CHILD’S STATEMENT ABOUT AGE-INAPPROPRIATE SEXUAL CONDUCT NOT CORROBORATED; NEGLECT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MOTHER NOT PROVEN (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, reversing Family Court, determined that mother’s child’s statement about age-inappropriate sexual conduct involving mother’s child and a non-family child was not corroborated and therefore the neglect allegation against mother was not proven:

Although the testimony of the two caseworkers established that the disclosure reflected age-inappropriate knowledge of sexual matters, petitioner failed to submit “[a]ny other evidence tending to support” the reliability of the youngest child’s statements apart from the disclosure itself … . …

The two caseworkers who testified on behalf of petitioner asserted that they utilized forensic interviewing techniques to avoid leading the youngest child during their interviews, but petitioner failed to offer any evidence establishing that either caseworker was qualified to give expert validation testimony in such matters … . …

An admission by the mother “that she had heard that the purported prior incident occurred in the manner stated by others . . . is in no sense an admission of any fact pertinent to the issue, but a mere admission of what [she] had heard without adoption or indorsement’ ” … . …

… [P]etitioner offered no admissible evidence regarding the time frame when the mother became aware of that incident. Absent such evidence, we cannot conclude that the mother had sufficient time to act but failed to appropriately do so. …

We therefore conclude that petitioner failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the mother neglected the subject children by failing to act as ” a reasonable and prudent parent’ ” would have acted under the circumstances … . Matter of Carmellah Z. (Casey V.), 2019 NY Slip Op 08298, Fourth Dept 11-15-19