Opinion
June 1, 1999.
Appeal from the Family Court, New York County (Sara Schechter, J.).
We see no reason to disturb Family. Court's finding of credibility rejecting respondent's testimony that she or her prison social worker called the agency on five occasions during the abandonment period in an effort to communicate with the children, but either was told by the receptionist to call back or got no answer. In any event, such testimony, even if credited, does not show contact substantial enough to avoid a finding of abandonment, particularly in the absence of evidence of any kind of contact with the agency for more than a year prior to the commencement of the abandonment period, going back to when the older child was 10 months old and the younger child was not yet born ( see, Matter of Dawnthal Danielle C., 170 A.D.2d 375; Matter of Anthony M., 195 A.D.2d 315, 316; Matter of Oneka O., 249 A.D.2d 233). We agree with Family Court, and the agency and the children's Law Guardian, that termination of parental rights is in the children's best interests.
Concur — Ellerin, P. J., Nardelli, Williams, Saxe and Friedman, JJ.