ENGAGED IN REPEATED ACTS OF VIOLENCE
After the New York County Family Court found him guilty of “the family offenses of assault in the third degree, criminal obstruction of breathing, sexual abuse in the third degree, and disorderly conduct against the mother, harassment in the second degree against the mother and subject children, and found aggravating circumstances warranting a five-year order of protection against the father directing him to stay away from the mother and children for five years,” an appeal ensued.
On its review, the Appellate Division, First Department, was of the view the outcome was supported by the “preponderance of the evidence.”
Among other things, in one incident the father was found to have dragged the mother by the hair, choked and punched her (causing pain and bruising). At other times, he is said to have obstructed her breathing (in violation of Penal Law § 121.11), and to have had engaged in forced (non-consensual) sexual contact with her (in violation of Penal Law § 130.55).
And if that weren’t enough, the dad is said to engaged in “disorderly conduct” (violative of Penal Law § 240.20) and “harassment” against the mother and children (Penal Law § 240.26), when her forced his way into the woman’s home (while the kids were attending online classes), and “began screaming, crying, and flailing,” frightening the children and prompting them to “cry and scream for the father to stop and not hurt the mother.”
Given that backdrop, and his concession that he “repeatedly violated a prior Kings County order of protection,” the AD1 thought that the five-year order of protection issued against the dad was “more than supported by the record,” and the underlying outcome was left undisturbed.
Talk about being out of order ….
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DECISION