Opinion
January 30, 1996
Appeal from the Family Court, Bronx County (Rita Bolstad, J.).
Viewed in a light most favorable to the presentment agency, the evidence of respondent's repeated acts of stalking, hitting, grabbing and threatening the complainant with physical harm could lead a rational person to infer that respondent intended to place complainant in reasonable fear of physical injury, and thereby was guilty of second degree menacing (Penal Law § 120.14; see, Matter of Moises O., 189 A.D.2d 687). That some of these acts occurred while respondent and the complainant were in a dating relationship does not require a finding to the contrary. There is nothing in the statute itself to indicate a legislative intent to immunize stalkers who target persons familiar to them.
Concur — Rosenberger, J.P., Rubin, Kupferman, Nardelli and Tom, JJ.