Failure to Assess Reliability of Confidential Informants Required Annulment and Expungement

The Third Department annulled and expunged the disciplinary determination because the hearing officer was not given enough information to adequately assess the confidential informants’ reliability:

“A disciplinary determination may be based upon hearsay confidential information provided that it is sufficiently detailed and probative for the Hearing Officer to make an independent assessment of the informant’s reliability” … . Here, the correction officer who investigated the incident and authored the misbehavior report testified that his information regarding petitioner’s involvement was gleaned from confidential informants. Other than noting that the confidential informants either had proven reliable in the past or disclosed detailed information about the incident, the correction officer did not testify with any further specificity or detail regarding the substance of the information that was provided in order for the Hearing Officer to independently assess the informants’ reliability or credibility. Given that the confidential information was instrumental in finding petitioner guilty of the charges, we find that substantial evidence does not support the determination and it, therefore, must be annulled… . Matter of Bridge v Annucci, 2015 NY Slip Op 07886, 3rd Dept 10-29-15