Opinion
2011-09-22
In the Matter of Adam WRIGHT, Petitioner,v.Brian FISCHER, as Commissioner of Correctional Services, et al., Respondents.
Adam Wright, Coxsackie, petitioner pro se.Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General, Albany (Peter H. Schiff of counsel), for respondents.
Proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 (transferred to this Court by order of the Supreme Court, entered in Albany County) to review a determination of respondent Commissioner of Correctional Services which found petitioner guilty of violating a prison disciplinary rule.
Petitioner was charged in a misbehavior report with smuggling and possessing a tool without authorization after the vocational drafting instructor found a computer disk in a notebook underneath petitioner's assigned computer keyboard in the vocational drafting classroom. Following a tier III disciplinary hearing, petitioner was found not guilty of smuggling, but guilty of unauthorized possession of a tool. The determination was affirmed on administrative appeal and the penalty was partially modified thereafter. This CPLR article 78 proceeding ensued.
We confirm. The misbehavior report and related documentation, together with the testimony adduced at the hearing, provide substantial evidence supporting the determination finding petitioner guilty of possessing the floppy disk which constituted an unauthorized tool ( see Matter of Parra v. Fischer, 76 A.D.3d 724, 725, 907 N.Y.S.2d 345 [2010], lv. denied 15 N.Y.3d 714, 2010 WL 4823841 [2010]; Matter of Dexter v. Goord, 43 A.D.3d 516, 517, 840 N.Y.S.2d 232 [2007] ). The reasonable inference of possession arises from petitioner's control of the area where the disk was found, as was established by the testimony of the vocational drafting instructor who indicated that petitioner had used his assigned computer just prior to the two-day closure of the classroom and that the disk was found before classes commenced on the morning that the classroom opened ( see Matter of Daughtry v. Bezio, 84 A.D.3d 1623, 1624, 922 N.Y.S.2d 664 [2011], lv. denied 17 N.Y.3d 709, 2011 WL 4089773 [2011]; Matter of Trisvan v. Fischer, 71 A.D.3d 1253, 1254, 899 N.Y.S.2d 378 [2010] ). Petitioner's denial of possession and suggestion that the instructor fabricated the evidence against
him presented a credibility issue for the Hearing Officer to resolve ( see Matter of Parra v. Fischer, 76 A.D.3d at 725, 907 N.Y.S.2d 345; Matter of Black v. Goord, 12 A.D.3d 1005, 1006, 784 N.Y.S.2d 911 [2004] ). As for petitioner's claim that the Inspector General's investigation was inadequate, this was the subject of a separate grievance and is not part of this proceeding challenging the prison disciplinary determination ( see Matter of Samuels v Department of Correctional Servs. Staff, 84 A.D.3d 1629, 1630, 923 N.Y.S.2d 309 [2011] ). Petitioner's remaining contentions either have not been preserved for our review or are lacking in merit.
ADJUDGED that the determination is confirmed, without costs, and petition dismissed.
MERCURE, J.P., SPAIN, ROSE, MALONE JR. and McCARTHY, JJ., concur.