Opinion
April 4, 1996
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County [Salvador Collazo, J.].
Respondent's determination that petitioner knowingly ingested cocaine, necessarily based as it was on the crediting of the testimony of a correction officer with respect to the integrity of the random drug test administered to petitioner, and the discrediting of petitioner's disavowal of drug use and claim that her specimen was tainted during the testing procedure, should not be second-guessed by the courts ( see, Matter of Berenhaus v Ward, 70 N.Y.2d 436, 443; Matter of Sadler v. Bratton, 219 A.D.2d 517). Both sides' expert witnesses testified that they did not know of a situation where someone had registered a false positive result for the cocaine metabolite, only present in cocaine, and it was pure speculation for petitioner's expert to opine that such a false positive could be caused by the ingestion of herbal teas. The penalty of dismissal was not unwarranted ( see, Matter of Berenhaus v. Ward, supra, at 445).
Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Rosenberger, Wallach, Kupferman and Williams, JJ.