Appellants are parents of three children and their parental custody was removed by the court, thus, the appeal was filed before the court for resolution.
In 1997, the father raped her 8-year old daughter during the time that his wife and two sons were asleep at the living room of their apartment. A New York Sex Crimes Lawyer said the child victim went to her mother holding herself tightly and bleeding from her vagina. The mother let her daughter take a shower, placed a sanitary pad to her daughter’s bleeding vagina and made her sleep in bed. The mother did not seek the medical assistance for her daughter as suggested by her husband. After a while, their daughter, being a rape victim, started complaining about stomach cramps and she continue to bleed and vomited.
Upon seeking medical treatment, the parents told a different story about what happened to their daughter and concealed the real story of what happened to their child. A New York Sex Crimes Lawyer said their daughter continued to bleed profusely. The mother even knew of a prior sodomy of her husband toward her daughter and also her husband’s mother accused him of a sex crime of his younger sister. Her daughter underwent operation and was confined in the hospital for ten days.
The father confessed to the commission of rape and was arrested by the police. Their three other children was brought to a foster home. The father pleaded guilty to the sex crime and was sentenced by the court to 15-year imprisonment while the mother pleaded guilty for the crime of reckless endangerment due to her failure to seek immediate medical help of her daughter and by making false statements about the cause of the injuries suffered by the same and was sentenced to a maximum of three years imprisonment.
Family proceedings then commenced against the parents for abuse and for termination of parental rights and the family court found that there were abuses to the children. A Nassau County Sex Crimes Lawyer said the court rendered an order placing the appellant’s children under the custody of a child care institution and subsequently terminated the parental rights of the parents due to permanent neglect of their children.
A new statute was enacted in 1999 where the law set exceptions to the requirement of foster care in taking necessary steps and reasonable efforts to reunite the foster children to their parents, namely, due to “severe abuses” or “aggravated circumstances.” The court clearly found that the parents-appellants have severely abused their daughter being rape victim of his father and for failure of her mother to seek medical assistance in her favor. The court further noted that the other children were also abused. As a consequence, requirement of diligent efforts at reunification is dispensed with and the court terminated the parental rights of the appellants toward their children.
The appellate court affirmed the decision of the family court on the grounds that the passing of the new law, although having retroactive effect, did not affect the vested rights of the parents; the requirement of diligent efforts to be made by foster agencies may be dispensed with and the existence of authority of the family court to make derivative finding of severe abuse. A Queens Sex Crimes Lawyer said due to the offenses and abuses committed by the parents toward their children, the best interests of the children must be held paramount and overcome the right of parental authority of parents over their children. Granting the reunification of the children with the appellants would rather entail grave danger to the former that must be prevented by the court. Prior cases would show that the “courts have consistently sustained derivative findings where a respondent’s abuse of the subject child is so closely connected with the care of another child as to indicate that the second child is equally at risk.” Thus, the court’s judgment and order was duly affirmed.
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