Opinion
January 26, 1999.
Appeal from the Family Court, Bronx County (Alma Cordova, J.).
The evidence at the fact-finding hearing, viewed in the light most favorable to the presentment agency, was sufficient for the court to conclude appellant perceived and disregarded a substantial, unjustifiable risk of harm to others when he intentionally set a fire in a juvenile detention dormitory and the determination was not against the weight of the evidence ( People v. Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d 490). Appellant, who was burned as a result of the fire, knew that when he started the damaging fire, other residents and staff were present in the dormitory. Further, immediately following the incident, respondent fled from the custody of a dormitory counselor to dispose of matches in a bathroom toilet. Here, the court expressly found the testimony given by petitioner's witnesses to be consistent and credible while it rejected, as incredible, appellant's contrived, testimony of an alleged self-absorbed, suicidal state. There is no basis for setting aside the court's credibility determinations ( Matter of Jonitta C., 213 A.D.2d 248).
Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Nardelli, Williams and Andrias, JJ.