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. Defense counsel did not call two individuals whom Bierenbaum contends witnessed Katz leaving the apartment and the building in accordance with his narrative of events on July 7, 1985. Only later would he learn what had happened. 7. He works in Grand Forks, ND and specializes in Surgery and Internal Medicine. Failure to object to summation remarks. It was a reasonably defensible legal strategy to conclude that on the state of the evidence at trial the jury should be asked to make a choice between two, not three theories of the case. Dr. Kenneth Feiner developed a romantic relationship with Katz in the months prior to her disappearance. Failure to request charge on territorial jurisdiction. . The decision not to call Alvarez was within the range of acceptable strategic and tactical alternatives. Luciano, 158 F.3d at 660. Over the years between Katz's disappearance and his trial for her murder, Bierenbaum offered various accounts of his activities and various theories concerning her whereabouts. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. This conclusion was neither contrary to nor an unreasonable application of the Supreme Court's Confrontation Clause precedent in 2002 and 2003. His wife, Gail Katz-Bierenbaum, 29, vanished on July 7, 1985.Her body was never recovered, and the prosecutions case was basedmainly on circumstantial evidence. All rights reserved. Dalsass asked Bierenbaum to narrate specifically and exactly how he spent the weekend that Katz disappeared. 2. Rochester, NY - Trillium Health, a community health center with an emphasis on affordable health care and located in downtown Rochester, announced the appointment of Robert "Rob" Biernbaum, D.O. Did Dr. Robert Bierenbaum Kill His Wife Gail Katz? But last week, a Manhattan jury found Dr. Bierenbaum guilty of killing his first wife and dumping her body from an airplane. 2005 - 2023 WebMD LLC. MEDICAID SCAM WAS 2ND MOTIVE: WITNESS - New York Post Bierenbaum told O'Malley that he and Katz had a mild argument Friday night which continued on Saturday, whereupon Katz told him that she was going to Central Park to cool off at about 11 a.m. Bierenbaum said that he had spent some time at the apartment waiting for Katz to return, but then left at some point to visit his family in New Jersey. Chokes her much harder than when he had only strangled her to unconsciousness. On that point we agree with the Appellate Division, the post-judgment motion court and the district court that the contents of the videotape[s] depict a scenario that was anything but speculation. Bierenbaum said he would get back to him, but did not. Dr. Bob Robert "Bob" Bierenbaum loved planes from the moment he came to understand what one was. Loma Linda, CA . He didn't stop when he knew he was hurting her. Penal Law 125.25[1], and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of twenty years to life. Dr. Jason Bierenbaum is an oncologist in McKeesport, Pennsylvania and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside and UPMC East. Bierenbaum's petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court was denied on October 6, 2003. Dalsass testified that Bierenbaum's attorney gave permission for the police to conduct a limited search for items that might help to identify Katz. It was consistent with that theory to concede her death on July 7. Had the defense gotten Segalas to admit that he and Katz used cocaine on several occasions, the defense suggestion that she may have been killed by drug dealers would still have been plagued by lack of evidence, as the state court noted. Bierenbaum argues that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request a jury charge to the effect that the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime occurred within the state of New York. He completed his Residency in Emergency Medicine from Genesys Regional Medical Center. ''I feel grief, like someone has died,'' he said. ''The guy was super nice,'' said Jason Naylor, a fellow pilot. University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. A state court decision involves an unreasonable application of clearly established Supreme Court precedent if it correctly identifies the governing legal principle but unreasonably applies or unreasonably refuses to extend that principle to the facts of a particular case. The torso was ruled out as belonging to Ms. Katz-Bierenbaum, whose remains have never been found. holds a Master's degree in Epidemiology from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Doctorate of Osteopathy from the University of New England. He told another renter that he had gone looking for Katz in Central Park, found her towel and suntan lotion, but she was gone. The Appellate Division did not explicitly address Bierenbaum's confrontation clause