67 A.D.2d 1093 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1979
— Judgment unanimously reversed, on the law, and writ dismissed. Memorandum: Petitioner was conditionally released from prison in June, 1978 after serving a sentence for unlawful possession of a weapon. On the evening of August 17, 1978 he was engaged in an altercation with a man named Dees in which at least two shotgun blasts were fired while the two men fought for possession of the weapon. Petitioner received a wound near his nose, the pellets exiting the left side of his head, and Dees received a knife or razor wound to his shoulder requiring 23 sutures. Dees ran from the scene. Petitioner left in a car and was later apprehended parked in a shopping center about five miles from the scene of the fight. The police found a sawed-off shotgun under the car, beneath the seat in which petitioner was sitting, and one or two live shells in the front seat. They found a purse with six shotgun shells and a shoulder holster in the trunk of the car. Petitioner was taken into custody and held on a detainer warrant. A preliminary revocation hearing was held on August 29, 1978. The notice of preliminary hearing charged him with three violations of his parole on the night in question, possession of a weapon (the shotgun), possession of a weapon (a razor), and menacing the safety of another individual, i.e., Joseph Dees. After taking the testimony of five witnesses, the hearing officer found "probable cause” to believe that petitioner had violated the terms and condition of his release by possessing a sawed-off shotgun and by menacing Dees. Although the testimony as to