Opinion
December 14, 2000.
Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Kavanagh, J.), entered February 24, 2000 in Albany County, which dismissed petitioner's application, in a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78, to review a determination of the Commissioner of Correctional Services designating petitioner as a central monitoring case.
Douglas Caban, Napanoch, appellant in person.
Eliot Spitzer, Attorney-General (Marcus J. Mastracco of counsel), Albany, for respondent.
Before: Mercure, J.P., Spain, Mugglin, Rose and Lahtinen, JJ.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Petitioner pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree and one count of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and was sentenced accordingly. Upon his arrival into the custody of respondent Department of Correctional Services, petitioner was designated as a central monitoring case. Petitioner commenced this CPLR article 78 proceeding claiming that the designation determination was arbitrary and capricious. Supreme Court dismissed the petition and we affirm.
A prisoner may be classified as a central monitoring case when the instant offense involves "a high degree of sophistication or planning, or was a part of a large scale criminal conspiracy or a continuing criminal enterprise" ( 7 NYCRR 1000.2 [a]), or due to the notoriety of the crime (see, 7 NYCRR 1000.2 [b]). Here, given the nature of petitioner's crime and results of the high-profile investigation by the New York City Operations Unit indicating his association with the "Wild Cowboy" gang, we find no reason to disturb petitioner's classification as a central monitoring case (see, Matter of Lowrance v. Malone, 177 A.D.2d 761; Matter of Whitehead v. Jones, 172 A.D.2d 887). Petitioner's remaining contentions have been reviewed and found to be lacking in merit.
ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed, without costs.