Nicholas Alahverdian

Alahverdian's Habeas Corpus Action Filed in Ohio Supreme Court

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:13:00 -0400

Read the habeas action by clicking here May 6, 2013 COLUMBUS, Oh. — Late Friday afternoon, Eric J....

Alahverdian meets with Ohio Senate leader to discuss legislative...

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:34:00 -0400

Alahverdian meets with Ohio Senate leader to discuss legislative reform

May 2, 2013

COLUMBUS, Oh. — Nicholas Alahverdian, lobbyist and judicial reform advocate, met with members of the Office of the Senate Majority Whip today to discuss legislative ideas that will work to ensure that constitutional rights of Ohioans are protected if they are accused of a serious crime.

Alahverdian and legislative aides of Senate Majority Whip Larry Obhof’s office met to discuss ideas to reform the Ohio Revised Code. Included in the talks were retooling the statutes so that people accused of misdemeanor sex crimes are ensured a jury trial, regardless of any Ohio Rule of Criminal Procedure contrary to the same.

Another issue discussed was rewording the statute on post-conviction relief petitions so that they extend to municipal court defendants as well. Currently, only those in state courts are afforded the right to file post-conviction relief petitions.

“City judges like Carl Henderson should stick to what they know - how to give traffic tickets and sentence people for petty crimes,” said Alahverdian. “These bills aim to protect Ohioans and their constitutional rights from city judges who seek to strong-arm the judicial process even though they lack patent and unambiguous jurisdiction.”

“Municipal Court judges are ill-equipped to deal with complex criminal charges,” he continued. “My goal is to ensure that convictions in the Ohio judicial system will be reached in a proper fashion substantiated by tangible, palpable evidence and testimony.”

Alahverdian’s lobbying efforts come as he fights Henderson in federal court, claiming that Henderson deprived Alahverdian of his right to a jury trial and also told him to “shut up” each time he demanded to testify. The trial roots from an allegation made after he shared a kiss with Sinclair Community College student Mary Grebinski in a hallway. When her then-boyfriend found out, she went to the police three hours later and fabricated a story in which Alahverdian allegedly held her up against the wall, masturbated, and ejaculated all over the wall. No evidence was ever found.

Alahverdian was not permitted to speak in his own defense and was convicted based on no evidence except complainant Mary Grebinski’s statement, which she admitted that she perjured.

A Sinclair police officer, Kenneth Quatman, later testified only that Alahverdian had “agreed with” what Grebinski said, even though Alahverdian never confessed to anything but kissing Grebinski, was never read his Miranda rights, and was never told he was under arrest.

Quatman was also fired by the Dayton Police Department for exhibiting conduct unbecoming of a police officer and lying in an official capacity. Those facts, which the U.S. Supreme Court has held as evidence probative of a government witness’s credibility in Brady v. Maryland, needed to be disclosed to Alahverdian’s trial counsel, but never were.

“My trial was unfair and full of errors,” said Alahverdian. “We live in the United States; we are entitled to a jury trial if we are accused of a serious crime.” Alahverdian vowed earlier this week that his “fight won’t stop until innocence is proven and justice prevails.”

This meeting with members of the Ohio Senate comes after Alahverdian filed suit against Grebinski and her boyfriend earlier this week in U.S. District Court, alleging threats that were made on the Internet following his filing of a civil suit earlier this month.

Columbus attorney Eric J. Allen is set to file a habeas corpus action in the Ohio Supreme Court by the end of the court’s business day today.

Alahverdian vows fight won’t stop until “innocence is proven and justice prevails” (daytonmunicipalcourt.wordpress.com)
Alahverdian vows fight won’t stop until “innocence is proven and justice prevails” (nalahverdian.wordpress.com)
Evidence Found Verifying Sinclair Police Officer’s 2004 Firing from the Dayton Police Department (nalahverdian.wordpress.com)
RI man fights sex charges in Ohio (wpri.com)
Statement by Nicholas Alahverdian at a Press Conference Regarding Corruption in the Dayton Municipal Court (nalahverdian.wordpress.com)

Alahverdian vows fight won't stop until "innocence is proven and justice prevails"

Wed, 01 May 2013 08:22:00 -0400

May 1, 2013 DAYTON, Oh. — Judicial reform advocate Nicholas Alahverdian is continuing his fight...

