Children’s Out-of-Court Statements Sufficiently Corroborated to Support Neglect Finding

In affirming Family Court’s neglect finding, the Second Department noted that the children’s out-of-court statements, if sufficiently corroborated, will support a finding of neglect. Here the children’s statements were cross-corroborated among them, and were corroborated by the testimony of a school nurse and caseworkers:

In a child protective proceeding, unsworn out-of-court statements of the subject child may be received and, if properly corroborated, will support a finding of abuse or neglect … . The Family Court has considerable discretion in deciding whether a child’s out-of-court statement has been reliably corroborated and whether the record as a whole supports a finding of neglect … . Moreover, where the Family Court is primarily confronted with issues of credibility, its factual findings must be accorded considerable deference on appeal … .

Here, a preponderance of the evidence supported the Family Court’s finding that the father neglected the child Tapharye C. by inflicting excessive corporal punishment on him … . Contrary to the father’s contention, out-of-court statements by the subject children were sufficiently corroborated by the testimony of a school nurse and the caseworkers employed by the Suffolk County Department of Social Services, who had also observed the evidence of physical injury sustained by Tapharye, as well as by the children’s own cross-corroborating statements … . Matter of Hayden C. (Tafari C.), 2015 NY Slip Op 06241, 2nd Dept 7-22-15