Appeal from an order of the Family Court of Rensselaer County (Hummel, J.), entered March 5, 1999, which dismissed petitioner’s application, in a proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 10, to adjudicate respondents’ child to be neglected.
On June 15, 1998, respondent Denise RR. (hereinafter the mother) and respondent Curtis PP. (hereinafter the father), parents of a 15-month-old child, were involved in a domestic dispute which became physical when the father knocked the mother down and choked her. After the incident the father left
As a result of the incident, the father was arrested for harassment and an order of protection was issued barring the father from any contact with the mother. Thereafter a report was made to the State Central Registry for Child Abuse and Maltreatment by the Troy police, which was followed by an investigation of the allegations in the report by petitioner. On August 26, 1998 a neglect petition was filed when petitioner determined that respondents had resumed their living arrangement without first obtaining the counseling services petitioner deemed necessary to decrease the risk of further violence between them. A fact-finding hearing was commenced on February 22, 1999 and, at the close of petitioner’s proof, Family Court granted the father’s motion to dismiss the petition for failure to prove a prima facie case against him. The hearing was completed on February 25, 1999 and Family Court dismissed the petition against the mother. Petitioner now appeals.
Petitioner first contends that Family Court applied the wrong evidentiary standard in this neglect proceeding, thereby requiring reversal. In its written decision, Family Court recited the correct evidentiary standard, i.e., that a finding of neglect must be established by a fair preponderance of the evidence (see, Family Ct Act § 1046 [b] [i]; Matter of Nicole V.,
Petitioner next argues that its proof of respondents’ verbal argument in the presence of the child, respondents’ physical altercation involving choking and pushing, and their causing a car window to break while the child was in her car seat combined to establish neglect by the appropriate evidentiary standard (see, Family Ct Act § 1012 [f [i] [B]). We disagree.
Crew III, J. P., Spain, Mugglin and Rose, JJ., concur. Ordered that the order is affirmed, without costs.