claim,1 and the Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal without explanation. And when detectives grilled him about what he did on July 7, 1985, the day his wife disappeared, he never mentioned his two-hour solo flight in a Cessna over the Atlantic Ocean. The three psychiatrists, who treated Dr. Bierenbaum briefly in 1983, when he and his wife lived on the Upper East Side, warned his wife at the time that she was in danger. She heard nothing more. Dalsass contacted several individuals whose names he had obtained from Bierenbaum or Katz's family who might have information about Katz. Sherman would have testified that she believed Katz left the apartment after the door slammed. The probable truth, Bibb said, is that Bierenbaum strangled hiswife in their Upper East Side Manhattan apartment after she toldhim she was leaving their loveless and sometimes violent marriagefor another man. It's still wrong and you didn't face it.'' The same compassionate staff continues to provide personalized service in the same warm, caring atmosphere you have come to expect. Surgery, Internal Medicine. The United States Supreme Court decisions in Crawford and Davis v. Washington, 547 U.S. 813 (2006), confined the scope of the Confrontation Clause to testimonial statements. In September 1986 Hope Martin, an investigator from the District Attorney's office, was assigned to investigate Katz's disappearance. Janet and the baby are fine. He completed his Residency in Emergency Medicine from Genesys Regional Medical Center. DNA tests were not available at the time, but authorities believed that the remains were Gail's after conducting x-ray exams on the corpse. It ranks in the top 20 in the United States for both research and primary care. Dr. Robert Bierenbaum, a former plastic surgeon from New York convicted of murdering his wife in 2000, confessed to killing her and then throwing her body out of an airplane and into the. He didn't stop when he knew she was unconscious. '' But when they learned he was a plastic surgeon and was checking for cancer, they softened. A state law ground is only adequate to support the judgment and foreclose review of a federal claim if it is firmly established and regularly followed in the state, and application of the rule would not be exorbitant. Garvey v. Duncan, 485 F.3d 709, 713-14 (2d Cir.2007) (quoting Lee, 534 U.S. at 376). The location you tried did not return a result. Consistently absent from any of his accounts of his activities on Sunday, July 7, 1985 was the fact that he rented an airplane in New Jersey that afternoon and went flying. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome. Id. 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. In another conversation Katz told DeCesare that she and Bierenbaum had discussed the Claus von Bulow case, and that Bierenbaum had said the problem with the case was that von Bulow left evidence and that he would leave no evidence. Dr. Robert Biernbaum, DO | Rochester, NY | Emergency Medicine | Vitals 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. When You Have No Body: Corpus Delicti and the Bierenbaum Case The passage quoted above demonstrates that the Appellate Division found particularized guarantees of trustworthiness in the challenged statements. Denise Kasenbaum, a friend, testified that Katz had told her there were problems in the marriage, incidents of violence, that Bierenbaum was very controlling, and that she was not happy. Bierenbaum, 748 N.Y.S.2d at 583-84. They would have to have ignored the fact that when asked about that Sunday fifteen years ago, Alvarez, like Rivera, did not recall seeing Katz leave the building. Rivera's testimony was not particularly damaging to Bierenbaum's case. The trial court gave a limiting instruction to that effect after each witness's testimony and at the close of trial, and admonished the jury that they were not to take this testimony as proof that Bierenbaum had acted in accordance with the statements, or as evidence of propensity. Bierenbaum told Caruana that he had hired a private investigator who had found evidence that Katz was in California. He was convicted in October 2000 of having murdered his estranged wife, Gail Katz-Bierenbaum 15 years earlier in their Manhattan apartment on July 7, 1985. In short, Minot has always been a good place to reinvent oneself or to hide. 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. Though the five-block downtown area boasts a jail, a courthouse and two competing hospitals, Minot (pronounced MY-not) has a desperate need for people and talent. If the jury concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that Bierenbaum committed the murder, the jurors would not have harbored a reasonable doubt that it occurred in the apartment. A. USC's Keck School of Medicine and UCI's Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences . Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). He received his. Under New York law, [a] person is guilty of murder in the second degree when [w]ith intent to cause the death of another person, he causes the death of such person N.Y. Failure to move for dismissal on the ground of insufficient evidence of specific intent to kill. Find Dr. Biernbaum's address and more. 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. In this vital role, Biernbaum will oversee Trillium Health's expansion as we provide new services, barrier-free access to medical care . amend. Gail Beth Katz-Bierenbaum - The Charley Project The motion was denied. Dr. Bierenbaum graduated from the Albany Medical College in 1978. For more information, go to Had defense counsel moved to dismiss the indictment, the motion would not have been granted, and therefore there was no reasonable probability that the outcome-proceeding to trial-would have been different. Although trial counsel made no contemporaneous objection to the summation, before the jury was charged he moved for a mistrial on this and other grounds.5 The trial court denied the motion, finding that the prosecution had not argued propensity, but that the incident was probative of other issues in the case, particularly intent. It is not offered for such a purpose and it must not be considered by you for such a purpose. Doctor Convicted in 1985 Missing Body Case - ABC News Bierenbaum stated that he had come home from work at approximately 5 p.m. on Friday evening, that they went to a movie about 8 p.m. and returned about midnight. 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. On cross-examination Davis admitted that he had told an investigator for the defense that the woman he'd seen was tall and statuesque, and explained that he had confused his description of the missing woman by likening her to two different women, one tall with her face and one short with her body. Kasenbaum saw Katz on the day before she disappeared. Regardless of whether counsel's performance was deficient in failing to secure Sherman's testimony, Bierenbaum cannot show prejudice. Katz also told Kasenbaum that she had gotten a letter from Bierenbaum's psychiatrist. While they have . 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. The next morning he went to work, and that evening reported Katz missing. How well do you ever know anybody? By last December, the life he had built was over. VI. Bierenbaum argued undue pre-indictment delay to the state court in his motion to set aside the judgment. Dr. Jason Bierenbaum, MD - McKeesport, PA - Hematology Oncology - UPMC He told Karnofsky that he had gotten into an argument with his wife one day, that she went to cool off in Central Park, that she had been seen one time around the area of Central Park, but had never been seen again. ANGELA ABRAHAM. Former New York surgeon admits killing wife, throwing body from Segalas said she is the one who made the connection. He lied to both officers, telling both of them that he had remained in the apartment until approximately 5:30 p.m. when he left for the party in New Jersey. Dr. Baran denied that she'd had such a conversation with Bierenbaum and denied that Katz was suicidal. Given that the testimony was independently admissible, and the trial court gave a curative instruction in connection with the improper closing argument, defense counsel's mistaken reference to a forensic search did not open the door to prejudicial comments. That is one of the theories that could have happened. In 1984 Katz told her about a time in 1983 when Bierenbaum noticed her smoking a cigarette on the terrace of their apartment, became violent and began choking her. Baran testified that she never told Bierenbaumthat. Assistant District Attorney Daniel Bibb said in his summationthat Bierenbaum told proactive and reactive lies, dependingon whether he was speaking before or after someone asked aboutKatz-Bierenbaum. See Galdamez v. Keane, 394 F.3d 68, 78 (2d Cir.2005) (reaching the merits of petitioner's confrontation clause claim where briefs and leave application, fairly construed, raised the issue). 2254(b)(1)(A). . We're a team that goes into neighborhoods working to stop the spread of HIV through education, prevention, and testing events. Please verify insurance information directly with your doctor's office as it may change frequently. Upon selling their Minot condominium, Dr. Bierenbaum took to sleeping on a folding cot in the hangar beside his airplane and showering in the hospital where he still treated patients. Given the seriousness of the charge, the circumstantial nature of the evidence, and no evidence of any improper motive on the part of the prosecution, the motion had no chance of success. vol. RochesterHealth.com is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) community-centered website serving as a connection to Rochester-area healthcare resources. IV, 3009-10, Oct. 18, 2000. Dr. Robert Bierenbaum, a former plastic surgeon from New York convicted of murdering his wife in 2000, confessed to killing her and then throwing her body out of an airplane and into the Atlantic ocean after decades of maintaining his innocence. He testified that Katz discussed with him her wish to leave her husband, their constant fights and arguments, and one argument during which Bierenbaum put his hands to her neck. 