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Matter of Griffen v. Goord

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Third Department
Nov 9, 2000
277 A.D.2d 612 (N.Y. App. Div. 2000)

Opinion

November 9, 2000.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (La Buda, J.), entered October 12, 1999 in Sullivan County, which dismissed petitioner's application, in a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78, to review a determination of respondent finding petitioner guilty of violating a prison disciplinary rule.

Gary Griffen, Dannemora, appellant in person.

Eliot Spitzer, Attorney-General (Thomas B. Litsky of counsel), New York City, for respondent.

Before: Mercure, J.P., Spain, Carpinello, Mugglin and Rose, JJ.


MEMORANDUM AND ORDER


After forged documents were seized from his cell, petitioner, a prison inmate, was charged in a misbehavior report with violating the prison disciplinary rule that prohibits forgery. When petitioner was subsequently convicted of five counts of perjury in the second degree in connection with the forged documents, the misbehavior report was dismissed and another misbehavior report was issued charging petitioner with committing a Penal Law offense. Petitioner was found guilty of the Penal Law offense charge and unsuccessfully pursued an administrative appeal. Thereafter, petitioner commenced this CPLR article 78 proceeding and Supreme Court dismissed the petition. Petitioner appeals.

We affirm. Petitioner's assertion that he was not served with a copy of the second misbehavior report is belied by the record which reveals that petitioner received the report at least 24 hours prior to the commencement of the hearing (see, 7 NYCRR 254.6 [a]). Moreover, the report was not defective inasmuch as it specified the basis of the charge and other identifying information with sufficient particularity to enable petitioner to prepare a defense (see,Matter of Maya v. Goord, 272 A.D.2d 724, 725, 707 N.Y.S.2d 551, 552; Matter of Couch v. Goord, 255 A.D.2d 720, 721-722).

We also reject petitioner's contention that he was denied effective employee assistance and documentary evidence because his assistant failed to accommodate his requests for a written disposition of the first misbehavior report and the sentencing minutes from the perjury conviction. No written disposition was rendered on the first misbehavior report due to its dismissal and the sentencing minutes were unavailable (see, Matter of Johnson v. Selsky, 257 A.D.2d 874, 875). In any event, the Hearing Officer made every attempt during the hearing to furnish petitioner with substitute documentation which contained much of the requested information.

Finally, we are not persuaded that the Hearing Officer was biased or improperly restricted petitioner's examination of a witness to those questions which were not repetitive or redundant (see, Matter of Williams v. Goord, 242 A.D.2d 842; Matter of Lee v. McCoy, 233 A.D.2d 633). Petitioner's remaining contentions have been reviewed and rejected as lacking in merit.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed, without costs.


Summaries of

Matter of Griffen v. Goord

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Third Department
Nov 9, 2000
277 A.D.2d 612 (N.Y. App. Div. 2000)
Case details for

Matter of Griffen v. Goord

Case Details

Full title:In the Matter of GARY GRIFFEN, Appellant, v. GLENN S. GOORD, as…

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Third Department

Date published: Nov 9, 2000

Citations

277 A.D.2d 612 (N.Y. App. Div. 2000)
715 N.Y.S.2d 549

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