Matter of Sunter v. David

This Article 78 appeal was commenced by an incarcerated petitioner, Male Sunter, to challenge the decisions of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the New York County District Attorney’s Office (DA) denying his request for Freedom of Information (FOIL) documents.

Petitioner requested 88 documents from the DA’s office. The DA denied his request asserting that these documents were exempt from disclosure due to possible judicial interference and the DA’s inability to locate said documents. Petitioner then brought about an Article 78 appeal to obtain the FOIL documents. The Court finds this appeal must be denied as untimely because it was not filed within the 30 day time limit.

Petitioner also requested 68 items from the NYPD. The NYPD provided petitioner with some of the documents requested but denied others as exempt. Petitioner then appealed this determination. NYPD moved to dismiss the petition, claiming that the documents were exempt due to possible interference with petitioner’s pending appeal. The Court denied NYPD’s motion to dismiss on this ground. The NYPD also argued that the proceeding was barred by the statute of limitations but the Court ruled that the proceeding was timely filed within four months from the date petitioner received the determination.

Accordingly, the Court denied the petition as to respondent District Attorney and denied the cross-motion by NYPD and directed NYPD to serve petitioner a Verified Answer.