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. I heard the cuffs close round hishands. vol. Moreover, it was a reasonable trial strategy to establish a forthright relationship with the jury, by conceding what the defense did not have evidence to contest. I, 6. The fact that this defendant allegedly committed a prior bad act is no proof whatsoever that he possessed a propensity or disposition to commit the crime charged in this indictment or any other crime. In Whorton v. Bockting, 549 U.S. 406, 421 (2007), the Supreme Court held that Crawford announced a new rule that would not apply retroactively on collateral review. Dr. Robert Bierenbaum | Grand Forks, ND | Surgery | Vitals Katz told Feis that she intended to use the letter as leverage in divorce proceedings by threatening to use it to ruin his career. Failure to cross-examine witness Anthony Segalas concerning Katz's use of cocaine. The petition was denied on March 9, 2006. Pablo Alvarez was employed at the apartment building in 1985. He requested an evidentiary hearing. The defendant and his attorney stopped the cops from doing a complete forensic search on the apartment. A state prisoner may fairly present to the state courts the constitutional nature of his claim by claim[ing] the deprivation of a particular right specifically protected by the Constitution. Daye v. Att'y Gen. of the State of N.Y., 696 F.2d 186, 193 (2d Cir.1982) (en banc). ''Most people don't know that Minot, North Dakota, is on the face of the map, so why come here?'' Feb. 25, 2008). The trial judge denied the motion, but offered to tell the jury that Bierenbaum had no legal obligation to allow a search of his apartment, that he had a right to act on advice of counsel, and that the jury should draw no negative inference from that; but that in fact the apartment was not fully searched. FindLaw.com Free, trusted legal information for consumers and legal professionals, SuperLawyers.com Directory of U.S. attorneys with the exclusive Super Lawyers rating, Abogado.com The #1 Spanish-language legal website for consumers, LawInfo.com Nationwide attorney directory and legal consumer resources. art. as the organization's new Chief Medical Officer.. Assuming that Katz's statements were admitted for the truth of the matters asserted,2 they meet the Roberts standard for admissibility. Edgar Rivera told the police that he did not remember seeing Katz on July 7. Dr. Leigh McCullough, Katz's employer in the fall of 1983, noticed bruises on Katz's neck one day. He received a medical degree at Eastern Virginia Medical . We've now expanded our services to include comprehensive medical care for HIV negative and LGBT communities. Prior to trial Bierenbaum's attorney moved to dismiss the indictment, contending that the evidence presented to the grand jury failed to prove that New York had jurisdiction to prosecute him for the murder, because assuming that Katz was dead, there was no evidence that her death occurred in New York. Darrel Williams, a prominent eye surgeon and one of Dr. Bierenbaum's closest friends here, recalled of that morning, ''He looked a little haggard and seemed to be rushing around.'' February 22, 2008. Bierenbaum told Karnofsky that the police had asked him if he had removed the apartment rug or had it cleaned, and that he had answered that he had not. The jury also learned that a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, the airplane that Bierenbaum rented, is a stable, easy-to-handle four passenger aircraft. The rule applies with equal force whether the state-law ground is substantive or procedural. Lee v. Kemna, 534 U.S. 362, 375 (2002). He was awaiting trial at his parents' home in East Orange, N.J., while his wife and daughter were in Pittsburgh. He has 45 years of experience. She would have had to admit that she did not see Katz leave, nor could she be sure that the door was the exterior door, rather than an interior door. Ladies and gentlemen, eyeballing the bathtub and walking around the apartment are no substitute for a complete forensic search . that denied his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Bierenbaum claims that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel at trial, and that the admission at trial of numerous out-of-court statements made by the victim violated the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment. BIERENBAUM v. GRAHAM (2010) | FindLaw Prior to MultiCare, Biernbaum was Rochester Regional Health System's chief architect for all Epic solutions and in charge of informatics for five hospitals and more than 100 ambulatory sites. ''He'd come up to you if he saw a mole, and he would touch it,'' Mr. Hussey said. Dr. Bierenbaum told locals that he loved his new town for being free of traffic and crime. