Opinion ID: 787387
Heading Depth: 7
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Conclusory Assertions by Credible Informants

Text: 82 One source, Informant 5, provided direct evidence, reporting that he saw Sira coerce inmates through strong arm tactics and threats of violence to participate in certain stages of the planned strike. Hearing Tr., Feb. 8, 2000, at 5. We agree with the district judge that this conclusory characterization of Sira's conduct — unsupported by any factual basis as to what the informant heard or saw that he considered threatening, when or where he made his observations, or the persons toward whom Sira directed his purported threats — cannot, by itself, qualify as some reliable evidence of inmate misconduct. As the Supreme Court has long cautioned, a conclusory statement of culpability provides virtually no basis at all for a reviewing officer to make a reasoned and independent judgment on the matter at issue. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 239, 103 S.Ct. 2317. Due process does not permit a hearing officer simply to ratify the bald conclusions of others; it requires some inquiry to determine whether the totality of facts and circumstances reasonably supports the proffered conclusion. Indeed, this obligation pertains even when the conclusion is that of an eyewitness or person of general reliability. See id. at 234 & n. 8, 103 S.Ct. 2317; see also Zavaro v. Coughlin, 970 F.2d 1148, 1152-53 (2d Cir.1992) (holding that testimony from prison officials that every inmate of the more than one hundred in the mess hall at a particular time participated in a riot was too conclusory and speculative to constitute reliable evidence). 83 The factual basis for a witness's conclusions is certainly a relevant factor among the totality of circumstances properly considered in assessing reliability. See Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 239, 103 S.Ct. 2317; Caldarola v. Calabrese, 298 F.3d 156, 162-63 (2d Cir.2002). While a thorough articulation of the factual basis for particular information may not be necessary in every case, especially where other circumstances weigh heavily in favor of reliability, 11 in this case the record is devoid of any inquiry into the basis for Informant 5's conclusory disclosure. The officer who dealt directly with Informant 5 testified to no facts or circumstances supporting the source's conclusion, and the hearing officer did not request that the officer question the informant further to ascertain such underlying information. 84 The record suggests that Capt. Morton may have recognized a reliability problem with respect to Informant 5's conclusory statement and, rather than pursue any inquiry into the totality of the circumstances, chose simply to ignore the evidence. He did not, after all, find Sira guilty of the threat charge, which he presumably would have done had he concluded that Informant 5's statement was reliable. If, indeed, Morton rejected or ignored Informant 5's conclusory statement — as a view of the evidence most favorable to Sira would suggest — we cannot assume that it was used to corroborate the third-party hearsay declarations whose own reliability, on the record before us, appears not to have been adequately assessed. 85 In sum, if we view the record in the light most favorable to Sira, we must conclude that he has presented a viable due process claim that defendants ordered him disciplined without some reliable evidence of misconduct. 86