Pataki named in $10m lawsuit

A former Morristown man ordered confined to a psychiatric center after he served his state prison sentence by then-Gov. George E. Pataki is suing the former state leader and others for $10 million.

Robert J. Warren, who now lives in Oregon, is suing Mr. Pataki and a host of state officials in federal court in New York City. Mr. Warren argues he was illegally confined in a state psychiatric center for two months and then sent back to prison even though he already had served eight years in prison. He claims that he was scheduled to be released on parole Sept. 27, 2005, but was instead "deprived of his freedom" and committed to an "indefinite sentence in a state run psychiatric facility."

Mr. Warren was convicted of sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl in 1997. He was sentenced to 9 to 101/2 years in prison and ultimately was released in October 2006.

His attorneys argue that state officials ignored state corrections law, which "requires a specific procedure be followed when an inmate is confined to a psychiatric facility," and instead committed him, using the state's mental hygiene law's involuntary civil commitment statute.

"In 2005, frustrated for years by the New York State Assembly's refusal to pass a bill to lock up violent sex offenders in mental hospitals when their prison terms ended, then-Gov. Pataki implemented a policy intended to 'push the envelope' and to accomplish the same end through Article 9 of the New York State Mental Hygiene Law — which applies to the non-incarcerated mentally ill," the lawsuit states.

Mr. Warren was among the first group of 12 sexual offenders ordered to be involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility by Pataki.

The state's decision was challenged in state Supreme Court, upheld by the Appellate Division and struck down by the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.

In September 2005, the Division of Parole agreed to release Mr. Warren to live in Winthrop. Before he was released, however, two psychiatrists examined him and concluded he posed a high risk of committing a sex crime.

He was held at Manhattan Psychiatric Center from Sept. 27, 2005, until Oct. 24, 2005, when he was transferred to Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center after he was accused of "conspiring to take a female staff member hostage."

Mr. Warren insists that accusation was "false and ultimately unfounded."

On Nov. 23, 2005, Mr. Warren was released from the Kirby facility. He was transferred to Downstate Correctional Facility. Six days later, he was transferred to Clinton Correctional Facility, from which he was released Oct. 23, 2006, after serving the maximum time possible under his original prison sentence.