Articles Posted in Bronx

A mother of a boy, now age seven, has been the subject of child protective proceedings since he was ten- weeks-old. The boy is currently placed in foster care as a result of the most recent order of disposition issued by the Court against his mother, the Respondent.

A New York Family Lawyer said the mother has volunteered to participate in an instructional film being produced by her attorneys and has consented to the filming and participation of the boy as well. The Legal Aid Society, representing the boy and the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) oppose such filming and have asked the Court to find that the use and dissemination of the boy’s image and identity is against his best interests and should be prohibited. For the reasons that follow, the Court conducted a hearing to determine whether the mother’s consent to the filming of her son should stand or whether her consent must be overridden.

The Respondent-mother was first brought before Bronx County Family Court after ACS filed a child neglect petition in October 2004, naming the boy as the subject child. The boy was a ten-week-old infant at the time of the filing. In June 2005, the then-presiding judge awarded the mother an Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal (ACD), pursuant to Family Court Act. The mother successfully completed the requirements of the ACD and the case was dismissed by operation of law in May 2006.

In this visitation/child custody proceeding, the parties resided together as a couple at the time of their daughter’s birth. A New York Family Lawyer said within several weeks, respondent and daughter vacated the home and moved to New Jersey, where respondent filed and obtained the equivalent of a temporary order of protection from a Camden, New Jersey court based upon alleged physical and verbal abuse by plaintiff. The parties have been engaged in nearly continuous litigation since the daughter was approximately eight weeks old, with the exception of the five year hiatus.

A New York Custody Lawyer said that after a hearing in which the New Jersey court did not completely hear his side of the events, the New Jersey court issued a restraining order and directed that Petitioner pay compensation to the mother. Petitioner was also ordered to pay child support, an order with which the father admittedly did not comply. According to the father’s testimony, the mother did sue him successfully to enforce the child support order. What ultimately happened to the New Jersey order is not completely clear. The father averred that this order was reversed on appeal and that the parties were “bound over to Manhattan Family Court” because of “jurisdictional issues”.

A Bronx Family Lawyer said in January 1997, Respondent moved to the Bronx with the daughter. After the New Jersey court adjudicated that proceeding without issuing a final order of custody, petitioner visited with daughter sporadically for the next few years. The father’s testimony concerning his contact with the subject child during the very early years of the daughter’s life appears inconsistent and somewhat puzzling. At one point, the father testified that from 1996 to 1998, he knew that the daughter resided with the mother in New Jersey. He stated that he did not file any court papers seeking visitation because he wanted visitation in New York City, but knew that he could not compel visitation in that location. In fact, the mother moved to The Bronx several months after temporarily residing in New Jersey in 1996.

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On March 4, 2009, the respondents (mother and her sons) filed three separate family offense petitions seeking the entry of orders of protection in favor of them and against appellant, respondent’s mother, and her sons’ grandmother. A New York Family Lawyer said that, the alleged family offenses included, inter alia, assault, harassment, and menacing. In their respective petitions, the respondents described how they were related to the appellant and asserted that the parties all resided together in a home in Elmont, Nassau County. The petitions detailed certain incidents which allegedly occurred on February 19, 2009, on the island of Anguilla. According to the respondents, the appellant pushed the respondent mother to the floor twice, causing her to hurt her back and hit her head. The appellant allegedly was screaming, yelling, and cursing at the respondent mother during the assault. In addition, the appellant allegedly used a glass bowl to strike one of his grandsons on the head, causing injuries.

Further, the appellant allegedly chased the other grandson with a meat cleaver and threw an ashtray at him, which hit him in the back.

Thereafter, a New York Custody Lawyer said that, the appellant filed three of her own family offense petitions seeking orders of protection in her favor and against the respondents. The appellant alleged that on or about February 14, 2009, also in Anguilla, the respondents committed the family offenses of, inter alia, aggravated harassment in the second degree, harassment in the first degree, attempted assault, and menacing in the third degree.

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In this federal class action, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has certified three questions centered on New York’s statutory scheme for child protective proceedings. The action was brought on behalf of mothers and their children who were separated because the mother had suffered domestic violence, to which the children were exposed, and the children were for that reason deemed neglected by her.

