ACTS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE WERE COMMITTED IN THE CHILDREN’S PRESENCE
After the Kings County Family Court found that he had neglected his children, the father appealed to the Appellate Division, Second Department.
But on its review of the record, the AD2 noted when acts of domestic violence are committed in the presence of children, the Family Court is free to conclude that the “children's physical, mental, or emotional conditions were impaired or in imminent danger of impairment” as a result of that misconduct.
In his particular instance, not only were the children fearful of the father, in one instance, they attempted to separate the adult couple when the latter were engaged in a “heated argument.”
Given that “credible evidence,” and the fact that even “a single act of domestic violence, either in the presence of a child or within the hearing of a child, may be sufficient for a neglect finding,” the appellate court affirmed the outcome.
The AD2 sure extinguished that.
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