Matter of Esposito v Rice
2009 NY Slip Op 08227 [67 AD3d 797]
November 10, 2009
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, January 6, 2010


In the Matter of Angelo Esposito, Appellant,
v
KathleenRice, Nassau County District Attorney, Respondent.

[*1]Joseph F. DeFelice, Kew Gardens, N.Y., for appellant.

Kathleen M. Rice, District Attorney, Mineola, N.Y. (Robert A. Schwartz of counsel),respondent pro se.

In a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 to review a determination of the DistrictAttorney of Nassau County, dated November 24, 2008, denying, in part, the petitioner's requestpursuant to the Freedom of Information Law (Public Officers Law § 84 et seq.) forcertain documents relating to his criminal conviction, the petitioner appeals from a judgment ofthe Supreme Court, Nassau County (Spinola, J.), dated April 1, 2009, which denied his petitionto compel disclosure of any statements of a particular, named person and, in effect, dismissed theproceeding.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

The petitioner sought disclosure under the Freedom of Information Law (Public OfficersLaw § 84 et seq.) (hereinafter FOIL) of any statements to law enforcement officersmade by a person who did not offer testimony at the petitioner's criminal trial. Inasmuch as "thestatements of nontestifying witnesses are confidential and not disclosable under FOIL"(Matter of Johnson v Hynes, 264 AD2d 777, 777 [1999]; see Public OfficersLaw § 87 [2] [e] [iii]; Matter of Spencer v New York State Police, 187 AD2d 919[1992]; Matter of Moore v Santucci, 151 AD2d 677, 679 [1989]), the Supreme Courtproperly denied the petition and, in effect, dismissed the proceeding. Rivera, J.P., Fisher, Belenand Austin, JJ., concur.


NYPTI Decisions © 2026 is a project of New York Prosecutors Training Institute (NYPTI) made possible by leveraging the work we've done providing online research and tools to prosecutors.

NYPTI would like to thank New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, New York State Senate's Open Legislation Project, New York State Unified Court System, New York State Law Reporting Bureau and Free Law Project for their invaluable assistance making this project possible.

Install the free RECAP extensions to help contribute to this archive. See https://free.law/recap/ for more information.