In 1999 Bierenbaum was indicted and charged with murder in the second degree in her death. Think about him looking at her while he squeezes the life out of her. Francesca Beale, a former employer, testified that in a telephone conversation in 1983, Katz said that her husband had a terrible temper, that she was afraid of him. No one, other than Bierenbaum, reported seeing Katz after July 6. Now, you know what his intent was.Trial Tr. Respondents assert in the alternative, and the district court agreed, that with one exception the statements were not admitted for their truth. Proc. Healthcare DirectoryRobert M. Biernbaum DO - Rochester Health Again, we disagree. 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. Dr. Bierenbaum graduated from the Albany Medical College in 1978. She kept an appointment with her hairdresser, and met with a close friend that afternoon for a couple of hours. ''I feel grief, like someone has died,'' he said. It follows that the state court's rejection of Bierenbaum's ineffective assistance of counsel claim was not an unreasonable application of the Strickland standard. 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. Regardless of whether counsel's performance was deficient in failing to secure Sherman's testimony, Bierenbaum cannot show prejudice. Dr. Sybil Baran, Katz's therapist, testified that Katz was afraid of Bierenbaum's anger. at 1889. Katz told DeCesare that she had gone out on the terrace of their apartment to smoke a cigarette, where he confronted her and choked her. Katz asked Beale if she could move in with her. Katz told DeCesare that she was unconscious, and that Bierenbaum had to call 9-1-1 for assistance. 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. . In his petition he alleged that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel, and that admission of numerous hearsay statements violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him. visit www.rpcn.org. The prosecution did argue in summation that Bierenbaum lied about the doorman, but the thrust of the argument was that Bierenbaum never spoke with Rivera at all in the days after Katz's disappearance.3 The Alvarez testimony, if believed, would not have countered this argument, as Alvarez did not claim that he'd mentioned his sighting of Katz to Bierenbaum, or anyone else, during this period. 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. On October 17, 1986 she learned that Bierenbaum had rented an airplane from Mac Dan Aircraft Rental at Caldwell Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey on July 7, 1985, the day Katz disappeared. 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. Prior to that date he had not been permitted to enter the apartment. Often thereafter Katz would ask her for advice: would DeCesare leave her husband if he threatened to strangle her; had DeCesare's husband ever threatened to hurt her; should she leave Bierenbaum. Bierenbaum, 748 N.Y.S.2d at 583-84. All rights reserved. Assuming that Katz's statements were admitted for the truth of the matters asserted,2 they meet the Roberts standard for admissibility. 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. Hirsch also stated that a body could be disarticulated at the joints, a simple process that someone trained in anatomy could accomplish in ten minutes. 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. Image Credit: Stephanie Youngblood/ ABC News 20/20. 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. Katz had an affair with Anthony Segalas, an investment banker, during the summer of 1984 and the spring of 1985. Instead the People were allowed to offer such evidence or introduce such evidence solely as probative of or relevant to or to demonstrate defendant[']s intent[-]as they claim[-]to murder Gail Katz Bierenbaum as probative of his identity as the person they claim committed the murder and when they summed up to you and made their arguments, I allowed those arguments on those points. We disagree. The torso was ruled out as belonging to Ms. Katz-Bierenbaum, whose remains have never been found. You'll find that we're more than just a clinic or a service provider. Katz cooked steaks that night and they had a romantic candlelight dinner. Members of the network collaborate on . 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. See Williams, 529 U.S. at 413; Ramdass v. Angelone, 530 U.S. 156, 166 (2000); accord Kennaugh v. Miller, 289 F.3d 36, 45 (2d Cir.2002). 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. CALABRESI, Circuit Judge, filed a concurring opinion. ''At first it was just, 'That guy is nothing but strange,' '' said Curt Hussey, operator of the town's private flight school at Pietsch's airfield. A New Life Re-examined; After Murder Verdict, Town Questions Doctor, https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/30/nyregion/a-new-life-re-examined-after-murder-verdict-town-questions-doctor.html. Doctor Convicted in 1985 Missing Body Case - ABC News Pablo Alvarez was employed at the apartment building in 1985. He completed his Residency in Emergency Medicine from Genesys Regional Medical Center. In determining whether prosecution has been unduly delayed, a New York court will balance five factors: (1) the extent of the delay; (2) the reason for the delay; (3) the nature of the underlying charge; (4) whether or not there has been an extended period of pretrial incarceration; and (5) whether or not there is any indication that the defense has been impaired by reason of the delay.. 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. When Rivera testified at trial, he stated that he could not remember anything about July 7, 1985. Counsel's theory was that Katz left the apartment on Sunday, and met with foul play after she left. Relevant factors include spontaneity, repetition, the mental state of the declarant, absence of motive to fabricate, unlikelihood of faulty recollection and the degree to which the statement was against the declarant's interest. Oppressive prosecutorial delay may violate the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution. One of the main reasons is because the defendant wouldn't let them search the apartment. The motion was denied. Although the police wished to search for any evidence that would shed light on Katz's disappearance, the investigators felt they did not have probable cause to obtain a search warrant. On appeal to the Appellate Division, First Department, Bierenbaum presented, among other questions, the following: Whether Dr. Bierenbaum was denied a fair trial by the improper admission of widespread testimony recounting statements purportedly made by Ms. Bierenbaum, which did not satisfy any hearsay exception or the confrontation clause of the state and federal constitutions ? Similarly, in his letter seeking leave to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals, he argued that leave should be granted to review the admissibility of background evidence through hearsay declarations, whether in domestic violence cases or otherwise, and to consider whether admission of such evidence denies a defendant his state and federal rights of confrontation.. Please enter a valid 5-digit Zip Code. 