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Matter of Aryeh-Levi

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Nov 16, 1987
134 A.D.2d 428 (N.Y. App. Div. 1987)

Opinion

November 16, 1987

Appeal from the Family Court, Queens County (De Phillips, J.).


Ordered that the order is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

The evidence adduced by the petitioner sufficed to prove the allegations by the requisite preponderance of the evidence (see, Family Ct Act § 1046 [b] [i]). After the court conducted an in camera interview with the appellant's five-year-old stepdaughter, it concluded that she was competent to testify, although she was incapable of being sworn. Her unsworn testimony detailing her stepfather's acts of sexual abuse against her was properly deemed credible. Such unsworn testimony alone could have been sufficient to support a prima facie case of sexual abuse (see, Matter of Fawn S., 123 A.D.2d 871). However, additional corroborative evidence offered through medical testimony that the child had an enlarged vaginal and hymenal opening unusual for a child of her age similarly supported the allegations (see, Matter of Kimberly K., 123 A.D.2d 865).

Each of the evidentiary rulings now challenged by the appellant was entirely proper. The denial of his application for a second examination of the child by his own expert was properly denied as untimely, since that request was first made approximately one month after the petitioner's case had been completed and just as the appellant was due to commence his case. The court's rejection of the proffered expert testimony regarding the appellant's lack of any psychosexual disorder constituted a proper exercise of the court's discretion (see, People v. Cronin, 60 N.Y.2d 430, 433), in light of the limited probative value of that testimony. The rejection of polygraph results was similarly proper (see, People v. Shedrick, 66 N.Y.2d 1015, 1018). Niehoff, J.P., Weinstein, Eiber and Harwood, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

Matter of Aryeh-Levi

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Nov 16, 1987
134 A.D.2d 428 (N.Y. App. Div. 1987)
Case details for

Matter of Aryeh-Levi

Case Details

Full title:In the Matter of ARYEH-LEVI K. et al. CARYN K., Respondent; MARTIN K.…

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

Date published: Nov 16, 1987

Citations

134 A.D.2d 428 (N.Y. App. Div. 1987)

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