Court Opinion

ID: 9885509
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 13:06:04.833525+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:54.828777
License: Public Domain

Graffeo, J.
(concurring). I concur with the result reached by the majority but write separately to clarify why the evidence of neglect was insufficient in this case. As is clear from the majority opinion, this is not an area of law amenable to bright-line rules. Rather, whether neglect has been established during a proceeding turns on the particular facts and circumstances proven at the hearing. Here, the determination of insufficiency stems from the manner in which county social services chose to present its proof — there is no general principle of law that *12dictated this result. For this reason, I doubt that our holding in this case will have broad precedential value — but it does highlight the need for an adequate evidentiary basis before a finding of neglect can be entered.
In essence, the county relied almost entirely on the fact that the father had been convicted of certain criminal offenses and that he had been adjudicated a level three sex offender to support the inference that he posed an imminent threat of harm to his children and, concomitantly, that the mother was neglecting the children by failing to protect them from the father. Yet the county submitted only the certificate of conviction and did not offer any evidence detailing the facts underlying the criminal convictions. The record does not contain any accusatory instruments, witness statements or even the transcript from the plea or sentencing proceedings in the criminal case. The county’s attempts to develop proof concerning the criminal acts through questioning of the father were, not surprisingly, of limited value given his reluctance to provide details that might have substantiated the county’s case.
Nor did the county offer any evidence establishing the basis for the father’s designation as a level three sex offender. For example, the county did not submit any materials from the hearing held under the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA), such as the risk assessment instrument or hearing transcript, that would have revealed the factors on which the SORA court relied in making that adjudication. The facts underlying that finding may have supported an inference that the father posed a threat of harm — but they do not appear in the record of this neglect proceeding.
Finally, the county failed to present evidence, expert or otherwise, explaining how the father’s criminal history indicated that he posed a risk of harm to his children. In fact, it remains unclear whether the neglect petition was filed because the county social services agency feared that the father would sexually offend against his own children or believed a neglect finding was warranted on the theory that his criminal conduct reflected such a profound lack of judgment on his part that it demonstrated an inability to properly fulfill his parental role. Even the caseworker who initiated the petition neglected to clarify the nature of the imminent risk he believed these parents posed to their children.
By detailing the absence of evidence in this case, I do not mean to suggest that proof of each type must be offered in every *13neglect proceeding similar to this one. If some of these gaps had been filled, the evidence might have risen to the sufficiency threshold. On this record, however, the neglect findings were not sufficiently supported and the Appellate Division order dismissing the petitions must be affirmed.
Chief Judge Lippman and Judges Read, Smith, Pigott and Jones concur with Judge Ciparick; Judge Graffeo concurs in result in a separate opinion.
Order affirmed, with costs.