You watch as it literally squeeze[s] the life out of another human being. The torso had washed up in Staten Island four years after her disappearance, and the limbs appeared to have been severed, perhaps by a skillful surgeon. When O'Malley followed this up in a second conversation, Bierenbaum said that Edgar was now not sure whether he'd seen her on that or another day. 2 reviews. The district court's denial of petitioner's application for a writ of habeas corpus is affirmed. In his opening statement counsel told the jury You will also learn that the police conducted a forensic examination of the doctor's apartment, the doctor's car, his friend's car that he borrowed some time that weekend, the airplane and found no evidence of blood or any other biological determinations because this case also turns on the lack of evidence. Id. He stated that he nevertheless attempted to look for any evidence that a crime had been committed in the apartment, that he discovered no such evidence, but that he had not conducted a detailed forensic search. 2. The torso was ruled out as belonging to Ms. Katz-Bierenbaum, whose remains have never been found. Following the close of evidence, counsel move[d] to dismiss the indictment on the basis that the People have failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt and to the legal standard required for the case to go to the jury. Id. I also believe that the evidence of guilt is very thin. . Penal Law 125.25[1]. 5. Given that the videotapes were neither speculative nor lacking in foundation, counsel was not ineffective for failing to object to their admission on that basis. Bierenbaum faults defense counsel for failing to impeach Segalas with his prior statements, claiming that this damaged the defense theory that Katz's drug usage and risky behavior may have led to her disappearance. Dr. Robert Bierenbaum . Forensic tests of two automobiles that Bierenbaum was driving at the time also yielded no results. Baran testified that she never told Bierenbaumthat. Bierenbaum told Dalsass that he had awakened at approximately 9:30 Sunday morning, that Katz had received a telephone call from an acquaintance that disappointed her, and that she left at about 11 a.m. after an argument, telling him that she intended to go to Central Park to get some sun. The affair began while Bierenbaum was vacationing in South Hampton on Long Island during the month of August, and lasted about six weeks. Robert moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1989 and set up a medical practice in the city. But last week, a Manhattan jury found Dr. Bierenbaum guilty of killing his first wife and. O'Malley met with Bierenbaum on the 13th and requested details of the previous weekend. Bierenbaum argued undue pre-indictment delay to the state court in his motion to set aside the judgment. Feb. 25, 2008). Mr. Hussey recalled: ''He looked like death warmed over, and I said to him, 'Bob, you look sick.' Dr. Robert Bierenbaum is a health care provider primarily located in Grand Forks, ND. All this means that the decision of the district court is properly affirmed. Its open wheat fields, quiet ways and uncritical embrace of strangers drew two such outsiders here in 1996, a doctor couple from New York and California who had both practiced medicine in Las Vegas. For this strategy, the defense had no particular need to elicit evidence that Katz was a regular as opposed to occasional user. He received a medical degree at Eastern Virginia Medical . Bierenbaum contends that even if Alvarez's recollection was shaky, his testimony was essential to counter the prosecution's argument that Bierenbaum lied when he told Detective O'Malley that a doorman named Edgar had seen Katz leave the building. To satisfy the second part of the Strickland test-prejudice-Bierenbaum must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Id., 466 U.S. at 694. No one in the group would admit to shock when learning of the doctor's past, though the word ''surprise'' brought forth some thoughtful ''mmm-hmms.'' 2254(b)(1)(A). When the prosecution gave notice during trial that it had provided copies of the videotapes to the defense, counsel stated I suspect we'll object. The trial judge responded And I suspect I'll allow it. Trial Tr. The prosecution would have argued that even if the jury believed Sherman was testifying truthfully about what she heard, her testimony was consistent with the prosecution's theory that Bierenbaum killed his wife in the course of an explosive argument. University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. In a state that averages two people per square mile, it is more important to embrace newcomers than to fuss with details about the past. N E W Y O R K, Oct. 24, 2000 -- Dr. Robert Bierenbaum, a plastic surgeon who wascharged with killing his wife 15 years ago and dropping her bodyinto the ocean from an airplane, was convicted today ofsecond-degree murder. Furthermore, the statements were made mostly to those close to her, in contexts completely devoid of coercion, not in response to anyone's questioning, nor under circumstances at all suggestive of any attempt to curry anyone's favor. Bierenbaum does not dispute that Alvarez told the authorities in July 1985 that he did not recall seeing Katz on July 7, and that he did not remember how she was dressed the last time he did see her. According to her affidavit, she was acutely aware of Katz, who frequently screamed at her husband and walked around noisily in high-heeled shoes. Detective O'Malley testified that in their first conversation Bierenbaum told him that a doorman named Edgar had seen Katz leave the building on July 7. It's still wrong and you didn't face it.'' Claim your profile (701) 780-5260 . I join Judge Sessions's opinion fully because I believe it to be correct on the law. Bierenbaum