J.B. v. Onondaga Cnty.

• Citation: 401 F.Supp.3d 320
• Decision Date: 12 August 2019
• Docket Number: 5:19-CV-137 (LEK/TWD)
• Parties: J.B., et al., Plaintiffs, v. ONONDAGA COUNTY, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York

401 F.Supp.3d 320

J.B., et al., Plaintiffs,

v.ONONDAGA COUNTY, et al., Defendants.

5:19-CV-137 (LEK/TWD)

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

Signed August 12, 2019

Joshua T. Cotter, Samuel C. Young, Legal Services of Central New York, Syracuse, NY, for Plaintiffs.

John E. Heisler, Jr., Onondaga County Department of Law, Syracuse, NY, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM-DECISION AND ORDER

Lawrence E. Kahn, U.S. District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs are sixteen-year-olds charged in criminal cases being handled in the "Youth Part" of the City of Syracuse criminal courthouse (the "Courthouse"). Before each court appearance, they have attempted to consult with their attorneys in private, but an Onondaga County Sheriff's deputy or Syracuse police officer has remained in the room and refused to leave. The evidence reveals that Onondaga County routinely sends other teenagers into criminal hearings, including arraignments and bail hearings, without the chance to have a candid conversation with their lawyers and, therefore, without the meaningful assistance of counsel. Accordingly, and for the reasons that follow, the Court grants Plaintiffs' motions for class certification and a preliminary injunction and orders the defendants—Onondaga County, its Executive Ryan McMahon, and Sheriff Eugene Conway—to permit adolescent and juvenile offenders to consult their lawyers privately in the Syracuse Courthouse before their court appearances there.

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. The Raise the Age Law

The Youth Part is a new section of the Syracuse Courthouse designated for teenagers charged with serious crimes in Onondaga County. Dkt. No. 31 ("Attorney General's Brief") at 6. In April 2017, the New York legislature enacted the Raise the Age law in recognition that teenagers under 18 should "be treated differently than adults within the criminal justice system, given the[ir] unique circumstances and needs." People v. J.P., 95 N.Y.S.3d 731, 741, 63 Misc.3d 635 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2019). The law raises the age of criminal responsibility from sixteen to eighteen. L. 2017, c. 59, Part WWW ("Raise the Age Law") (codified at N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law Art. 722). However, it reserves an exception for "adolescent offenders" (sixteen and seventeen-year-olds charged with felonies) and "juvenile offenders" (thirteen to fifteen-year-olds charged with especially serious felonies) who may be tried and convicted as adults. N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 1.20 (42) & (44).¹

For these offenders, the law creates a special path. It establishes a Youth Part of the superior court (that is, the Supreme or County Court) in each county. N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 722.10(1). The administrator of the New York courts designated part of the Syracuse Courthouse as the Youth Part for Onondaga County. Dkt. No. 14 ("Opposition") at 1–2. There, a specially trained judge arraigns all adolescent and juvenile offenders who are arrested in the county. Id. § 140.20(8). After arraignment, the judge transfers most cases to the Family Court, where the youth may be adjudicated a "juvenile delinquent" but cannot be criminally convicted as adult. See id. §§ 722.20–23. Only certain defendants stay in the Youth Part for trial. These include: (1) adolescents charged with a class A or violent felony—if the prosecution shows by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant caused "significant physical injury" to the victim, displayed a deadly weapon, or committed certain sexual offenses, § 722.23(2); (2) adolescents charged with nonviolent felonies, if the prosecutor shows "that extraordinary circumstances exist," id. (1)(d); and (3) juvenile offenders charged with murder, rape, or an armed felony, unless the district attorney consents to a transfer to Family Court and mitigating circumstances exist, § 722.22. Cases in these three categories proceed in the Youth Part, where the adolescent or juvenile offender may be tried and convicted as an adult. N.Y. Penal Law § 30.00, William Donnino, Supp. Prac. Commentary. Upon conviction, however, the teenager "may be eligible to be adjudicated a ‘youthful offender,’ and thereby still avoid the stigma and consequences" of a felony conviction. Id.

The Raise the Age law also prohibits the detention of juvenile or adolescent offenders in any "prison, jail, lockup, or other place used for adults" convicted or charged with a crime. N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 510.15(1). County sheriffs must house adolescent offenders ordered detained in "a specialized secure juvenile detention facility" ("SSJDF") designed for adolescent offenders and certified by the state Commission of Correction (the "Commission") and Office of Children and Family Services. Id.; see also N.Y. County Law § 218-a(A)(6) (requiring each county "to provide for adequate detention of alleged or convicted adolescent offenders" in SSJDFs). In response to these mandates, in 2018, the Commission promulgated regulations setting minimum standards for SSJDFs. See 9 N.Y.C.R.R. §§ 7300–7360 (Chapter III of Title 9, Subtitle AA). Onondaga County's SSJDF is the Hillbrook Juvenile Detention Center. A.G.'s Br. at 6.

