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Published on: May 22, 2012

New York Appellate Court Discussed Juvenile Murder Charges

by Stephen Bilkis

This is a very sad case about a juvenile offender in which a life had been threatened and killed. This case only goes to show the social problems that we are now facing with our children. This case is a call not only to parents but to all who are responsible in rearing the children of today.

Ricardo S, 15 years old at the time the crime was committed, was at the school yard of Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, according to a witness. It was October 21, 1980 and it was clear day. Ricardo was seen approaching the victim. According to facts , Ricardo had a handgun and threatened the victim to hand over his gold chain which he wore around his neck. When the victim apparently refused to give his gold chain, Ricardo then shot the victim and then took the gold chain from the victim’s neck.

Published on: May 21, 2012

New York Court Discusses the Use of the Sex Offender Management and Treatment Act

by Stephen Bilkis

There are many sex crimes these days that are discovered by a New York sex crime lawyer to have been caused by mental health or abnormality. Aside from SORA there is also the SOMTA or what is called as the Sex Offender Management and Treatment Act which deals with sex crimes that involve the Mental Hygiene Law. In this particular case, the one accused is Harold Nelson convicted of promoting prostitution, kidnapping and also bail jumping. He was given the charge of 9 to 18 years for kidnapping, 4 to 8 years for the kidnapping, and 3 to 6 years for the bail jumping.

According to a lawyer, Nelson forced his victim and raped her over and over again. He even forced her to be a prostitute and even physically beat her including the involvement of drugs. He was a detained sex offender who was found out to have been suffering from some kind of mental abnormality. According to a New York law describes SOMTA as crimes that are sexually motivated.

Published on: May 20, 2012

Is New York’s Sex Offender’s Registration Act Unconstitutional? Court Weighs In

by Stephen Bilkis

In a lot of sex crimes these days, an expert lawyer says that there are many accused who suffer from a certain kind of mental abnormalities. Such case lets the court decide that such accused undergo certain treatment like the SORA. But in this case, the alleged named as Elias M. However, in this case he keeps on appealing that such program is unconstitutional and that he would fight for his right.

According to the lawyer who became a part of the case, the court did not agree that the decision for the SORA is unconstitutional. It even scored him as a sex offender who is of high risk and falls as level 3 offender. But the defendant still continue to disagree and never stopped submitting written submissions to serve as additional support to what he is trying to prove. Another lawyer also believes that there is no valid reason at all to have his level 3 designation to be lowered for he was certainly considered as a high risk offender which means he is of great harm to the society.

Published on: May 19, 2012

Does a Person Have to be Physically Present to be Charged with Robbery? New York Courts Discuss

by Stephen Bilkis

There are always questions on who are involved in a particular and who are not. Up to what extent can be a person’s participation for him to be considered as part of a crime? This particular case is all about these doubts and questions about a person’s participation in committing a crime.

According to a source, John T was charged and indicted with second degree. But this was contested by T because the nature of his involvement in the said crime. He was sentenced to three to nine years of imprisonment.

Published on: May 17, 2012

New York Court Hears Case Involving Child Abuse and Mental Health Issues

by Stephen Bilkis

On September 17, 1992 the Family Court of Kings County, New York heard a disturbing case involving the two children, two boys and a girl who were possibly being abused by their father. The allegations of sexual abuse stated that the father pinched and squeezed the buttocks and genitals of the boy children. However, it was claimed that this handling occurred while they were wrestling and playing. The father stated that he did handle the boys, but it was in no way sexual. He stated that it was just horsing around type of behavior. He stated that he had grabbed the boys’ genitals and buttocks during wrestling, but that he had been similarly touched as a child and had not considered it wrong. He stated that he realizes that it “transgresses proper parental boundaries.” The professionals called upon to review this case state that in order for the touching to be considered sexual abuse, there must be an element of sexual gratification in the touching that does not appear to be evident in this case. The doctor who examined the children stated that she could not say with absolute certainty that the boys had been abused. She advised that there were perhaps inappropriate parental boundaries, but that is not abnormal. Many parents involve in interplay with their children especially in “early stages of development that consists of touching, squeezing, patting, and pinching various parts of the child’s body including buttocks and at times genitalia.” The doctor stated that the difference is that when the child is older, the same behavior is not acceptable. She stated that some parents lack the respect for the child’s right to privacy of his own person that the child should develop as it grows and matures. The parent therefore, continues with the same games only now the child or society perceives them as inappropriate. It is agreed that there seems to be a gray area in the parental child relationship that must be examined with extreme care in order that normal parental interactions are not erroneously defined as sexual abuse. By falsely identifying this behavior as sexual abuse, a parent /child relationship can be severely damaged.