suggests now that a jury could have concluded that if he killed his wife on July 7, 1985, he might have done so in New Jersey and not in New York. I, 6. Your recollection controls. Robert Bierenbaum married his second wife, Dr. Janet Chollet, after moving to Las Vegas, Nevada, and the couple had a child together, according to The Charley Project. In the four to six months before she disappeared she told her therapist that she was looking for an apartment so that she could separate from Bierenbaum. I, 1881, Oct. 2, 2000. Though he doesn't like to admit it, Mike Berg, the friend from the Rotary Club, is angry. Dr. Bierenbaum told locals that he loved his new town for being free of traffic and crime. Other Emergency Medicine Physicians Nearby, Emergency Medicine Physicians Nearby by Procedures, Emergency Medicine Physicians Nearby by Conditions, Fractures, Dislocations, Derangement, and Sprains, Psychological and Neuropsychological Tests, Excellus BCBS CNY Preferred Gold - Tier 1, BCBS MI Blue Care Network PCP Focus Network HMO, Capital District Physicians Health Plan PPO, Empire BCBS Blue Access Employer Sponsored, Empire BCBS Connection Employer-Sponsored, Excellus BCBS Individual Marketplace NYS QHP, MVP Health Plan Premier / Premier Plus - NY, NYS Provider & Health Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield Essential Plan. Pro. Bierenbaum claims that his counsel was ineffective because his motions did not specify that he was challenging the element of intent to kill, and that therefore he could not seek review of this claim on direct appeal. Certain of these witnesses also testified that Katz told them she had received a letter from Bierenbaum's therapist warning her that Bierenbaum was a danger to her, and that Katz intended to threaten Bierenbaum with disclosure of this letter. Bierenbaum, 44, was charged Tuesday with murdering Katz, loading her body into his twin-engine plane and flying out over the Atlantic to dump her in a watery grave. . He called Katz's mother to see if she had heard from Katz, and went to bed. Bierenbaum repeated that he had remained in the apartment all day until 5:30 p.m., when he left for the family party in New Jersey, arriving there at approximately 6:30 p.m. This conclusion was neither contrary to nor an unreasonable application of the Supreme Court's Confrontation Clause precedent in 2002 and 2003. Many of our partners in care are also providing services on site, just as they did before. About three weeks after Katz disappeared, Bierenbaum began an affair with Karen Caruana, a nurse educator at Maimonides Medical Center where Bierenbaum was a surgical resident. All rights reserved. 20 by Justice Leslie Crocker Snyder. Counsel's theory was that Katz left the apartment on Sunday, and met with foul play after she left. We need not address this argument because of our disposition of this issue under Roberts. Dalsass contacted several individuals whose names he had obtained from Bierenbaum or Katz's family who might have information about Katz. In fact, Bibb said, Bierenbaum knew very well that his wife wasdead. Dr. Robert Bierenbaum had a second motive to murder his wife - she was threatening to expose him and his cardiologist father as Medicaid scammers, a witness told jurors yesterday. ''The conversation lasted 30 seconds, and he wasn't as upset as I would have expected.''. 28 U.S.C. ''It's the loss of his life and the good he does to help other people. Bierenbaum's only witness was Joel Davis, who saw a poster of the missing Katz and reported sighting her on a Manhattan street on the afternoon of Sunday, July 7. Detective Virgilio Dalsass from the 19th precinct, where Bierenbaum and Katz resided, and Detective Thomas O'Malley from the Missing Persons Bureau were assigned to investigate the case. Although Gail's family believed he was responsible for the disappearance, the police could not build a case for a long time as they lacked the body and concrete . He recalled that when David Berkowitz (later known as Son of Sam) spent time at the Minot military base, animals in the area turned up mutilated. Surgery, Internal Medicine. Failure to move for dismissal on the ground of insufficient evidence of specific intent to kill. He completed his Residency in Emergency Medicine from Genesys Regional Medical Center. One of the main reasons is because the defendant wouldn't let them search the apartment. Katz told DeCesare that she was unconscious, and that Bierenbaum had to call 9-1-1 for assistance. 2023 Rochester Health, Currently accepting new patients at this location. If you are uninsured or underinsured, or need a referral to a doctor or dentist, call our Affordable Health Line at 585-328-7000. Although on this record the Appellate Division could have found a claim of lack of intent to kill unpreserved, it addressed the legal sufficiency of both elements of second degree murder: The People proved beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant had the opportunity, the motive, and the intent to kill his victim, and that it was he who did so. Bierenbaum, 748 N.Y. S.2d at 579. The state court concluded therefore that defense counsel was not ineffective for failing to move to dismiss for pre-indictment delay. Looking back, people see sinister clues in the fact that his socks were mismatched, his airplane a mess. If a state court decision rests on a state law ground that is independent of the federal question and adequate to support the judgment, Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U.S. 722, 729 (1991), we will not review the issue. A forensic examination of the aircraft yielded no results. Graduate School. June Sherman lived directly below the Bierenbaum apartment. Bierenbaum, 44, clasped his hands in front of him and loweredhis head when the verdict was read by the jury forewoman inManhattan State