ALJ’S DETERMINATION WAS “ACCORDED GREAT WEIGHT”
Upon the revocation of his gun license, RLD filed an administrative appeal. After a hearing was conducted and the administrative law judge upheld the revocation, RLD then filed for further review -- via an Article 78 proceeding -- and the Suffolk County Supreme Court ended up denying the challenge and dismissing the case.
When the dispute got to the Appellate Division, Second Department, it noted that RLD’s record was far from pristine. Apparently, he was charged (back in August 2012) with “menacing in the second degree,” after he pointed a gun at another individual. And also supposedly got embroiled in several “domestic incidents,” (in 2012 and 2013), which resulted in arrests for “menacing in the second degree and for violating an order of protection.”
Given that an administrative law judge has “broad discretion to resolve factual and credibility issues,” the AD2 thought that the underlying findings needed to be “accorded great weight.” And because RLD was afforded an opportunity to appear, present evidence, and cross-examine witnesses, the AD2 could discern no irregularity – constitutional or otherwise – which warranted a different result.
Was that guy a pistol or what?
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DECISION