Kevin M. v. S. Beach Psychiatric Ctr.
| Decision Date | 06 November 2014 |
| Docket Number | 3328/2014 |
| Citation | 2014 N.Y. Slip Op. 24339,46 Misc.3d 455,999 N.Y.S.2d 696 |
| Parties | In the Matter of the Application for the Release of KEVIN M., Petitioner, v. SOUTH BEACH PSYCHIATRIC CENTER, Respondent. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court |
Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General, New York, (Abigail E. Rosner, of counsel), for South Beach Psychiatric Center.
Michael Neville, Director, Mental Hygiene Legal Service, Mineola, (Vincent Lomangino and Jason Cohen, of counsel), for Petitioner.
Cyrus Vance, District Attorney of New York County, New York, (Karen Edelman–Reyes, of counsel).
By way of background, on July 24, 2014, Kevin M. (Petitioner) was arrested for stalking and related charges for acts he committed against Robyn Fenty.
Ms. Fenty, a Grammy-winning singer and actress of substantial fame, is more commonly known as “Rihanna.” Petitioner and Ms. Fenty have no familial, personal or professional relationship whatsoever.
Nevertheless, Petitioner has embarked on the relentless pursuit of Ms. Fenty. He authored hundreds of pages of handwritten letters. Some of the letters he mailed to Ms. Fenty at her California residence, while others he hand-delivered to her apartment building in Manhattan.
The letters manifest various grandiose and delusional ideas, including that Petitioner and Ms. Fenty are in a romantic relationship, that his name is embedded in various songs sung by her and that she and numerous other famous artists have misappropriated Petitioner's creative work without accreditation and remuneration to him.
As set forth herein, Ms. Fenty became frightened when she read some of Petitioner's deranged missives that illustrate his blatant infatuation with her. As a result, Ms. Fenty and her counsel contacted the New York City Police Department (N.Y.PD).
On July 24, 2014, Petitioner was arrested by NYPD homicide detectives and charged with Stalking in the Third Degree (PL 120.50[3] ), Stalking in the Fourth Degree (PL 120.45[1] ) and Harassment in the First Degree (PL 240.25). All of these charges are misdemeanors. In addition to an order of protection (CPL 530.13 ), the criminal court issued an examination order on Petitioner's fitness to stand trial pursuant to CPL 730.40.
Upon the finding that Petitioner was not fit to stand trial, he was remanded to the custody of the Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health (“Commissioner” and “OMH” respectively) under a final order of observation not to exceed ninety days, and the accusatory instrument was dismissed under Article 730 of the Criminal Procedure Law. Any order of protection issued by the criminal court was vacated by operation of law upon such dismissal. CPL 530.13, 730.40(2).
Petitioner was transferred to South Beach Psychiatric Center (SBPC) on Staten Island, New York. His status was converted from criminal to civil under MHL 9.27(a) () as a person “alleged to be mentally ill and in need of involuntary care and treatment upon the certificates of two examining physicians.”
Subsequently, counsel for Petitioner, Mental Hygiene Legal Service (“MHLS”), filed a request for a hearing on his involuntary admission. The hearing requested by MHLS commenced on October 23, 20141
The Court, having had the opportunity to observe the witnesses testify at this hearing and observe their demeanor, specifically finds Dr. Paranal and Detective Barbara to be credible in all respects. The following2 constitutes the Court's findings of fact:
DR. AURORA PARANAL, MD, a physician at SBPC and an expert in the field of psychiatry, testified as Petitioner's treating psychiatrist. In her opinion, the 54–year–old Petitioner suffers from psychotic disorder, not otherwise specified. The symptomatology includes delusions, hallucinations, grandiosity, paranoia and disorganization of thinking. When one engages him in conversation, he proceeds from one topic to another in what is clinically known as a “flight of ideas” that reaches the point of practical incoherence.
According to his doctor, his judgment is severely impaired and he lacks any insight into his mental illness. He has been aggressive on the unit at SBPC. In addition, he was homeless for seventeen years and, when he was arrested, he was infected with scabies. His hygiene is extremely poor and he is highly malodorous.
It was the opinion of the treating psychiatrist that Petitioner is a physical danger to both himself and others.
In illustration of some of his delusions, Dr. Paranal testified that Petitioner believes that Rihanna and other famous artists stole his material and he wants $1.3 billion in compensation thereof. He believes that the attorneys and the criminal court conspired against him by finding him not fit to proceed. (Petitioner, in his own testimony, repeatedly denies having a mental illness.) Similarly, he believes that if you “suppress the music” in Rihanna's songs and you listen carefully, you will hear her sing his name.
