The state Court of Appeals has issued a notice to the bar soliciting amici curiae for an appeal it has accepted in an inmate grievance case, Matter of Sorrentino v. Fischer, 106 AD3d 1309.
In May, an Appellate Division, Third Department, panel held that inmate Patrick Sorrentino’s request to have three inmates testify in a disciplinary hearing was improperly denied by prison officials. The Third Department ordered a new hearing. But Sorrentino, who is pro se, is arguing on appeal that since his constitutional right to present witnesses in his defense was violated by prison officials, dismissal of the charges and expungement of all records of the disciplinary proceeding is required, not the administrative remedy of a new hearing.
