| Matter of Bell v New York City Hous. Auth. |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 01864 [49 AD3d 284] |
| March 4, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| In the Matter of Harold Bell, Petitioner, v New York CityHousing Authority, Respondent. |
—[*1] Ricardo Elias Morales, New York City (Andrew Koppel of counsel), forrespondent.
Determination of respondent, dated April 20, 2005, terminating petitioner's tenancy on theground of nondesirability, unanimously confirmed, the petition denied and the proceedingbrought pursuant to CPLR article 78 (transferred to this Court by order of the Supreme Court,New York County [Alice Schlesinger, J.], entered January 5, 2006), dismissed, without costs.
The finding of nondesirability is supported by substantial evidence, including petitioner's2003 guilty plea to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree (see Matter of Bradford v New York CityHous. Auth., 34 AD3d 463 [2006]), and the testimony of a detective that, in July 2004,while executing a search warrant of petitioner's apartment, he saw petitioner holding a gun, andfound drugs and drug paraphernalia in the apartment (see Harris v Hernandez, 30 AD3d 269 [2006]). There exists nobasis to disturb the hearing officer's findings crediting the detective's testimony (see Matter ofBerenhaus v Ward, 70 NY2d 436, 443-444 [1987]), and although the criminal chargespertaining to petitioner's 2004 arrest were still pending at the time of the administrative hearing,respondent properly considered the underlying police documents in reaching its determination,notwithstanding the subsequent dismissal of those charges (see Matter of Ono v Long Is. Coll. Hosp., 12 AD3d 299 [2004]).
The penalty of termination does not shock our sense of fairness (see Harris).[*2]
We have considered petitioner's remaining contentions,including that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at the administrative hearing, and findthem unavailing. Concur—Nardelli, J.P., Williams, Sweeny and Catterson, JJ.