A New York Family Lawyer said that, respondent mother, on behalf of herself and her two children, brought an action pursuant to 42 USC § 1983, against the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). The action was later consolidated with similar complaints by the three named plaintiff mothers. Plaintiffs alleged that ACS, as a matter of policy, removed children from mothers who were victims of domestic violence because, as victims, they “engaged in domestic violence” and that defendants removed and detained children without probable cause and without due process of law. That policy and its implementation according to plaintiff mothers constituted, among other wrongs, an unlawful interference with their liberty interest in the care and custody of their children in violation of the United States Constitution. A New York Child Custody Lawyer said that, in August 2001, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York certified two subclasses: battered custodial parents (Subclass A), and their children (Subclass B). For each plaintiff, at least one ground for removal was that the custodial mother had been assaulted by an intimate partner and failed to protect the child or children from exposure to that domestic violence. In January 2002, the District Court granted a preliminary injunction, concluding that the City may not penalize a mother, not otherwise unfit, who is battered by her partner, by separating her from her children; nor may children be separated from the mother, in effect visiting upon them the sins of their mother’s batterer”.

A Bronx Family Lawyer said that, the court found that ACS unnecessarily, routinely charged mothers with neglect and removed their children where the mothers who had engaged in no violence themselves had been the victims of domestic violence; that ACS did so without ensuring that the mother had access to the services she needed, without a court order, and without returning these children promptly after being ordered to do so by the court; that ACS caseworkers and case managers lacked adequate training about domestic violence, and their practice was to separate mother and child when less harmful alternatives were available; that the agency’s written policies offered contradictory guidance or no guidance at all on these issues; and that none of the reform plans submitted by ACS could reasonably have been expected to resolve the problems within the next year.

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The Defendant is charged by Prosecutor’s Information with violating Penal Law §240.25, Harassment in the first degree as a Class B Misdemeanor. The allegations involve the Defendant allegedly threatening his wife, by saying, in different occasions, the phrases “I’m going to slit your fucking throat,” and “You ever talk about my mother, I’ll put a bullet in your fuckin head.” A New York Family Lawyer said that, in her Supporting Deposition the Complainant also alleges that the Defendant threatened her by stating “I’m going to chop you up and spread you on the highway.” The Complainant alleges four other instances of threats of physical domestic violence including allegations that the Defendant has thrown chairs at her. In the domestic Incident report the Complainant alleges being in fear of physical injury from her husband.

A Nassau County Criminal Attorney said that, defendant moves for various discovery relief and moves that the Court to inspect the Grand Jury minutes regarding this matter and to dismiss the Prosecutor’s Information after said review. Finally, Defendant moves the Court to dismiss the information against him pursuant to C.P.L.§100.15 and 100.40 based on the assertion that the information is facially insufficient. The People join in the Defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint.

The issue to be resolved in this case is whether or not the information filed is sufficient.

This termination of parental rights (TPR) proceeding was brought pursuant to Social Service Law against respondent mother (RM) in connection to her child, FA, four years old. The petition, filed August 24, 2009, seeks to terminate the parental rights of RM on the grounds of mental illness. A New York Family Lawyer said the Court held a fact finding hearings and on June 27, 2011, counsel delivered oral summations with supplemental written summations submitted to the Court on July 8, 2011.

Petitioner presented the testimony of doctor, qualified expert in the field of clinical psychology. Respondent presented the testimony of two (2) witnesses: a doctor, a qualified expert in the field of forensic psychology, and RM who testified on her own behalf.

A New York Custody Lawyer said the underlying child protective proceeding in this case involves the brutal murder of the child, AB, by RM’s ex-paramour, on November 21, 2001. A severe & repeated abuse petition, brought on behalf of the deceased child’s surviving half-sibling, JB, was filed against RM and her ex-paramour, JL, pursuant to the Family Court Act. Thereafter, a finding of severe & repeated abuse by clear and convincing evidence was entered against them both on June 10, 2003.

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On the evening of February 13, 1992, plaintiff pulled her car alongside an area where Nassau County police officers were investigating an auto accident and jumped out, screaming for help. Plaintiff mother (PM) informed the officers that her husband, TM, against whom she had obtained an order of protection, was in her car threatening her with a knife. A New York Family Lawyer said the plaintiff showed the officers the order of protection and told them that there was a warrant for her husband’s arrest based on a previous violation of the order. The officers removed plaintiff’s husband from the car and one of them assured her that they would take care of him. After plaintiff left, however, the officers did not arrest her husband. The next morning, as plaintiff left home for work, her husband, who had been hiding outside, attacked her with a machete, inflicting serious injuries.

