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Decisions of Interest

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
October 01, 2003

Sex-Abuse Allegations Not Supported By Victim's Statements to Siblings

Siblings' corroborating statements concerning the alleged abuse of a child were not enough to support an accusation of sexual abuse because the alleged victim refused to testify and her earlier statements to various witnesses were contradictory. Matter of W., N.Y.L.J. 9/9/03, DOI; Vol. 230; Pg. 20 (Elkins, J.).

In a child protective proceeding under Article 10 of the Family Court Act, it was alleged that due to respondent's alleged sexual abuse of his stepdaughter, the other seven children in the home were derivatively abused or neglected. Out-of-court statements by other children in the household, made to a Children's Services Administration caseworker, cross-corroborated the stepdaughter's statements to school personnel, hospital doctors and a police detective. Despite respondent's failure to testify, the court dismissed the petition. Referring to Family Court Act ' 1046(a)(vi) the court found that there was no corroborative evidence other than the statements from the other children. Citing Matter of Kelly F., the court, reviewing the statements by the other children, determined that due to material contradictions to the stepdaughter's statements, their corroborating statements failed to meet the threshold of reliability and were insufficient to support the allegations of abuse.

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