For its part, MHLS repeatedly objected to any reference by the treating psychiatrist as to Petitioner's actions underlying the stalking charges, including the voluminous letters he sent to Ms. Fenty (Hearing: 10, 11) on the ground of Dr. Paranal's lack of “personal knowledge” of the crimes and “the contents of letters which the doctor doesn't have.” Id.
While the Court overruled counsel's objections, to ensure a complete and accurate record in fairness to all parties, it directed the New York County District Attorney (N.Y.DA) to present the letters as possible evidence in this hearing. MHLS objected3 to the introduction of the letters and the NYDA video.
In any event, Petitioner himself, under oath, consented to the production of the letters in Court and he explicitly waived any sealing of the criminal case in this regard (Hearing: 34–35).
The letters are all handwritten and they individually range from approximately forty to more than eighty pages in length.
Petitioner admitted in Court and in his Mirandized video statement to the NYDA (in evidence as Court Exhibit 2) that he obtained Ms. Fenty's California and New York residential addresses via the internet. He acknowledged that he mailed some of his letters to her California home and that he hand-delivered the other letters to the doorman of her Manhattan apartment building. He also said that Ms. Fenty fell in love with him and that she and the other artists are “robbing [him] blind.”
In his letters and testimony, Petitioner alludes to the possibility of “gang rape,” that he will “bum rush” Ms. Fenty's apartment and that she is a “bitch.” In addition, his letters are laced with other profanities and violent diatribes and make eerily precise references to Ms. Fenty's Manhattan apartment (including the type of apartment). In at least two places, Petitioner's missive appear to read, “Am I scaring you tonight?” Other portions read, “I want to see Rihanna”; and threaten that Petitioner “will be spitting acid.”
Additional rank phrases include: ; “House on fire with girl inside”; “Does it look like I am some type of masturbating retard in these letters?”; “Our love”; “Yeah, we'll be at the dinner table in a posh NYC restaurant with me in a straight jacket”; “Heard this guy is dangerous”; “I will shut down the BET Awards due to outrage that I was not notified that Rihanna was making songs about me”; “You gotta kill the one killer bee”; and “Rihanna, why are you so nervous?”
On October 30, 20144 , DETECTIVE JOSEPH BARBARA of the Manhattan South Homicide Squad testified as to the NYDA's videotaped statement and his stalking investigation, which included a review of Petitioner's letters. Defendant, of his own volition, authenticated the letters introduced into evidence as having been authored by him (Hearing: 57).
After Ms. Fenty reviewed the letters, she informed the police that she was in fear for her safety. The letters indicated that she and Petitioner were meant to be together and that he is “right around the corner [from her Manhattan apartment] all the time” at a McDonald's. Detectives verified the location, which is one-half block from Ms. Fenty's apartment, as well as the fact that Petitioner frequented that McDonald's.
According to Det. Barbara, the apartment building's security video clearly showed Petitioner drop off the letters at the front desk. The doorman indicated that Petitioner asked that the letters be given to “Rihanna.”
Some of the letters, per the building staff (and as corroborated by the security video), were hand-delivered by Petitioner at one o'clock in the morning (1:00 a.m.). He was also observed to have been lurking across the street around that same time.
The last time Petitioner was at Ms. Fenty's apartment, the doorman requested identification and was shown Petitioner's benefit card.
On another occasion, Det. Barbara and his partner went to a FedEx location near Ms. Fenty's apartment, they observed Petitioner using a laptop. Although they conducted no search of his computer, they were able to observe in plain view on the computer screen a photo of Ms. Fenty as Petitioner was shutting it down.
Upon being recalled by SBPC, DR. AURORA PARANAL, MD testified that she was present in the courtroom throughout the entirety of the hearing on both dates.
Based on her observations of Petitioner throughout the two-day hearing, she opined that Petitioner continued to express the delusions that she had described in her earlier testimony. She also noted that Petitioner became angry and confrontational at times in court.
As to the NYDA video, the doctor further noted that Petitioner's speech was overproductive and pressured and that his thinking evinces grandiose delusions.
Dr. Paranal also testified that Petitioner, as part of his lack of insight, refuses to take medication.
Petitioner was then permitted to re-take the stand. At his request, a handwritten chart of sorts replete with nonsensical...
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