In re Johnny O.

Jun 5, 1997
Versions:240 A.D.2d 179
658 N.Y.S.2d 871
1997 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5992

Order of disposition, Family Court, Bronx County (Harold Lynch, J.), entered October 18, 1994, which placed respondent’s child with the Commissioner of Social Services for a period of up to 12 months upon a finding of abuse, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Sworn testimony of respondent’s children of frequent, almost daily, brutal beatings with a belt over a period of many years, which often left them bruised and in serious pain, was sufficient, standing alone, to prove abuse (Matter of R. Children, 216 AD2d 6; Matter of Venus S., 228 AD2d 314). Moreover, the testimony of the two children was so internally consistent as to be cross-corroborating, and was also corroborated by other witnesses, including family members who witnessed the beatings and a police officer who recovered handcuffs and instruments of abuse from the family home. Concur—Milonas, J. P., Rosenberger, Wallach, Nardelli and Rubin, JJ.