A New York Family Lawyer said the plaintiff sued Nassau County for the negligence of its police officers in failing to take her husband into custody. Plaintiff did not join her husband as a defendant, nor was he impleaded by the County as a party. At the pre-charge conference, defendant County requested that Supreme Court charge the jury that liability for plaintiff’s injuries could be apportioned between itself and the husband. Defendant argued that CPLR article 16, which limits a tortfeasor’s joint liability for non-economic losses to its proportional share if its culpability is 50% or less, applied to this case. The Trial Judge declined to instruct the jury that they may apportion culpability between the County and the intentional tortfeasor, plaintiff’s husband, because of a “very strong issue of a public policy as established in the Family Court Act with respect to orders of protection.” The jury returned a $1.5 million verdict for non-economic losses against defendant.

On appeal to the Appellate Division, the County challenged the trial court’s ruling. In addition to defending the trial court ruling, plaintiff argued that apportionment did not apply both because the case involved an intentional tort and because the County had violated a non-delegable duty. The Appellate Division reversed, holding that none of the proffered exemptions applied. The

This consolidated-proceeding before the court is somewhat complex procedural posture. A New York Family Lawyer said there are three separate matters: a petition filed by New York Foundling Hospital (hereafter “the agency”) pursuant to Section 384-b of the Social Services Law (“SSL”) seeking termination of parental rights and a transfer of child custody and guardianship to NYFH; a petition filed by the Commissioner of Social Services (“CSS”) pursuant to Family Court Act (“FCA”) Section 1055 seeking an extension of this court’s original placement order entered in the course of a prior Article Ten neglect proceeding; and a petition in the form of a writ of habeas corpus filed by the natural father seeking return of the children to his custody. All three petitions were consolidated, and a hearing was held on October 19 and 20 and concluded on October 25, 1978. Counsel was requested to submit post-trial memoranda in lieu of oral summations; the last was received on December 22, 1978.

A Bronx Family Lawyer said that, the natural parents, never married but lived together from 1967 to 1974, during which time three children were born: Yvonne, on October 23, 1968; Gladys, on June 9, 1970, and William, on April 20, 1973. In August 1974, after many earlier criminal convictions, the natural father was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to prison for a two-year-to life sentence. He was imprisoned until September 1977. In 1975 the natural mother voluntarily placed the subject child, who suffers from severe physical and mental handicaps, in temporary foster care. In 1976 the mother abandoned the two other children and on December 7, 1976 the Family Court placed them in the CSS’s custody for 18 months.

A Bronx Custody Lawyer said that, during his entire imprisonment the father (whose whereabouts was then unknown) made no attempt to stay in touch with his family and he testified he heard nothing from the mother. Only after the agency, through its own diligent efforts, located him in the Correctional Facility in August 1977, did he learn of the children’s foster care placements; immediately after being paroled, in September 1977, he visited the agency to seek child custody or visitation. The three children, meanwhile, had lived in separate foster homes and facilities until summer 1977. The foster parents, had asked the agency for a handicapped child to adopt in 1976. After the subject child had been placed in their home for some two months, the foster parents requested that the natural parents join her; the children were reunited in September 1977 for the first time since 1975. In October 1977 the agency denied the father’s requests for child custody or visitation, and he began legal proceedings to protect his rights. On December 1, 1977 he was adjudicated the legal father, and, by agreement among counsel he had two visits with the children, the first in December 1977 and the second in February 1978. Only the oldest child, had any recollection of her father, the child having been only one year old when his father was imprisoned, and the other child being mentally incapacitated. Visits were discontinued when the natural parents became upset by them.

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A New York Family Lawyer said that, in proceedings for an upward modification of child support, the petitioner mother appeals from an order of the Family Court, Putnam County, entered August 18, 1992, which denied her objections to an order of the same court, entered July 6, 1992, which dismissed the petitions without prejudice, “as defective”.

The petitioner appellant mother, a resident of Putnam County, and the respondent father, a resident of the Bronx, were divorced in 1973. They have two children, the younger of whom is the subject of the instant petitions. A Bronx Child Support Lawyer said that, the mother filed the instant petitions in the Family Court, Putnam County, to enforce and modify a 1986 support order of the Family Court, Bronx County, to collect dental expenses incurred by the parties’ younger son, and to compel the father to contribute toward this child’s college expenses. The Family Court dismissed the petitions without prejudice, finding that they should have been brought pursuant to the procedures of the Uniform Support of Dependents Law (Domestic Relations Law article 3-A, hereinafter USDL) and not pursuant to Family Court Act article 4, and that accordingly, the matter should have been transferred to the Family Court, Bronx County.

The issue in this case is whether the Family erred in denying the petition for modification of child support by the mother.