DRUG-RELATED NEGLECT FINDING NOT SUPPORTED BY THE EVIDENCE (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department, reversing Family Court, determined the evidence did not support a drug-related neglect finding against father:
We agree with the father that the court's finding of neglect is not supported by the requisite preponderance of the evidence (see generally Family Ct Act § 1046 [b] [i]). “[P]roof that a person repeatedly misuses . . . drugs . . . to the extent that it has or would ordinarily have the effect of producing in the user thereof a substantial state of stupor, unconsciousness, intoxication, hallucination, disorientation, or incompetence, or a substantial impairment of judgment, or a substantial manifestation of irrationality, shall be prima facie evidence that a child of or who is the legal responsibility of such person is a neglected child except that such drug . . . misuse shall not be prima facie evidence of neglect when such person is voluntarily and regularly participating in a recognized rehabilitative program” … . Here, petitioner submitted evidence that the father tested positive for THC, oxycodone, and opioids on one occasion, which is insufficient to establish that the father repeatedly misused drugs … . The father's admission to using marihuana was also insufficient to meet petitioner's burden without further evidence as to the “duration, frequency, or repetitiveness of his drug use, or whether [the father] was ever under the influence of drugs while in the presence of the subject child” … . Matter of Bentley C. (Zachary D.), 2018 NY Slip Op 06667, Fourth Dept 10-5-18
FAMILY LAW (DRUG-RELATED NEGLECT FINDING NOT SUPPORTED BY THE EVIDENCE (FOURTH DEPT))/EVIDENCE (FAMILY LAW, NEGLECT, DRUG-RELATED NEGLECT FINDING NOT SUPPORTED BY THE EVIDENCE (FOURTH DEPT))/NEGLECT (FAMILY LAW, DRUG-RELATED NEGLECT FINDING NOT SUPPORTED BY THE EVIDENCE (FOURTH DEPT))