Decisions of Interest

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Sunshine has declared that a mother involved in a custody dispute with her children's father cannot present evidence contained in a diary, now destroyed, that was kept by her sister, who now claims that she was sexually abused in the past by her then-brother-in-law. S.B. v. U.B., [Index Number Redacted by Court], NYLJ 1202577574190, at *1 (Sup., KI, Decided Oct. 31, 2012) (Sunshine, J.).

The mother and father, who entered into a custody arrangement in conjunction with their divorce, are in litigation because the mother recently learned that her younger sister may have been sexually abused by her ex-husband. She is seeking to alter the visitation conditions so that the father may only have supervised visits with his two children, a son who is 11 years old and a daughter who is nine. The mother's sister ' identified by the court as “S.” ' is expected to testify that, in 2002, when she was 10 years old, her brother-in-law began sexually molesting her, and that the abuse lasted for three years. S. says she did not come forward with this information earlier because she was not aware of how much it had psychologically harmed her until she discussed the past abuse with her therapist, in 2011. Further, S.'s affidavit in support of her sister's motion seeking supervised visitation states that “in recounting the details [of the alleged sexual abuse] with my therapist, I also came to realize that I had a duty to come forward. My niece is approaching the age that I was when Defendant first started abusing me. I would not be able to live with myself if my niece was subject to the same abuse.”