Opinion
December 10, 1998
Appeal from the Family Court, New York County (Ruth Zuckerman, J.).
The female child's out-of-court statements to the police detective that respondent had sexually abused her were corroborated by respondent's signed, sworn statement that he had committed the acts of abuse the child had described to the detective. The credibility of this admission, and its corroborative effect, is not undermined by respondent's recantation ( see, Matter of Margaret W., 83 A.D.2d 557, lv denied 54 N.Y.2d 609, cited with approval in Matter of Nicole V., 71 N.Y.2d 112, 119), in view of Family Court's finding, based largely on witness credibility and to which we defer, that the statement was not illegally obtained by the detective through trickery. Nor is the credibility of the child's out-of-court statements undermined by her recantation, in view of the evidence that such was based solely upon her reluctance to upset her mother and to put respondent in jail ( see, Matter of N G Children, 176 A.D.2d 504, 505). We have considered respondent's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and find it to be without merit ( see, Matter of Erin G., 139 A.D.2d 737, 739).
Concur — Lerner, P. J., Ellerin, Andrias and Saxe, JJ.