Telesford v. Patterson

In Telesford v. Patterson (27 AD3d 328 [1st Dept 2006]) the petitioner, an inmate at an upstate correctional facility, requested that CCRB produce an audiotape of an interview conducted by CCRB with a police officer against whom petitioner had filed an excessive force complaint. His complaint pertained to the arrest which led to his conviction for which he was incarcerated. CCRB initially denied the request on the ground that the audiotape was part of an investigative file concerning the officer and could not be disclosed without the officer's consent or by court order. In the underlying article 78 proceeding, the trial court directed CCRB to provide the audiotape for an in camera inspection, based on its finding that petitioner adequately demonstrated the tape was related to the incident in question, and was necessary to petitioner for his appeal of his criminal conviction. As to the officer, although he was not a party to the proceeding, the trial court determined that he had been on notice of the petition (notice had been given to the FOIL appeals officer of CCRB), but waived his right to a full hearing. (Telesford v. Patterson, 27 AD3d 328, 812 NYS2d 52 [1st Dept 2006].) The First Department reversed the trial court. Although the First Department noted that the trial court found that CCRB records fall within the ambit of Civil Rights Law 50-a, it did not explicitly affirm this finding, much less make such a finding with respect to a restricted summary of CCRB records. More importantly, its holding only pertained to the issues of notice to the officer (which it found was lacking), and his status as a necessary party to the action. (Telesford, 27 AD3d at 329-330.)