| Matter of New York State Commn. on Jud. Conduct vRubenstein |
| 2013 NY Slip Op 00687 [103 AD3d 409] |
| February 5, 2013 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| In the Matter of New York State Commission on JudicialConduct, Respondent, v Seth Rubenstein, Appellant. The People of the State ofNew York, v [Redacted] et al., Defendants. |
—[*1] Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General, New York (Won S. Shin of counsel), forrespondent.
Appeal from order, Supreme Court, New York County (Fern A. Fisher, J.), enteredon or about May 25, 2012, which denied respondent Seth Rubenstein's motion to, amongother things, vacate a prior order releasing certain records and papers to petitioner NewYork State Commission on Judicial Conduct, unanimously dismissed, without costs, asmoot.
Respondent appeals an order releasing to the Commission records and papers,including transcripts, of a criminal matter in which he was acquitted on all counts after ajury trial. He contends that the order violated CPL 160.50 (1), which provides for sealingof records in a criminal proceeding following termination in favor of the person accused.The trial court ordered the release based on Judiciary Law § 42 (3), authorizing theCommission to request and receive data or information from any public authority thatwould enable it to carry out its function. Mr. Rubenstein was tried jointly with a judge,and the Commission sought the records in connection with its investigation of the judge.
The Commission now moves to dismiss the appeal, as the Commission no longer hasany use for the records because the judge has agreed to a penalty, and thus any furtherproceeding by this Court would be purely academic. In other words, this appeal has beenrendered moot. Mr. Rubenstein opposes dismissal as moot, in part because theCommission has published some documents which have been released and are on theCommission's website, and because "of the importance of the questions involved, thepossibility of recurrence, and the fact that orders of this nature . . . typicallyevade review."
We find that the matter has been rendered moot and decline to pass on whether the[*2]release order was justified. However, we direct thatall documents contained in the previously sealed records that were furnished to theCommission be returned forthwith to the court and be resealed for all purposes.Concur—Saxe, J.P., Moskowitz, Freedman and Richter, JJ.
Motion to dismiss appeal granted.