IN RE: Robert KISSH (2003)

Determination of respondent Commissioner of Police, dated April 2, 2001, which dismissed petitioner from the Police Service of the City of New York, unanimously confirmed, the petition denied and the proceeding brought pursuant to CPLR article 78, (transferred to this Court by order of the Supreme Court, New York County [Joan Madden, J.], entered March 20, 2002), dismissed, without costs.

The determination is supported by substantial evidence (see Matter of Scully v. Safir, 282 A.D.2d 305, 723 N.Y.S.2d 451).   The hearing officer's credibility findings are virtually “unassailable,” and we may not reweigh the evidence (see e.g. Matter of Velasquez v. Kerik, 294 A.D.2d 242, 742 N.Y.S.2d 277).   The penalty of dismissal, under the circumstances of this matter in which petitioner was shown to have engaged in illicit off-duty employment, an altercation with a fellow officer and attempted bribery, is not so disproportionate to the offense as to be shocking to one's sense of fairness (see Matter of Harp v. New York City Police Dept., 96 N.Y.2d 892, 894, 730 N.Y.S.2d 786, 756 N.E.2d 74).