MATTER OF ALFIERI v. MURPHY, 38 N.Y.2d 976 (1976)

384 N.Y.S.2d 157, 348 N.E.2d 614

In the Matter of PLACIDIO ALFIERI, Appellant, v. PATRICK V. MURPHY, as Police Commissioner of the City of New York, et al., Respondents.

Court of Appeals of the State of New York.Argued February 17, 1976
Decided March 25, 1976

Appeal from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the First Judicial Department.

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Walter H. Crowley for appellant.

W. Bernard Richland, Corporation Counsel (Irving Cohen an L. Kevin Sheridan of counsel), for respondents.

MEMORANDUM.

We see no reason in the record to disturb the finding by the Appellate Division that the Police Commissioner’s determination is supported by substantial evidence. Further, while the sanction of dismissal is a grave one, so is the act which here brought it about. The smallness of the value of the property petitioner stole does not diminish the moral turpitude thus disclosed. Nor does it ameliorate the destructive impact such conduct tends to have on the confidence which it is so important for the public to have in its police officers. Therefore, it cannot be said that the discipline imposed was “so disproportionate to the offense as to be shocking to one’s sense of fairness” (Matter of Pell v Board of Educ., 34 N.Y.2d 222, 237; cf. Matter of O’Connor v Frank, 38 N.Y.2d 963). It follows that the order should be affirmed.

Chief Judge BREITEL and Judges JASEN, GABRIELLI, JONES, WACHTLER, FUCHSBERG and COOKE concur.

Judgment, denominated an order, affirmed, with costs, in a memorandum.

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