NEW: Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Accuser Mary Grebinski and Nathan Lanning Due to Threats

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 05:58:00 -0400

DAYTON, Oh. — Nicholas Alahverdian, former Harvard student and Rhode Island youth advocate filed a...

This is quite entertaining. Have a listen as Jennifer Osborne...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:31:00 -0400

This is quite entertaining. Have a listen as Jennifer Osborne Alfaro, a Dayton Probation Officer tries to overpower a United States Judge during a phone call with Nicholas Alahverdian. She tries to tell Alahverdian that he can’t go to his Federal Court hearing in Rhode Island - even though he has been ordered by a United States Judge - unless he pays a doctor that she ordered him to go to. Since when does a city probation officer have more authority than a Untied States Judge?

Extortion anyone?

NEW: Alahverdian Asks U.S. District Court to Halt Sentence

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:53:00 -0400

DAYTON, Oh. — After asking Dayton Municipal Court Judge Carl S. Henderson to pause the sentence...

Evidence Found Verifying Sinclair Police Officer Kenneth Quatman’s 2004 Firing from the Dayton Police Department

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 05:16:00 -0400

DAYTON, Oh. — An appellate court document has been found to substantiate Kenneth Quatman’s...

Statement by Nicholas Alahverdian at a Press Conference Regarding Corruption in the Dayton Municipal Court

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:16:00 -0400

April 17, 2013 Click here to read the lawsuit. Good morning. I stand here today as a United States...

PRESS RELEASE: Federal Lawsuit Filed Today Alleges Corruption and Unconstitutional Court Practices in Dayton

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:33:00 -0400

DAYTON, Oh. — Nicholas Alahverdian, former Harvard student and Rhode Island youth advocate today...

Statement on this so-called sex controversy in Ohio

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:01:00 -0400

to my friends and supporters: Allow me to clarify a couple of things about this so-called sex...

-Nicholas Alahverdian

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

-Nicholas Alahverdian

DCYF reform activist Nicholas Alahverdian and Providence Phoenix...

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:33:00 -0400

DCYF reform activist Nicholas Alahverdian and Providence Phoenix columnist Rudy Cheeks chat with Joe Vileno of “Viewpoint” about the problem-plagued Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families, and potential solutions for the state’s most disreputable and criticized department.

Buddy Cianci of News Talk 630 WPRO & 99.7 FM talks with...

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 19:19:00 -0400

Buddy Cianci of News Talk 630 WPRO & 99.7 FM talks with Nicholas Alahverdian about his suit against the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families.

Background: Nicholas Alahverdian had been in the care of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) due to his alcoholic and abusive parents. He was tortured, physically and sexually abused, deprived of medical care and neglected by employees of the group homes and his peers. The twist in the story is that when he was 15, he was a legislative aide for the Rhode Island House of Representatives.

When he began to arrive at the State House covered in bruises, cuts, and fresh scars, legislators discovered the conditions that he lived in. State representatives and senators worked with Nicholas to push for reform of the system, but in 2002 DCYF placed him in two out-of-state placements where even worse abuse and torture continued and he was prohibited from contacting lawyers, the police, the courts, or anyone else. He was given copious amounts of sedating drugs, kept in confinement, and prohibited from attending school until he aged out of the system at age 18.

Both placements were later shut down by their respective states for abuse and neglect, and he returned to Rhode Island at age 18. He has been a lobbyist who pushed for several bills that would end out of state placements and protect children in state care from abuse and neglect.

