| Matter of Tafari v Brown |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 00013 [47 AD3d 979] |
| January 3, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, Third Department |
| In the Matter of Injah Tafari, Appellant, v William Brown, asSuperintendent of Eastern Correctional Facility, Respondent. |
—[*1] Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General, Albany (Martin A. Hotvet of counsel), forrespondent.
Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Work, J.), entered October 16, 2006 in UlsterCounty, which dismissed petitioner's application, in a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78, toreview a determination of respondent finding petitioner guilty of violating a prison disciplinaryrule.
Following an incident in which petitioner used profane and disrespectful language toward acorrection officer, he was charged in a misbehavior report with verbal harassment. He was foundguilty of the charge following a tier II disciplinary hearing and the determination was affirmed onadministrative appeal. Petitioner then commenced this CPLR article 78 proceeding and,following joinder of issue, Supreme Court dismissed the petition. This appeal ensued.
Petitioner's sole contention is that he was improperly denied inmate witnesses at the hearing.Significantly, these witnesses executed refusal forms signifying their desire not to testify, andpetitioner did not object to the genuineness of their refusals at the hearing (see Matter of Gonzalez v West, 29AD3d 1245, 1246 [2006]) or to the Hearing Officer's failure to make a further inquiryregarding the same (see Matter ofBrown v Selsky, 37 AD3d 891, 891 [2007]). Therefore, he has failed to preserve hisclaim for our review.
Cardona, P.J., Mercure, Rose, Lahtinen and Kane, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment isaffirmed, without costs.