B. The Plaintiffs' Experiences

Plaintiffs J.B. and J.M. are sixteen years old.² J.B. Decl. ¶ 1; J.M. Decl. ¶ 1. One night in January 2019, the Syracuse Police arrested J.B. and held her overnight at the downtown Syracuse police station. J.B. Decl. ¶ 3. She did not sleep. Id. The next morning, her two arresting officers questioned her and then escorted her to the Youth Part of the Syracuse Courthouse, where they took her to a room with a long table, four chairs, and one door. Id. ¶ 4. Both officers sat down at the table with her. Id. ¶ 5. A few minutes later, J.B.'s attorney arrived and asked the officers to leave, but they "refused." Id. ¶ 6. "They told her it was departmental policy they stay in the room with [J.B.]." Id. In J.B.'s words:

I was really confused about what was happening and exhausted from being up all night in the police station. I wasn't sure what would happen when I saw the Judge. This was my first time getting arrested and I had a lot of questions. But I was too nervous to ask the questions because the police were in the room.

Id. ¶ 7. As she was leaving, J.B.'s attorney asked one of the officers if J.B. had given the police a statement. Id. ¶ 8. In response, the officer who questioned J.B. at the police station told the attorney he had "no information on the case." Id.

About ten minutes later, her questions unanswered, J.B. was ushered into the courtroom for her arraignment. Id. at ¶ 9. Plaintiffs allege that during the arraignment, "[t]he same police officer who had previously told the defense attorney he had ‘no information on the case’ claimed in open court that there was a chance the injury might be more serious than set forth in the paperwork." Dkt. No. 1 ("Complaint") ¶ 52. The judge set bail at $5,000 and remanded J.B. to Hillbrook. J.B. Decl. ¶ 11. J.B. "wasn't really sure what that meant" but "knew that there was no way [her] mom could come up with $5,000 to bail [her] out." Id. ¶ 11.

J.B. spent a week at Hillbrook. Id. ¶ 13. Her attorney visited her there once, about two days before her next court appearance. Id. ¶ 14. At the end of the week, sheriff's deputies shackled J.B. and brought her back to court. Id. Once again, J.B. had no opportunity to "privately meet with her attorney before, or after, the appearance" because "Sheriff's Deputies refused to leave the interview room," id., and the court once again denied her request for release on personal recognizance, id. ¶ 15. J.B.'s mother was nonetheless able to borrow enough money to pay her bond, and she was released later that day. Id. ¶ 14–15.

The Syracuse Police arrested J.M. in December 2018, booked him at the police station, and brought him to the Town of Geddes Courthouse, where he met an attorney in private before his arraignment. J.M. Decl. ¶ 3. They spoke "about the facts of [J.M.'s] case and then he explained [to J.M.] what was going to happen when [they] went before the judge." Id. ¶ 4. After his arraignment, J.M., too, was remanded to Hillbrook. Id. ¶ 5.

J.M. had his next court date at the Youth Part of the Syracuse Courthouse. Sheriff's deputies shackled his waist, wrists, and ankles, "put [him] in a van with other kids," drove him to court, and placed him in a holding area with the other children. Id. ¶ 6. Eventually, J.M.'s name was called, and a sheriff's deputy escorted him to the room with "a long table with chairs around it and one door" to meet a new attorney (different from the one who represented him at arraignment). Id. ¶ 7. When the attorney arrived, "she looked at the deputy and asked him to leave," "but he refused." Id. ¶ 9. J.M. testified, "I had a lot of questions but didn't ask them because I knew the deputy was listening in on everything I said" and "thought he would use everything I said against me." Id. ¶¶ 10–11. "At first, [J.M.] didn't know if [he] could trust [his] attorney because it was [his] first time meeting her and she was with a sheriff's deputy," and he knew "she [was] getting paid by the government." Id. ¶ 12.

J.M. has been brought back to the Syracuse Courthouse for court appearances, but he has "never had the opportunity to meet privately with [his] attorney before or after Court." Id. ¶ 14. He "sometimes think[s] of questions [he] wants to ask her on [his] way to Court, but because [they] can't meet privately [he] never get[s] the opportunity to ask them." Id. "[T]he last time [J.M.] was brought to Court:"

I was taken into a large room with two other kids. The Sheriff's deputy stayed in the doorway with the door open. It was different from the room I was usually brought to for my attorney interviews. The other kids and I sat in a row on one side of the table. We were all shackled together. An attorney came in to talk to one of the kids. We stayed shackled together the whole time he was in the room. I heard everything they talked about.

Id. ¶ 13.

Another teenager, R.M. (who is not a named Plai...