Case ID: ad2d_258/html/0513-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In the Matter of Mar L., a Person Alleged to be a Juvenile Delinquent, Appellant.
    [684 NYS2d 530]
   —Order of disposition, Family Court, Bronx County (Alma Cordova, J.), entered on or about September 26, 1997, which adjudicated appellant a juvenile delinquent, upon a fact-finding determination that appellant committed an act which, if committed by an adult, would constitute the crime of reckless endangerment in the second degree, and conditionally discharged him for a period of 12 months, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The evidence at the fact-finding hearing, viewed in the light most favorable to the presentment agency, was sufficient for the court to conclude appellant perceived and disregarded a substantial, unjustifiable risk of harm to others when he intentionally set a fire in a juvenile detention dormitory and the determination was not against the weight of the evidence (People v Bleakley, 69 NY2d 490). Appellant, who was burned as a result of the fire, knew that when he started the damaging fire, other residents and staff were present in the dormitory. Further, immediately following the incident, respondent fled from the custody of a dormitory counselor to dispose of matches in a bathroom toilet. Here, the court expressly found the testimony given by petitioner’s witnesses to be consistent and credible while it rejected, as incredible, appellant’s contrived testimony of an alleged self-absorbed, suicidal state. There is no basis for setting aside the court’s credibility determinations (Matter of Jonitta C., 213 AD2d 248). Concur— Sullivan, J. P., Nardelli, Williams and Andrias, JJ.