FAMILY COURT ABUSED ITS DISCRETION IN ORDERING UNSUPERVISED VISITATION WITH CHILDREN WHO HAD BEEN REMOVED FROM THE PARENTS’ CARE, THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF A CHANGE IN CIRCUMSTANCES SINCE THE DENIAL OF THE PARENTS’ APPLICATION TO HAVE THE CHILDREN RETURNED TO THEM (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department, reversing Family Court, determined the record did not support ordering unsupervised visitation with the parents:
Respondents continue to refuse to admit or even to acknowledge the possibility that the children, all of whom tested positive for sexually transmitted diseases (STD), were sexually abused. Even as recently as May 2018, and although they ostensibly had participated in various services and counseling, the parents continued to offer implausible explanations for the children’s medical condition. …
In November 2017, Family Court (Ta-Tanisha James, J.) denied the parents’ application pursuant to Family Court Act § 1028 to have the children returned to their care. Since then there has been no change in the circumstances upon which the denial of that application was based. The court (Frias-Colon, J.) issued the instant order without benefit of a full fact-finding hearing, apparently to avoid delay and stagnation in the proceeding. This justification is inadequate. The permanency reports and treatment updates before the court reiterated the parents’ ongoing inability to acknowledge that their children had been sexually abused and did not advocate unsupervised visitation. In view of the gravity of the allegations and the parents’ attitude toward, and role in, the events at issue, we find that the court abused its discretion in ordering unsupervised visitation on the record before it. Matter of Abass D. (Mamadou D.–Sitan D.), 2018 NY Slip Op 07968, First Dept 11-20-18
FAMILY LAW (FAMILY COURT ABUSED ITS DISCRETION IN ORDERING UNSUPERVISED VISITATION WITH CHILDREN WHO HAD BEEN REMOVED FROM THE PARENTS’ CARE, THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF A CHANGE IN CIRCUMSTANCES SINCE THE DENIAL OF THE PARENTS’ APPLICATION TO HAVE THE CHILDREN RETURNED TO THEM (FIRST DEPT))/VISITATION (FAMILY COURT ABUSED ITS DISCRETION IN ORDERING UNSUPERVISED VISITATION WITH CHILDREN WHO HAD BEEN REMOVED FROM THE PARENTS’ CARE, THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF A CHANGE IN CIRCUMSTANCES SINCE THE DENIAL OF THE PARENTS’ APPLICATION TO HAVE THE CHILDREN RETURNED TO THEM (FIRST DEPT))