Supreme Court. at 1889. Former NY surgeon admits killing wife, throwing body from airplane in 1985 (NCD) (NCD) NEW YORK Dr. Robert Bierenbaum maintained his innocence in 2000 as he was tried and convicted of killing . Assuming that Katz's statements were admitted for the truth of the matters asserted,2 they meet the Roberts standard for admissibility. In summation, counsel attacked the prosecution's use of the videotapes that showed how a body could have been loaded into an airplane and dropped into the sea, asserting that the videotapes did not supply proof of what happened to Katz. Location Comments: We're glad you're checking out Trillium Health. The Appellate Division held that Bierenbaum had not effectively protested the admission of the videotapes under New York's preservation rule, which require[s], at the very least, that any matter which a party wishes the appellate court to decide have been brought to the attention of the trial court at a time and in a way that gave the latter the opportunity to remedy the problem and thereby avert reversible error. Richardson v. Greene, 497 F .3d 212, 218 (2d Cir.2007) (quoting Garcia v. Lewis, 188 F.3d 71, 78 (2d Cir.1999)); see N.Y.Crim. Bierenbaum faults his trial counsel for failing to object when the prosecution argued in summation that Bierenbaum allowed an argument to get explosive and choked Katz as he had done before, only this time to her death.4 He argues that the statements invited the jury to consider the 1983 choking incident as evidence of propensity, and that there was no evidence that Katz died by strangulation or that Bierenbaum stood over her as she died. Leave to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals was denied on March 10, 2003. Throughout the search for Gail Katz-Bierenbaum, her family said they found her husband decidedly unhelpful. Bierenbaum argues that the Dalsass testimony was inadmissible absent defense counsel's remark, and the prosecution could not therefore have used it in summation. Ladies and gentlemen, eyeballing the bathtub and walking around the apartment are no substitute for a complete forensic search . If you are not eligible for any of these plans, we will help you identify other healthcare access options to meet your needs. ''We're so sparsely populated around here,'' he said, ''we even have to import our criminals.''. TermsPrivacyDisclaimerCookiesDo Not Sell My Information, Begin typing to search, use arrow keys to navigate, use enter to select, Stay up-to-date with FindLaw's newsletter for legal professionals. Friends and family posted pictures of Katz in the neighborhood. 2254(d); see also, e.g., Brown v. Alexander, 543 F.3d 94, 100 (2d Cir.2008). After Bierenbaum's direct appeal was concluded, he filed a motion with the trial court to set aside the judgment on the grounds that trial and appellate counsel had rendered ineffective assistance of counsel. The petition was denied on March 9, 2006. Dr. Bierenbaum specializes in lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, and myelodysplasia. But he chokes her much harder than he'd done when she was only having a cigarette. Three times Rowley loaded a bag containing one hundred ten pounds of sand and rice into the plane, flew out over the ocean, and ejected the bag, each time performing a different maneuver to get the bag out of the plane. During trial the evidence was uncontroverted that Bierenbaum repeatedly stated to friends, to relatives and to the police that he last saw his wife in their apartment in Manhattan. 06 Civ. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Please try again. In short, Minot has always been a good place to reinvent oneself or to hide. The location you tried did not return a result. Bierenbaum's counsel explained that he was concerned that a contemporaneous objection would have prompted the trial court to sum up in favor of the prosecution, in other words, to highlight for the jury the argument that counsel found objectionable. Dr. Biernbaum graduated from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1997. He didn't stop when he knew he was hurting her. He only stopped when she was dead We think about the intimacy of strangulation. She told her friend that she was going to leave her husband that weekend, and that she was looking for another place to live. 9. The jury also learned that a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, the airplane that Bierenbaum rented, is a stable, easy-to-handle four passenger aircraft. RochesterHealth.com is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) community-centered website serving as a connection to Rochester-area healthcare resources. Contact us. Katz told her that the night before she took her Graduate Record Exam, Bierenbaum choked her to unconsciousness because she smoked a cigarette. To satisfy the first part of the test-performance-he must show[ ] that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the counsel guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687. 2005 - 2023 WebMD LLC. Anyone can read what you share. Although Bierenbaum did not express any concern about his wife at the party, later that evening at a friend's house he appeared distraught and called the apartment a couple of times. How well do you ever know anybody? Dr. Bierenbaum carried on as a good citizen, writing an article in The Grand Forks Daily Herald about how to avoid snowblower injuries. On July 14, Dalsass met with Bierenbaum, his father and Katz's parents. [I]n a proper case, a lengthy and unjustifiable delay in commencing the prosecution may require dismissal even though no actual prejudice to the defendant is shown. People v. Singer, 376 N.E.2d 179, 186 (N.Y.1978). When Alayne Katz accused him of killing her sister, thedefendant called his missing wife a tramp and said he believedshe had run off with another man.