CHILD’S STATEMENTS ABOUT RESPONDENT PROPERLY EXCLUDED FROM NEGLECT PROCEEDING INVOLVING A DIFFERENT CHILD, NO SHOWING RESPONDENT WAS LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CHILD WHO MADE THE STATEMENTS.
The Second Department determined Family Court properly dismissed the neglect petition without prejudice. The petitioner failed to establish the respondent father was legally responsible for the child whose statements petitioner sought to use as evidence. (The neglect proceedings did not involve the child who made the statements):
Here, the petitioner failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence … . At the fact-finding hearing, the petitioner presented a caseworker as its only witness and documentation of the father’s criminal offenses. The caseworker testified to previous statements allegedly made to her by a child complainant in one of the respondent’s prior criminal cases. Family Court Act § 1046(a)(vi) provides that “previous statements made by the child relating to any allegations of abuse or neglect shall be admissible in evidence” (Family Ct Act § 1046[a][vi]). Such statements are admissible in a child protective proceeding, even when the child is not the subject of the proceeding … . However, child protective proceedings encompass only abuse or neglect by a person who is a parent or other person legally responsible for the child’s care … , and the sections regarding admissibility of previous statements of an abused or neglected child refer to a child in the care of the respondent … .
A person legally responsible includes a custodian of the child, which “may include any person continually or at regular intervals found in the same household as the child when the conduct of such person causes or contributes to the abuse or neglect of the child” … . In determining whether a respondent is such a custodian, the court should consider the particular circumstances, including “the frequency and nature of the contact between the child and respondent, the nature and extent of the control exercised by the respondent over the child’s environment, the duration of the respondent’s contact with the child, and the respondent’s relationship to the child’s parent(s)”… . A person legally responsible is not a caregiver who has fleeting or temporary care of a child, such as a supervisor of a play date … .
Here, the petitioner failed to establish that the respondent was a person legally responsible for the child whose statements it wished to introduce through the testimony of the caseworker … . Matter of Kaliia F. (Jason F.), 2017 NY Slip Op 01691, 2nd Dept 3-8-17
FAMILY LAW (CHILD’S STATEMENTS ABOUT RESPONDENT PROPERLY EXCLUDED FROM NEGLECT PROCEEDING INVOLVING A DIFFERENT CHILD, NO SHOWING RESPONDENT WAS LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CHILD WHO MADE THE STATEMENTS)/EVIDENCE (FAMILY LAW, (CHILD’S STATEMENTS ABOUT RESPONDENT PROPERLY EXCLUDED FROM NEGLECT PROCEEDING INVOLVING A DIFFERENT CHILD, NO SHOWING RESPONDENT WAS LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CHILD WHO MADE THE STATEMENTS)/HEARSAY (FAMILY LAW, (CHILD’S STATEMENTS ABOUT RESPONDENT PROPERLY EXCLUDED FROM NEGLECT PROCEEDING INVOLVING A DIFFERENT CHILD, NO SHOWING RESPONDENT WAS LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CHILD WHO MADE THE STATEMENTS)