New York Criminal Lawyer Blog 24/7

In December of 1996, a wedding was held in Kings County New York. Like most young couples, they were full of excitement. The new wife came to this marriage with one ten-month-old toddler from a prior marriage. They moved into her parent’s house a few months after they met and stayed thereafter they married.

The wife stated that the abuse began immediately with the husband having verbal temper tantrums calling her names in front of the children. After a while, she stated that she began to feel worthless as the domestic abuse began to escalate. At this time, the husband was employed as a New York State Park Control Officer which is a sworn law enforcement officer in the state of New York. The wife was hesitant to report the abuse because the husband was quick to remind her that a police officer charged with domestic abuse can never again work in law enforcement. He told her that he would lose his job and all the benefits that go with it including the children’s health insurance. It was enough to keep her scared and quiet for a while.

Continue reading

It was a February day in India when a couple met for the first time. It was an arranged marriage. It was the second marriage for both husband and wife. The husband had two girl children from his first marriage. What this new wife did not know at the time, was that he had been investigated by Child Services in New York for injury to one of his daughters. The new wife was full of excitement. She had no children and was looking forward to beginning her new life as a wife and mother. However, that first day that they met, she was shocked by the husband groping her when they had not discussed this type of contact and did not even know each other. Still, she hoped that it was just a misunderstanding. The husband returned to New York to work as an insurance claims adjuster. The wife followed in September of 1991. In March, the wife’s father co-signed and later paid for a mortgage on a house in Staten Island for the new family.

The new wife describes her relationship with her husband during that time as a “Husband and Wife” type of relationship and never one that involved love. The wife became a nurse and bore her husband two children, the first child is a girl and the second was a boy. The wife stated that the first acts of abuse were immediate upon the marriage. Once the couple was in Brooklyn, she estimated that her husband acted out violently toward her monthly in the beginning, but increasing to weekly when they moved to the house on Staten Island. The wife stated that she did not tell anyone about the abuse because she is Indian and in her culture, it is shameful to discuss problems from a marriage with anyone else.

Continue reading

This case is a battle between a man and woman, who are not married, for the custody of their two children, a 12-year old son and an 18-year old daughter. The man and women were in an unhealthy relationship involving domestic violence, for around eight years. The Family Court of Richmond County reviews the facts of the case and explains the reasons for their decision to award custody to the mother.

First, let’s go through the facts of the case. On June 1994, the father brutally assaulted the mother. According to reports, he beat her up and dropped a hot clothers iron on her. He was arrested and imprisoned for this. Their relationship then ended. Two years later, they reconciled and conceived a son. In 2000, the father and mother decided to move together. Two years later, they ended their relationship again.

Continue reading

On September 17, 1998, The Supreme Court of Kings County, New York was called upon to address a situation involving a domestic violence case that was particularly egregious. Between the dates of December 26, 1996 and March 12, 2000, a man in their jurisdiction committed numerous crimes in violation of different orders of protection. The Grand Jury minutes of the case reveal that there were three separate orders of protection in effect that this subject violated before being arrested.

On September 17th the Supreme Court of Kings County was given a motion by the arrestee in this case to dismiss 14 of the counts that are shown against him on the indictment. He proposes that these counts are duplicitous. That means that they are duplicates or copies of charges that are already made. He proposes that these charges are duplicates because there were multiple acts in violation of multiple court orders and some were just counted more than once. In considering this motion, the court examined the following documents which were entered into evidence: the moving papers, the People’s opposition, the court’s letter dated June 29, 1998, the Grand Jury minutes , and the indictment itself.

Continue reading

Domestic violence has an expansive effect. It does not just affect the victim but also their children. Abuse of a parent is detrimental to children whether or not they are physically abused themselves. Children who witness acts of violence are more likely to experience delayed development, feelings of fear, depression, and helplessness and are more likely to become batterers themselves.

Three mothers, on behalf of themselves and their children, filed an action against the New York City Administration for Children’s Services because the agency removed their children from them. The mothers were victims of domestic violence and these children, according to the ACS, were removed because the mothers neglected them by exposing them to the abuse.

Continue reading

The effect and result of domestic violence extends to so many aspects in a victim’s life. There are even some aspects that you didn’t think will be affected by they are. The pain, trauma and extreme inconvenience of what domestic violence can do to a victim is very alarming. Take this case for example. The victim’s primary source of income, her job in a government agency was compromised that she had to file a court case just to get it back and prove her point. Her residence, which is one of the basic human rights was also affected and deprived from her for quite some time. And probably the most painful of all was that her children were also products of abuse by their father, the victim’s husband.

Continue reading

On July 1, 2010, a petition was made to the Court of Appeals to review the decision of the Family Court in Otsego, regarding a child, in a case involving domestic violence. The Family Court had ordered that the boy be treated as a permanently neglected child. Also, the rights that a mother has toward her child were taken away from the mother. On May 5, 2011, the Court of Appeals affirmed the Family Court’s decision. Let us examine why.

According to reports, Tyler was taken away from his mother in 2007. He was only a year old then. During the hearing, it was determined that the child had been neglected at home because of the many alcohol-related domestic violence incidents that had happened between his mother and father. The petitioner wanted it established that the child was a permanently neglected child and that he be removed from the care of his mother.

Continue reading

Couple, in wedding ceremonies, usually vow to love and protect each other till death do they part. The classic wedding vow brings into mind a happy and everlasting love of the couple. The wedding vow does not bring into mind a situation where the marriage would end at the death of the wife, caused by her own husband.

In a classic case of domestic violence that led to the death of the victim, an Ecuadorian woman was found strangled to death, wrapped in a blanket and placed inside a futon in her apartment. Her husband reported the death to the authorities.

Continue reading

A Department of Human and Health Services in a New York county filed a petition to terminate the parental rights of a mother whom the Department accused of having permanently neglected her minor children. According to sources, at the time of the filing of the Department’s petition, the father was deceased. The mother, the sources said, had found being a single mother extremely difficult and the children had come into the care and custody of the Department after she attempted suicide and was hospitalized.

The court granted the petition. The law defines a “permanently neglected child” as a child who is in the care of an authorized agency and whose parent or custodian has failed for a period of more than one year following the date such child came into the care of an authorized agency substantially and continuously or repeatedly to maintain contact with or plan for the future of the child, although physically and financially able to do so, notwithstanding the agency’s diligent efforts to encourage and strengthen the parental relationship when such efforts will not be detrimental to the best interests of the child.

Continue reading

A family court terminated the parental rights of a mother because she permanently neglected her four children. The children, the youngest of which are twins, have been in foster care since 1997 after they were neglected based on the court’s findings of domestic violence by both the mother and the twins’ father. Sources said that the mother also sexually abused one of her children.

To strengthen the parental relationship while the children remained in foster care, the mother was required to attend a domestic violence support group, parenting classes, facilitated visitation with the children, counseling and sex offender treatment. Sources said that although the mother participated in all of the programs and services required, she failed to successfully complete the sex offender program because she refused to admit the abuse. The court also found that the mother had failed to adequately plan for her children’s future due to her sporadic continuing relationship with the twins’ father. The mother also failed to demonstrate progress in her parenting skills.

Continue reading