Opinion
7510
10-30-2018
IN RE BOBBI B., A Child Under Eighteen Years of Age, etc., Bobby B., Respondent–Appellant, v. Administration for Children's Services, Petitioner–Respondent.
Law Office of Thomas R. Villecco, P.C., Jericho (Thomas R. Villecco of counsel), for appellant. Zachary W. Carter, Corporation Counsel, New York (Barbara Graves–Poller of counsel), for respondent. Dawne A. Mitchell, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Diane Pazar of counsel), attorney for the child.
Law Office of Thomas R. Villecco, P.C., Jericho (Thomas R. Villecco of counsel), for appellant.
Zachary W. Carter, Corporation Counsel, New York (Barbara Graves–Poller of counsel), for respondent.
Dawne A. Mitchell, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Diane Pazar of counsel), attorney for the child.
Acosta, P.J., Friedman, Kapnick, Webber, Moulton, JJ.
Order of fact-finding and disposition and final order of protection in favor of the subject child, Family Court, Bronx County (Sarah P. Cooper, J.), entered on or about October 27, 2017, which, inter alia, determined that respondent father neglected the child by committing acts of domestic violence in her presence, and directed the father to comply with the terms of an order of protection, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The court credited the testimony of a disinterested observer, who worked at the shelter where the mother and the child were residing, that the father placed his hands around the mother's neck during a heated argument, while the mother was holding their one-month old child. The shelter worker also testified that she heard the mother scream that the father bit her finger. There exists no basis for disturbing the court's credibility determinations (see e.g. Matter of Aaron C. [Grace C.], 105 A.D.3d 548, 963 N.Y.S.2d 208 [1st Dept. 2013] ).
Exposure to even a single instance of domestic violence may be a proper basis for a finding of neglect (see Matter of Allyerra E. [Alando E.], 132 A.D.3d 472, 473, 17 N.Y.S.3d 634 [1st Dept. 2015], lv denied 26 N.Y.3d 913, 2015 WL 8816675 [2015] ). Here, the child was in imminent danger of physical impairment due to her proximity to violence directed at the mother (see Matter of Isabella S. [Robert T.], 154 A.D.3d 606, 62 N.Y.S.3d 362 [1st Dept. 2017] ). Furthermore, the court properly discredited the father's testimony that he did not have a history of domestic violence against the mother in light of his criminal conviction of third degree assault, upon his guilty plea, and given that an order of protection in favor of the mother was in effect when this incident occurred (see Matter of Allyerra E., 132 A.D.3d at 473, 17 N.Y.S.3d 634 ).