People v. Stuart

OPINION OF THE COURT

Peters, J.

On August 21, 1998, Frank Bífera, General Counsel for the Department of Environmental Conservation (hereinafter DEC), wrote to Dennis Vacco, the then Attorney General, requesting that his office investigate, pursuant to Executive Law § 63 (3), a purported theft of timber from privately owned lands. The letter, printed on official DEC stationery, indicated that the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation was among the list of persons copied on the correspondence. The Attorney General’s office thereafter obtained a one-count indictment charging defendant with…