THE INFORMATION SUFFICIENTLY ALLEGED THE ELEMENTS OF OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT; THE ‘OBTAIN A BENEFIT’ ELEMENT OF THE OFFENSE CAN BE INFERRED FROM THE OTHER ALLEGATIONS (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals determined the information charging defendant with official misconduct in violation of Penal Law section 195 was not jurisdictionally defective because the “obtain a benefit” element of the offense could be inferred from the allegations. The defendant, an alcohol and substance abuse treatment program aide at a prison, was charged with the unauthorized provision of prison documents concerning an incident at the prison to an inmate. The allegations were sufficient to infer that the defendant intended that providing the documents benefited the inmates involved:

With respect to the third element—that defendant must act with the intent to obtain a benefit or deprive another of a benefit—defendant’s intent may be reasonably inferred from her conduct and the surrounding circumstances … . …[T]he information, with defendant’s statement attached as a supporting deposition, sufficiently alleged that defendant disclosed information to an inmate that the inmate was not authorized to have, and that defendant knew that this disclosure was unauthorized. From those allegations, coupled with defendant’s admissions in her statement regarding inappropriate contact with and favors conducted for inmates involved in the unusual incident and the disclosure, one can reasonably infer that defendant committed the unauthorized disclosure with the intent to benefit herself or the inmates involved. Notably.”benefit” is defined as “any gain or advantage to the beneficiary and includes any gain or advantage to a third person pursuant to the desire or consent of the beneficiary” (Penal Law § 10.00 [17]). In this case, the People were not required to specify in the information whether defendant intended to benefit herself or the inmates, because either or both would satisfy this element of the statute and both theories are supported by defendant’s statement to police … . People v Middleton, 2020 NY Slip Op 02530, CtApp 4-30-20