Opinion
2021-03420 2020-02176 2020-02176
06-01-2021
The People of the State of New York, v. Eddie Badia, Defendant-Appellant. Eddie Badia, Plaintiff, Ind Nos. 7034/04, 7034/04 Docket Nos. 304153/15, 304153/15 Appeal No. 13953
Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP, New York (David B. Rankin of counsel), for appellant. James E. Johnson, Corporation Counsel, New York (Susan Paulson of counsel), for municipal respondents.
Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP, New York (David B. Rankin of counsel), for appellant.
James E. Johnson, Corporation Counsel, New York (Susan Paulson of counsel), for municipal respondents.
Before: Gische, J.P., Webber, Singh, Kennedy, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Melissa C. Jackson, J.), entered on or about January 23, 2020, which, insofar as appealed from as limited by the briefs, denied appellant's motion to unseal the minutes of the grand jury proceeding in the criminal matter, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The court properly found that appellant failed to rebut the presumption of confidentiality of grand jury proceedings by showing "a compelling and particularized need" for grand jury testimony by police witnesses in his underlying criminal case (People v Fetcho, 91 N.Y.2d 765, 769 [1998] [internal quotation marks and citation omitted]). Appellant failed to establish that "sources other than [the] grand jury testimony were inadequate to provide the information necessary" to support his malicious prosecution claim in a pending civil action (Crespo v New York City Hous. Auth., 188 A.D.3d 409, 409 [1st Dept 2020]; see Matter of District Attorney of Suffolk County, 58 N.Y.2d 436, 446 [1983]; Richburg v Morgenthau, 184 A.D.2d 316 [1st Dept 1992]). Accordingly, the court was not required to "balance various factors to assess, in its discretion, whether disclosure is appropriate under the circumstances presented" (People v Robinson, 98 N.Y.2d 755, 756 [2002]).