| Matter of Allah v Leclaire |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 04251 [51 AD3d 1173] |
| May 8, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, Third Department |
| In the Matter of Kha'Sun Creator Allah, Formerly Known as KhaliqClark, Appellant, v Lucien J. Leclaire, Jr., as Commissioner of Correctional Services,Respondent. |
—[*1] Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General, Albany (Peter H. Schiff of counsel), forrespondent.
Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Feldstein, J.), entered June 22, 2007 inFranklin County, which dismissed petitioner's application, in a proceeding pursuant to CPLRarticle 78, to review a determination of respondent finding petitioner guilty of violating certainprison disciplinary rules.
Petitioner commenced this CPLR article 78 proceeding challenging a tier III disciplinarydetermination finding him guilty of refusing a direct order, making threats, damaging stateproperty, and obstructing visibility into his cell. Finding petitioner's procedural challenges to bewithout merit, Supreme Court dismissed the petition. Petitioner now appeals.
Petitioner primarily contends that he was improperly denied the right to call a social workeremployed by the Office of Mental Health—who had previously met with him—as awitness to testify as to his mental health status at the time of the incident. However, the recordestablishes that the Hearing Officer had already conducted a confidential interview with anOffice of Mental Health psychologist who, with the benefit of all of petitioner's records, providedinformation pertaining to petitioner's mental health status. Under these circumstances, theHearing Officer properly found that any testimony by petitioner's requested witness would havebeen redundant (see Matter of Williamsv Goord, 36 AD3d 1033, 1033 [2007]; Matter of [*2]Johnson v Goord, 268 AD2d 732 [2000]). Petitioner'sremaining contentions have been considered and determined to be without merit.
Peters, J.P., Spain, Lahtinen, Kane and Stein, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgment isaffirmed, without costs.