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Matter of Johnson v. Hynes

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Sep 20, 1999
264 A.D.2d 777 (N.Y. App. Div. 1999)

Opinion

Submitted June 1, 1999

September 20, 1999

In a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 to compel the production of certain documents pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law (Public Officers Law article 6), the petitioner appeals, as limited by his brief, from so much of a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Greenstein, J.), dated March 9, 1998, as denied that branch of his petition which was to compel the production of the statements of witnesses who did not testify at his trial and the eyewitness's "cooperation agreement".

Lamonte Johnson, Attica, N.Y., appellant pro se.

Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Roseann B. MacKechnie, Jodi L. Mandel, and Morgan J. Dennehy of counsel), respondent pro se.

MYRIAM J. ALTMAN, J.P., WILLIAM D. FRIEDMANN, LEO F. McGINITY, ROBERT W. SCHMIDT, JJ.


DECISION ORDER

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from, without costs or disbursements.

The petitioner was convicted of two counts of murder in the second degree based, in part, upon the testimony of an eyewitness ( see, People v. Johnson, 170 A.D.2d 535). The petitioner subsequently commenced this proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 to obtain, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law (Public Officers Law article 6) (hereinafter FOIL), among other things, disclosure of the statements of witnesses who did not testify at his trial, as well as the eyewitness's cooperation agreement. Contrary to the petitioner's contention, the statements of nontestifying witnesses are confidential and not disclosable under FOIL ( see, Public Officers Law § 87 [e] [iii]; Matter of Moore v. Santucci, 151 A.D.2d 677; Matter of Spencer v. New York State Police, 187 A.D.2d 919).

The appellant's remaining contentions are without merit.

ALTMAN, J.P., FRIEDMANN, McGINITY, and SCHMIDT, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

Matter of Johnson v. Hynes

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Sep 20, 1999
264 A.D.2d 777 (N.Y. App. Div. 1999)
Case details for

Matter of Johnson v. Hynes

Case Details

Full title:IN THE MATTER OF LAMONTE JOHNSON, appellant, v. CHARLES J. HYNES, ETC.…

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

Date published: Sep 20, 1999

Citations

264 A.D.2d 777 (N.Y. App. Div. 1999)
695 N.Y.S.2d 380

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