Opinion ID: 383662
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Present Complaint

Text: 13 On July 4, 1975, according to plaintiffs' counsel, Rochelle decided that she had done a grave injustice to her children and to Thomas Leonhard and decided to put the children in contact with their father. 2 On July 11, 1975, Leonhard was reunited with his children. On June 30, 1978, Leonhard filed the present action, asserting twelve separately stated claims, three on his own behalf and nine on behalf of one or all of the children; on these claims each named plaintiff seeks damages ranging from $10,000 to $500,000. 3 14 The complaint alleges that by separating and concealing the children from Leonhard from 1967 to 1975 and refusing Leonhard's repeated requests to be informed of their whereabouts, Kennelly and other agents of the Organized Crime Strike Force deprived the plaintiffs of their constitutional rights; Kennelly and the agents are said to have had actual or constructive knowledge that their acts violated plaintiffs' constitutional rights. 4 The complaint alleges that defendant Giambrone participated in the removal and concealment, that he knew or should have known that his conduct was in violation of the plaintiffs' constitutional rights, and that he acted intentionally and under and by the full authority of the City of Buffalo. These claims are asserted under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1976) and the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. 15 In addition to these constitutional claims, asserted on behalf of both Leonhard and the children, the complaint asserts several non-constitutional claims on behalf of the children alone. It alleges that Calabrese committed torts against the children, and alleges that the United States, by arranging Calabrese's release and furnishing support and new identities for him, Rochelle and the children, undertook a duty, which it breached, to protect the children from mental and physical harm. 5 16 In addition to the above defendants, several New York state agencies and officials were made defendants: the New York State Department of Correctional Services and Benjamin Ward, a former Commissioner of that Department, together with all of his predecessors in office; and the New York State Board of Parole and Eugene Hammock as an agent of that Board, together with all of his predecessors in office. None of the complaint's twelve separately stated claims is asserted against the state defendants. These defendants are simply listed in the section of the complaint denominated Parties, and are alleged to have acted in concert with the federal defendants in releasing Calabrese from a correctional facility in the State of New York in contravention of state law. 17