He has since filed suit against the State of Rhode Island and state officials (including former Governor Donald L. Carcieri) for deliberately and knowingly allowing the torture to continue and conspiring to prevent him from working with the legislators who pressured them to reform the system and put him in a safe, permanent placement.

Nicholas Alahverdian is joined by Rep. Mike Chippendale and Rep....

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 14:07:00 -0400

Nicholas Alahverdian is joined by Rep. Mike Chippendale and Rep. Doreen Costa as legislative solutions for the problematic Department of Children, Youth and Families are revealed.

9/28/12 State House Press Conference Statement

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:04:00 -0400

Joined by Rep. Doreen Costa and Rep. Mike Chippendale Good Morning: Today we meet nearly two years...

Jeremiah's record should be probed

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:39:00 -0400

This op-ed appeared in The Providence Journal on April 24, 2012. Jeremiah S. Jeremiah, former Chief...

"A hard lesson in what a state can do to a kid"

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:24:00 -0400

By Bob Kerr Published April 20, 2012 in The Providence Journal It’s hard to understand why my...

The House Judiciary Committee hears a bill introduced by...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:04:00 -0400

The House Judiciary Committee hears a bill introduced by Representative Roberto DaSilva related to out-of-state placement of kids who are in DCYF care; Nicholas Alahverdian, center, is on hand to testify. At left is Representative Scott Slater; at right is Jonathan Messinger, a Boston attorney with Alahverdian. Courtesy of The Providence Journal.

Nicholas Alahverdian - Out of state and out of mind By Bob Kerr...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Nicholas Alahverdian - Out of state and out of mind

By Bob Kerr
The Providence Journal
February 27, 2011

The question is: How does a smart kid from Rhode Island who wants desperately to go to school end up instead in a place in Florida that features barbed wire, lockdowns and limited access to the outside world — all at a cost of $330 a day to the state he came from?

It might seem a crime would have to be involved, but there is no crime. There’s just a guy, now 23, who got caught up in Rhode Island’s child welfare system and ended up in places far from home where he couldn’t plead his case.

The misery, he says, was compounded by beatings by other young residents of the deceptively named Manatee Palms Youth Services.

The story is one seldom heard, at least not as clearly and eloquently as Nicholas Alahverdian tells it. We hear little of those kids in state care who end up hundreds, even thousands of miles away in facilities that sometimes have complete control over their every move.

Alahverdian is a friend of mine, and I’ve always been impressed by the mere fact of his survival. He has been stuck in a cruel system that could have left him one of the lost boys of Rhode Island. He has had brief tastes of normalcy mixed with hard stretches of pointless, spirit-sapping supervision. Now, he is going to college, trying to claim all those things denied him when his life was not his own.

Like many before him, he ended up in state care because his family couldn’t take care of him. He lists depression and posttraumatic stress disorder as his biggest problems. And once in the system, he found it is very hard to get out. He had some almost happy periods. There was a pretty good group home in Providence where he lived while attending Hope High School. There was a foster home that looked like it could be a long-term place to live until the foster parents decided they couldn’t make the commitment.

We met in 2002. These are some quotes from the first column I wrote about him. They are in reference to the night-to-night placement he endured while under the control of the state Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF).

“It’s scary, ridiculously scary. There are punks in there; they took my sneakers, my clothing. I was threatened, assaulted. I saw kids hit each other with hockey sticks.

“You wake up in the morning at 5:30 and you go to the DCYF building and wait to see where you’re going to go the next night.

“You’re not in school and I love school. You’re not associating with friends. You’re not treated decently. And how can your parents know where you are.”

Night-to-night placement was, by anybody’s standards, a disaster. It was kid-dumping on the move. Long empty days would begin at a DCYF building in Pawtucket and end in one of the shelters scattered throughout the state — Woonsocket, Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket, Narragansett.

“I never learned how to be a kid,” said Alahverdian.

The incredible and frightening thing about Alahverdian’s story is that once he was past night-to-night placement, he was subjected to something even worse. At our first meeting, he was enthused about his work as a page and an aide at the State House. He seemed to have the worst behind him. But he didn’t.

