In re Ian H.
This case involves an appeal from a Family Court order adjudicating a respondent's children neglected. The respondent, a substitute day-care worker, was accused of sexually abusing female children attending a day-care center operated by his wife. Petitioner initiated a neglect proceeding, alleging derivative neglect of the respondent's twin sons based on his inappropriate conduct with other children. The Family Court found that the respondent neglected three children by sexually abusing them, demonstrating a fundamental defect in parenting that derivatively neglected his own children. The Appellate Division affirmed this finding, concluding that out-of-court statements of the abused children were properly admitted and sufficiently corroborated, and the Family Court appropriately exercised its discretion in not compelling a child's testimony.