Matter of Bridgewater v Johnson
2007 NY Slip Op 08006 [44 AD3d 549]
October 25, 2007
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, December 12, 2007


In the Matter of Pedro Bridgewater, Appellant,
v
Robert T.Johnson, as District Attorney of Bronx County, et al., Respondents.

[*1]Pedro Bridgewater, appellant pro se.

Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Andrew S. Holland of counsel), forrespondents.

Order and judgment (one paper), Supreme Court, Bronx County (Lucindo Suarez, J.), enteredJanuary 16, 2007, which, to the extent appealed from, denied the petition brought pursuant toCPLR article 78 for an order compelling respondents to disclose certain portions of petitioner'scase file pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), unanimously affirmed, withoutcosts.

The response to petitioner's FOIL request was appropriate inasmuch as petitioner received allof the documents relating to his 1994 convictions in Bronx County to which he was entitled andwhich could be found. Certain portions of the case file could not be located and respondentssatisfied the requirements of Public Officers Law § 89 (3) by certifying that a diligentsearch for those documents had been conducted (see Matter of Rattley v New York CityPolice Dept., 96 NY2d 873 [2001]; Matter of Alicea v New York City Police Dept.,287 AD2d 286 [2001]). Petitioner was not entitled to the requested grand jury minutes since theminutes are court records and exempt from the ambit of FOIL (see Matter of Hall vBongiorno, 305 AD2d 508, 509 [2003]; Matter of Gibson v Grady, 192 AD2d 657[1993]), and also where petitioner failed to provide a compelling and particularized need for theminutes (see Matter of Mullgrav v Santucci, 195 AD2d 786 [1993]).[*2]

We have considered petitioner's remaining contentionsand find them unavailing. Concur—Tom, J.P., Saxe, Nardelli, Sweeny and Catterson, JJ.


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