Another aspect of this allegation that must be examined is the aspect that the mother may have coached the children to make the allegations. The allegations were made to a third party outside of the normal interactions in the home which is not normal. The mother stated that years before, she had made the children watch a video tape about reporting sexual abuse. The court officers have observed the mother’s displays of illogical thinking and reports of her being incoherent. The mother has publically accused the father of sexually abusing the boys and has refused to comply with court ordered visitations because she states that he is a sex abuser. It is difficult to determine if the alleged abuse actually occurred, or if during normal family type play, touching was engaged in that had nothing to do with sexual gratification. Since it is unable to determine the intent behind the touching, the court has no choice but to dismiss the sexual abuse allegations in this case. Not only was the court unable to find that there was intent involved. The timing of the allegations to fall shortly before the hearing of this custody case is suspect especially, since it is alleged that the contact was several years earlier. Something that they do consider has led to the some of the bad feelings that the children have towards their father is the ongoing domestic violence that the children observed growing up in the home.

Published on: May 16, 2012

New York Court Discusses Disturbing Case Regarding Sexual Abuse of Children

by Stephen Bilkis

These days, it is very hard to trust others especially when it comes to leaving our kids with people who you can truly rely on. There are many cases these days where nannies and even babysitters are accused of committing sex crimes that involve the children of their own employers according to a lawyer. This goes the same for this case that is considered as an example here in this report for you to understand better the legal proceedings for such cases. The one involved here as the accused is James Watt.

As per the lawyer who studied this case, Watt was convicted of rape, sodomy and for putting into danger the welfare of a little child. The crimes involved in his case are considered very heinous since it was committed against innocent and helpless tiny girls who are under 11 years old. These kids according to their parents were entrusted to him since he operates a basement based daycare center in the community. The problem that made everything worse is that the daycare center was not registered.

Published on: May 15, 2012

Parent Fights Child Neglect Charges, New York Court Decides

by Stephen Bilkis

In February of 2007, a man returned to New York State to re-unite with his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his little girl. They had parted the summer of 2006 following a domestic violence situation. The court had issued an order of protection to keep this man away from his family. They agreed to have joint custody of their little girl.

When he moved back to New York, he moved in back in with his ex-girlfriend, the mother of his little girl. But it did not take long before the police were back out at their apartment. Three months after that, the little girl was back in emergency foster care following a horrific episode of domestic violence that occurred in the child’s presence. The neighbor in the apartment next door to theirs heard a fight, and a child screaming for help. In fact, the mother testified later at trial that the man had strangled her during an argument. She stated that her daughter had been behind the man crying and screaming for him to stop hurting her mommy. The man was arrested again, the woman was also arrested. There had been some houseguests in their home when the argument occurred and they started to fight. When the police came, they located a shoebox containing marijuana and other drug paraphernalia. The drugs were located in an area that would have been easily accessible for the small child. Both parents were charged based on the element of neglect involved in having harmful substances within her reach.

Published on: May 14, 2012

New York Courts Rule that Repeated Domestic Violence in the Presence of Children Constitutes Neglect

by Stephen Bilkis

The courts have ruled repeatedly that an act of domestic violence in the presence of within view of a child constitutes neglect. However, an isolated incident of domestic violence does not constitute a case of neglect. An incident is not isolated, though, when it is part of a pattern of conduct. A domestic violence incident is not isolated if it is done more than once.

In the situation at question, the mother’s testimony at a fact-finding hearing demonstrated that there was a clear pattern of conduct. So the father could not claim that it was an isolated incident. There was a pattern of conduct. The father appealed the finding from the fact-finding order of the Family Court of Queens County from August 3, 2009. In that hearing he was found to have neglected his children.

Published on: May 12, 2012

New York Courts Rule on Custody in Light of Child Abuse Allegations

by Stephen Bilkis

One of the ugliest truths about domestic violence, separation and divorce is the effect these things have with the children involved. They are often times ignored, their feelings and sense of identity compromised because of the violence happening inside their homes. In a child’s perception, home is supposed to be the safest place for him. That is why if this is compromised by any reason, the child’s sense of security is altered and he becomes sceptical of his surroundings all the time which is not healthy for his emotional and intellectual growth.

Published on: May 11, 2012

New York Courts Discuss on What Constitutes Child Neglect

by Stephen Bilkis

On September 29, 2008, a petition was put before the Family Court of Tioga County to have a certain child classified as a neglected child under Family Law. What would this mean and how did it come about?

The child was born in 2005. In 2007, his biological parents began living together, and were later married. On April 16, 2008, a report was filed alleging that the husband had committed domestic violence against his wife twice, in the presence of the child.