| Matter of Covington v Smith |
| 2010 NY Slip Op 05837 [75 AD3d 708] |
| July 1, 2010 |
| Appellate Division, Third Department |
| In the Matter of Ronnie Covington, Petitioner, v Joseph T. Smith,as Superintendent of Shawangunk Correctional Facility, Respondent. |
—[*1] Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General, Albany (Frank Brady of counsel), forrespondent.
Proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 (transferred to this Court by order of the SupremeCourt, entered in Ulster County) to review a determination of respondent which found petitionerguilty of violating a prison disciplinary rule.
After a search of petitioner's prison cell revealed several items for which he did not possesspermits, he was served with a misbehavior report charging him with, as relevant here, possessionof contraband. Following a tier II disciplinary hearing, petitioner was found guilty of that chargeand his administrative appeal was denied. He then commenced this CPLR article 78 proceeding.
We confirm. The misbehavior report and the hearing testimony, including petitioner'sadmission that he did not possess permits for three of the confiscated items, provide substantialevidence to support the determination of guilt (see Matter of Valerio v New York State Dept. of Correctional Servs.,67 AD3d 1228 [2009]; Matter ofButler v Fischer, 67 AD3d 1112 [2009]). Petitioner's claim that he was authorized topossess the items, without any supporting documentation, raised an issue of credibility to bedetermined by the Hearing Officer (seeMatter of Silverstein v Bezio, 65 AD3d 1424, 1425 [2009]). With regard to petitioner'scontention that [*2]he was improperly denied the right toquestion certain witnesses and obtain certain records, we find that, inasmuch as they bore norelevance to whether he was permitted to possess the items in question, the denial was proper (see Matter of Pettus v New York StateDept. of Correctional Servs., 70 AD3d 1164 [2010]). Finally, our review of the recorddemonstrates that the finding of guilt resulted from the evidence presented against petitionerrather than any alleged hearing officer bias (see Matter of Quartieri v New York State Dept. of Correctional Servs.,70 AD3d 1071, 1072 [2010]).
We have examined petitioner's remaining contentions and have found them to be moot,unpreserved or without merit.
Peters, J.P., Malone Jr., Kavanagh, Garry and Egan Jr., JJ., concur. Adjudged that thedetermination is confirmed, without costs, and petition dismissed.