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. The educational structure is rigorous, but the real draw of this school is the open and accepting atmosphere. Contribute to our National Missing Person Day Fundraiser Home 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. The passage quoted above demonstrates that the Appellate Division found particularized guarantees of trustworthiness in the challenged statements. Wiese advised her to leave immediately. 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 prosecution argued:What does he do? Dr. Baran denied that she'd had such a conversation with Bierenbaum and denied that Katz was suicidal. 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. Dr. Robert Bierenbaum, then 39, an intense New Yorker with piercing eyes and an in-your-face manner, seemed misplaced amid the brawny and laconic citizenry. All rights reserved. 2254(d); see also, e.g., Brown v. Alexander, 543 F.3d 94, 100 (2d Cir.2008). The police report also stated that Katz phoned Segalas in June 1985 and asked him to examine some cocaine she had bought, because she thought she had received a short amount. See Hemstreet v. Greiner, 491 F.3d 84, 90 (2d Cir.2007). Dr. Robert Bierenbaum is a health care provider primarily located in Grand Forks, ND. 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. He didn't stop when he knew she was unconscious. NEW YORK Dr. Robert Bierenbaum maintained his innocence in 2000 as he was tried and convicted of killing his first wife 15 years before. 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.'' When O'Malley asked him why he waited until the evening of the following day to report Katz missing, Bierenbaum stated that he felt she would return, and when she didn't friends advised him to notify the police. He had blocked the police from searching their Manhattan apartment. Regardless of defense counsel's error in referring to the search as a forensic search, the prosecution would also have elicited the fact that Bierenbaum lied to Caruana about the search. He works in Grand Forks, ND and specializes in Surgery and Internal Medicine. 2023 Rochester Health, Currently accepting new patients at this location. 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. . A New Life Re-examined; After Murder Verdict, Town Questions Doctor Contact us. 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. Think about him standing over Gail Katz as she feels and he watches the life ebbing from her body. Hillard Wiese, Katz's cousin, testified that Katz reported to him in the fall of 1983 that she had an argument with her husband during which he had choked her to unconsciousness. Defense counsel did not move to dismiss the indictment for undue delay. Robert moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1989 and set up a medical practice in the city. Currently incarcerated, Bierenbaum appeals from the February 26, 2008 judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Sweet, J.) Please verify insurance information directly with your doctor's office as it may change frequently. More recently she talked of moving in with a girlfriend in Connecticut. Relief and SorrowWhen the verdict was read, the victims sister, Alayne Katz ofIrvington, N.Y., burst into tears and slumped over the leg of herbrother, Steven, shaking and sobbing. Katz recounted an incident when Bierenbaum discovered her smoking a cigarette, got very angry, came at her and choked her. Nontestimonial statements therefore do not implicate the Confrontation Clause. DeCesare testified that Katz told her that Bierenbaum had threatened to kill her if she left him. Former New York surgeon admits killing wife, throwing body from Dr. Bierenbaum is board-certified in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology. People here were on their guard at first because he dressed differently, had longer hair and a ''weird intensity'' about him. The motion was denied on September 6, 2005, and leave to appeal was denied on January 12, 2006. Under New York law, the prosecution must establish good cause for extended delay, but a determination made in good faith to delay prosecution for sufficient reasons will not deprive defendant of due process even though there may be some prejudice to defendant. People v. Decker, 912 N.E.2d 1041, 1042 (N.Y.2009); see N.Y. Const. School of Medicine - Loma Linda University. 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. Trillium Health welcomes new Chief Medical Officer IV, 3194, 3227-28. The trial court also thereafter advised the jury: I have allowed the People to introduce evidence that on another occasion this defendant committed a prior, what we call legally []bad act, [] to wit, the strangling of Gail Katz Bierenbaum to unconsciousness and that was allowed in for certain limiting purposes and I want to make that very clear, as I did at the time such evidence was admitted. Bierenbaum said no. By last December, the life he had built was over. Sherman believed that Katz left the apartment when the door slammed. RochesterHealth.com is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) community-centered website serving as a connection to Rochester-area healthcare resources. It was not unreasonable for the Appellate Division to conclude that the reliability of Katz's statements was amply supported. Id. He told O'Malley that Katz was depressed and suicidal. Ive waited for that sound a long time.. Dr. Charles Hirsch, Chief Medical Examiner for New York City, testified that prior to the onset of rigor mortis, a dead body is pliable. The body of a woman five feet three inches tall, weighing about one hundred ten pounds could be folded and tied into a package about thirty-six inches long.