Opinion ID: 787387
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Confidential Proceedings

Text: 12 Beginning on February 5, 2000, and continuing through February 8, Capt. Morton heard testimony out of Sira's presence from Lt. Schneider, Sgt. Kaiser, and Corrections Officer G. Williams about information received from five confidential sources (referred to herein as Informants 1-5), each of whom implicated Sira in the Y2K strike. 3
13 Lt. Schneider identified Informant 1 by name as an inmate who had provided reliable information in the past that had helped prison authorities prevent the death of another inmate. Informant 1 told Lt. Schneider that sometime after prison officials lifted the first December 1999 lockdown, Informant 1 had attended a strike organization meeting in Building 12 run by an inmate named Codorel who discussed with those present the chaos that was to be caused during the strike and the inmates who would be in charge of strike activities in each housing block. Hearing Tr., Feb. 5, 2000, at 8. Codorel identified Sira as the person who would enforce C Block. Id. at 6. Informant 1 did not place Sira at the Building 12 meeting, nor did he report ever seeing Sira participate in any strike-related activities. Lt. Schneider explained that she credited Informant 1's account of the meeting because his statements with respect to other participants were consistent with information already obtained by officers in their strike investigation.
14 Lt. Schneider identified Informant 2 as an honor block inmate who had volunteered to gather intelligence for prison authorities in order to avert the harm that would attend a Y2K strike. Informant 2 reported that Sira, who was housed in Block C, was one of the strike coordinators and that he met with other gang leaders at night in Building 12 and in the morning in the pre-release center to organize strike activities. Informant 2 did not have personal knowledge of these facts, nor had he ever personally witnessed Sira engaging in any strike-related activities. He disclosed only what he had learned from asking around. Hearing Tr., Feb. 5, 2000, at 13. Apparently, Capt. Morton did not ask Lt. Schneider to ascertain from Informant 2 the circumstances under which or the persons from whom he had learned the facts reported to determine whether such factors supported or undermined the reliability of the hearsay disclosures.
15 Lt. Schneider and Sgt. Kaiser identified Informant 3 as an inmate who had sent Kaiser an unsigned letter dated December 27, 1999, which was received in evidence but not shared with Sira. Therein the author revealed, among other things, that he had overheard one unidentified prisoner telling another that he and Ruben were going to take over the Dominicans. Dec. 27, 1999 Letter at 1. Ruben was described as the guy in J-Block who works with Father Fernando on Sunday Mass. Id. Apparently, this sufficed to permit Sgt. Kaiser and Lt. Schneider to identify Ruben as Rubin Sira, although neither witness specifically testified on this point. Kaiser did testify that from the use of smiley faces in the letter, he determined that the author was an inmate who had previously provided him with reliable information 98 percent of the time. Hearing Tr., Feb. 6, 2000, at 3. Further, prison officials credited the letter because much of the information it disclosed with respect to anticipated conduct by other persons proved true.
16 Lt. Schneider identified Informant 4 as an inmate who had sent a letter to Superintendent Artuz, which reported a meeting occurring that morning in connection with the pre-release call-out held in J-School. Undated Letter to Superintendent at 1. The letter, which was also admitted into evidence but not disclosed to Sira, identified a dozen strike organizers by name, including Ruben Cira of pre-release. 4 Id. In passing on the letter to subordinate officers, Artuz did not disclose his source's name, but he did reveal that the source had often given him reliable information in the past. Lt. Schneider testified that she deemed the source credible because his letter accurately described the planning of events that thereafter transpired. Here again, Capt. Morton did not ask Lt. Schneider to inquire how Informant 4 learned the information disclosed or even if it was based on direct knowledge or hearsay.
17 Lt. Schneider and Officer Williams identified Informant 5 by name as an inmate whom Williams had used in the past, with ninety percent accuracy and without any specific ... gains on [the] inmate's part. Hearing Tr., Feb. 8, 2000, at 4. Sometime in the period December 1999 through January 2000, Informant 5 told Williams that he had personally observed Sira basically coerce[ ] inmates through strong arm tactics and threats of violence to participate in certain stages of the demonstration that we witnessed here at Green Haven during the last months of 1999. Id. at 5. Informant 5 identified Sira as an inmate housed on the west side of Green Haven, who was involved in the prison's J-School pre-release program and who was a leader of a faction of Dominican inmates at the prison. Williams explained that Informant 5 had provided this information to avoid the violence that he thought would result from a prison strike. Apparently no effort was made to identify the inmates purportedly threatened by Sira. Nor were officers asked to have Informant 5 detail what he heard or saw that led him to characterize Sira's conduct as coercive or threatening. 18 Capt. Morton did specifically inquire of Lt. Schneider, Sgt. Kaiser, and Officer Williams whether any of the five confidential sources would agree to appear before him to testify to the information supplied. Uniformly, the officers stated that the informants would not so agree because any appearance would inevitably become known throughout the prison, jeopardizing the informants' safety and exposing them to reprisals. 19