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, M.D. Throughout the search for Gail Katz-Bierenbaum, her family said they found her husband decidedly unhelpful. The Disappearance of Gail Katz Bierenbaum. The trial court permitted this testimony as background evidence of the state of the marriage and Katz's state of mind, and Bierenbaum's motive, intent and identity. Again, we disagree. The affair began while Bierenbaum was vacationing in South Hampton on Long Island during the month of August, and lasted about six weeks. SECRET PAST OF COOL DOC WITH FIERY TEMPER - New York Post Think about the defendant. See People v. Bierenbaum, 790 N.E.2d 281 (N.Y.2003). We therefore conclude that the state courts were fairly alerted to the constitutional claim, Bierenbaum has exhausted his available state remedies with respect to the claim, and we may reach the merits of the claim. Kasenbaum testified that Katz told her she was having an affair with a colleague at a hospital where she was interning. These are not the acts of a suicidalperson, she said. 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. O'Malley asked if Bierenbaum had ever hit his wife. Write a Review . The respondents argued this position below, but on further review have withdrawn their argument, agreeing with Bierenbaum that he presented his constitutional claim in his letter brief submitted to the New York Court of Appeals on December 10, 2002. ''Ten years ago we were a hospital, and now we're a health system,'' Schwann said, with 80 physicians, 7 community clinics and eye-care and mental-health programs. He is a member of the UC San Diego Health Physician Network. Bierenbaum lists nine errors that he contends are objectively unreasonable: (1) failing to move to dismiss the indictment due to pre-trial delay; (2) conceding that Katz died on July 7, 1985; (3) opening the door to testimony and argument that Dr. Bierenbaum and his lawyer refused to consent to a forensic search of his apartment; (4) failing to call two witnesses who allegedly would have supported his claim that Katz left the apartment on the morning of July 7; (5) failing to cross-examine effectively a witness who minimized his use of cocaine with Katz; (6) failing to object to the admission of the videotaped demonstration of the prosecution's theory of how Bierenbaum disposed of his wife's body; (7) failing to move for a trial order of dismissal on the grounds of insufficient evidence of the element of intent to kill; (8) failing to make a timely objection to improper remarks in summation; (9) failing to request a jury charge on jurisdiction. 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. On March 17, 2006, Bierenbaum filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Robert Hickman, MD - Primary Care | UC San Diego Health Robert Hickman, MD, is a board-certified physician providing primary care through One Medical, an independent, membership-based practice with an annual fee. 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. About The Provider. He also devoted time to charitable . University of California--Los Angeles (Geffen) - Best Medical Schools With your consent, your healthcare Flight Log the KeyIt was after prosecutors found Bierenbaums flight log, whichthe law requires pilots to maintain, that they suspected they couldmake a murder case against him. A state court's determination of a factual issue is presumed to be correct, and may only be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence. But he chokes her much harder than he'd done when she was only having a cigarette. 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. ''He brought us all little vials of grease'' for airplane parts, said Chris Grima, a mechanic whose wife made the pie. The Strickland standard is rigorous, Bell v. Miller, 500 F.3d 149, 155 (2d Cir.2007): Judicial scrutiny of counsel's performance must be highly deferential [;] every effort [must] be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel's challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel's perspective at the time [A] court must indulge a strong presumption that counsel's conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance; that is, the defendant must overcome the presumption that, under the circumstances, the challenged action might be considered sound trial strategy.