April 2, 1996 [NOT FOR PUBLICATION]
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT
____________________
No. 94-2272
JAMES HOLLINGSWORTH,
Plaintiff, Appellant,
v.
LARRY E. DUBOIS, ETC., ET AL.,
Defendants, Appellees.
____________________
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
[Hon. William G. Young, U.S. District Judge] ___________________
____________________
Before
Torruella, Chief Judge, ___________
Boudin and Stahl, Circuit Judges. ______________
____________________
James Hollingsworth on brief pro se. ___________________
Nancy Ankers White, Special Assistant Attorney General and ____________________
Charles M. Wyzanski, Senior Litigation Counsel, on Motion for Summary ___________________
Disposition for appellees.
____________________
____________________
Per Curiam. Plaintiff/appellant James Hollingsworth ___________
appeals the entry of judgment in favor of
defendants/appellees on Hollingsworth's suit pursuant to 42
U.S.C. 1983. Having reviewed carefully the record in this
case, including the briefs of the parties, we summarily
affirm.
Hollingsworth suffered no deprivation of his rights to
procedural due process either when the hearing officer denied
his request to call witnesses at his disciplinary hearing or
when he discounted the affidavits Hollingsworth was allowed
to submit. A denial of a request to present witnesses is not
a due process violation when it is based on the need of
institutional safety. See Ponte v. Real, 471 U.S. 491, 497 ___ _____ ____
(1985). Here, the district court credited the testimony of
the hearing officer that, even if Hollingsworth had made a
timely request to present witnesses, the request would have
been denied because of safety concerns in transporting the
witnesses from another prison. As to the second claim, the
hearing officer had sufficient support in the record for
finding two of the affidavits not exculpatory and for
questioning the credibility of the others.
Furthermore, the district court did not err either in
refusing Hollingsworth's request to present witnesses at
trial or in not allowing him to introduce allegedly newly
found exculpatory evidence. The district court supportably
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found that the witnesses' testimony was not relevant to any
issue before the court. Similarly, inasmuch as Hollingsworth
does not claim that the hearing officer lacked sufficient
evidence to support a finding of guilty, the "newly found
evidence" was irrelevant to Hollingsworth's due process
claims. Moreover, this evidence, which was cumulative of
what had already been presented at the disciplinary hearing,
does nothing to call the hearing officer's determination of
guilt into question.
Affirmed. See 1st Cir. Loc. R. 27.1. ________ ___
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