the plaintiff was fired, the plaintiff moved in January 1996 from Florida to the District of Columbia, where he had grown up and had a family. Id. at ¶¶ 27–28. Two months after he moved, on March 8, 1996, prosecutors in Franklin County, Florida charged the plaintiff with sexual battery by a person in a position of custodial authority for having sex with the 16–year old inmate, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Id. at ¶ 29. The plaintiff states that he was not aware of this warrant, and the record contains no evidence that the plaintiff attempted to evade arrest. Id. at ¶ 30.²

From January 1996 to November 2009, the plaintiff lived in the District of Columbia, where he fathered three children and, according to the plaintiff, “spent that time raising a family.” Id. at ¶ 31. The plaintiff entered into a long-term relationship with Anika Davis, with whom he is now engaged to be married, and helped raise his eleven-year old son, D.G.; his three-year old son, J.G.; and his two-year old daughter, A.G. Pl.'s Mot. Prelim. Inj., ECF No. 2, Darnell Goings Decl. (hereinafter “Goings Decl.”), ¶¶ 2–4. During this time, the plaintiff was employed at Reagan National Airport and Walter Reed Hospital, and states that he “was active in the community as a football coach and PTA member.” Compl. ¶ 31.

Between 1996 and 2009, the plaintiff was named as a respondent in two separate domestic disputes. Cole Decl., ¶ 18. Specifically, in 2002, the plaintiff was charged with simple assault after he slapped his then-girlfriend, who is the mother of one of his children. Id. at ¶¶ 18, 21; Def.'s Opp'n Pl.'s Mot. Prelim. Inj., ECF No. 10, Ex. 10, Dennis Ramos and Celina Gates, Center for Clinical and Forensic Services, Inc., Risk Assessment/Intake Report for Darnell M. Goings, Mar. 14, 2011 (hereinafter “Def.'s Treatment Provider Report”), at 4. This charge was dropped, however, when the plaintiff agreed to enter anger management. Cole Decl., ¶ 18; Def.'s Treatment Provider Report, at 4. In 2006, the plaintiff's current fiancée, and the mother of two of his children, Anika Davis, filed for a temporary restraining order and civil protection order after the plaintiff displayed threatening behavior towards her. Cole Decl., ¶ 21; Def.'s Opp'n Pl.'s Mot. Prelim. Inj., ECF No. 10, Ex. 4, District of Columbia Superior Court Petition and Affidavit for Civil Protective Order filed by Anika Davis, Nov. 27, 2006. Despite this incident involving the plaintiff's current fiancée, Ms. Davis asserts that the plaintiff “is a loving, dedicated, and compassionate father.” Compl., Ex. 2, Anika Davis Decl. (hereinafter “Davis Decl.”), ¶ 3.

On November 20, 2009, thirteen years and ten months after the plaintiff left Florida, a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer conducted a background check on the plaintiff and discovered the outstanding 1996 warrant for the plaintiff's arrest. Compl., ¶ 32. The plaintiff was subsequently arrested and transported to Florida on the criminal arrest warrant. Id. at ¶ 33. The criminal investigation revealed that the plaintiff had sexual relations with two prison inmates, one of whom also served as a “look-out” for the plaintiff while he had sex with the sixteen-year old victim of the offense of conviction. Cole Decl., ¶ 13.

On June 17, 2010, the plaintiff pled no contest to one count of sexual battery by a person in a position of custodial authority. Compl., ¶ 33. At his plea hearing, the victim testified that her relationship with the plaintiff was consensual and that the plaintiff should receive no jail time. Id. at ¶ 34. On August 27, 2010, Franklin County Circuit Court Judge James C. Hankinson sentenced the plaintiff to eleven months and twenty-nine days of jail time, with credit for 277 days of time served, and five-years' probation. Id. at ¶ 35. Judge Hankinson also ordered that the plaintiff register as a sex offender, as required by Florida law, but specifically instructed that no sex offender conditions be placed upon him. Id. at ¶¶ 35–36; Compl., Ex. 5, Franklin Cnty., Florida Circuit Court, Court Minutes Disposition, Aug. 27, 2010.

A. Transfer to the District of Columbia and to CSOSA

Toward the conclusion of the plaintiff's jail term, the plaintiff requested that he be allowed to serve his five-year probation sentence in the District of Columbia, and his Florida probation officer arranged for his transfer through the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision (“ICAOS”). Compl. ¶ 37; Cole Decl. at ¶ 14; Def.'s Opp'n Pl.'s Mot. Prelim. Inj., ECF No. 10, Ex. 5, Darnell M. Goings, Offender's Application for Interstate Compact Transfer, Sept. 21, 2010.

ICAOS is a formal agreement between member states and the District of Columbia that “seeks to promote public safety by systematically controlling the interstate movement of certain adult offenders.” Def.'s Opp'n Pl.'s Mot. Prelim. Inj., ECF No. 10, Ex. 11, Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision: ICAOS Rules (hereinafter “ICAOS Rules”), at *1. Under this “little-known” compact, states may transfer offenders to other states, where the receiving state then administers the offender's sentence. M.F. v. State of New York Exec. Dep't. Div. of Parole, 640 F.3d 491, 492–93 (2d Cir.2011); ICAOS Rules, at *1. ICAOS provides that the state receiving an out-of-state offender “supervise an offender transferred under the interstate compact in a manner determined by the receiving state and consistent with the supervision of other similar offenders sentenced in the receiving state.” ICAOS Rules, Rule 4.101. Additionally, “the compact administrator or supervising authority in the receiving state” is authorized to impose special conditions on an out-of-state offender “if that special condition would have been imposed on the offender if sentence had been imposed in the receiving state.” ICAOS Rules, Rule 4.103.

When the plaintiff requested a transfer to the District of Columbia through ICAOS, he signed an application in which he agreed to abide by the terms and conditions of the supervision imposed upon him in the District of Columbia and recognized, if transfer were authorized, that he would be “subject to the rules of the Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision.” Def.'s Opp'n Pl.'s Mot. Prelim. Inj., ECF No. 10, Ex. 5, Darnell M. Goings, Offender's Application for Interstate Compact Transfer, Sept. 21, 2010. The plaintiff also signed a statement in the same application indicating that: “I understand that my supervision in another state may be different than the supervision I would be subject to in [Florida]. I agree to accept any differences that may exist because I believe that transferring my supervision to [the receiving state] will improve my chances for making a good adjustment in the community. I ask that the...