“Night-to-night was like Disneyland compared to Manatee Palms,” he said.

On Tuesday at noon, he is planning to hold a news conference in the State House Rotunda to talk about what has happened to him and what he is doing to try to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. He will discuss the legislation he has been working on.

The bill he has worked on for a long time is basically his response to the horror story he had to live for too long. It would put safeguards in place to prevent kids from being sent to places far harsher and more restrictive than they need to be.

“Kids need school, not confinement,” he said.

He calls for a compliance officer to be put in place to protect the right of children in state care to be placed in the least restrictive environment possible. And thorough research would have to be conducted into all facilities being considered for out-of-state placements to make sure they comply with Rhode Island law.

The right to contact a lawyer, call a help line, or contact a family member would be guaranteed. While DCYF officials stress that such contact is always guaranteed, Alahverdian says he was denied outside contact at Manatee Palms and Boys Town in Nebraska, where he was sent earlier.

Every kid in the system would get a copy of the Children’s Bill of Rights.

The decision to come out now and tell the story, to put classes at Harvard on hold for a semester so that he can lobby for the legislation, means there will be a smart public voice asking the questions seldom asked about the way DCYF deals with kids.

Stephanie Terry, associate director of Child Welfare Services, says Alahverdian makes some legitimate points.

“We’re in the midst of trying to get away from residential care,” said Terry. “It doesn’t normalize; it makes things more difficult. If you tell a child when to eat, when to go to bed, how can they come out of that and know how to deal with life?”

She has a simple explanation for why kids are sent out of state. They are sent out of state because their needs cannot be met in state. But Rep. Roberto DaSilva, who represents East Providence and Pawtucket, said that he will introduce legislation by the March 3 deadline to end all out-of-state placements. He says there are resources here to provide the necessary treatment and he has talked with providers willing to do that.

While she said she can’t comment directly on Alahverdian’s case, Terry said that DCYF stopped using Manatee Palms, a 60-bed psychiatric facility in Bradenton, in 2005.

“There were concerns we had with the way they were treating our kids,” she said.

In 2004, the state paid Manatee Palms $49,468. In 2005, it paid $274,002. Since then, the facility has twice been closed by the State of Florida because of “hurtful behavior” by staff.

Alahverdian got there on Sept. 9, 2004, and stayed for eight months. He figures his tab at about $85,000.

He remembers the lobby was beautiful. Once inside, he saw holes punched in the walls and heard constant screaming.

“I was a geek nerd who wanted to read.”

He said he was assaulted almost every day. He finally got out, he said, after Pat Chabot, a DCYF social worker, visited and realized how bad the situation was. Rhode Island Family Court finally intervened.

Alahverdian has “aged out” of the system. His resilience is stunning. He has been through two out-of-state placements — Boys Town in Nebraska, which was a bust, and Manatee Palms, which was a nightmare. He thinks part of the reason he was sent far away is because he kept challenging the system here at home.

“The problem here was, I was consistently informative, a source of information on DCYF.”

He just wanted to go to school, he said, and he can’t understand why that couldn’t have been arranged in the state he grew up in. He will probably never get a real explanation.

We can only hope that Alahverdian is one of the last of the Rhode Island kids sent away and cut off from home. DCYF is changing, Terry says. For one thing, night-to-night placement is never, ever coming back. And while there are currently 27 kids in out-of-state placement, more than half are in Massachusetts and Connecticut. And some placements are made with the knowledge of family members living close to facilities in other states.

“You can’t make behavioral changes in children and not work with the family at the same time,” said Terry.

That just makes so much sense.

DaSilva reintroduces bill to keep kids under DCYF care in-state

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:53:00 -0500

STATE HOUSE – Rep. Roberto DaSilva (D-Dist. 63, East Providence, Pawtucket) has reintroduced a bill...

Nicholas Alahverdian

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