In re Alan SS.
Opinion of the Court
Appeal
Respondent was initially adjudicated a juvenile delinquent by Family Court on September 24, 1984. This order was based on a finding that he had committed an act (i.e, brandishing a pellet gun at two individuals) which, if committed by an adult, would constitute the crime of menacing, a class B misdemeanor. A dispositional hearing was thereafter held and, on October 24, 1984, an order of the same date placed respondent in the custody of the State Division for Youth. He was placed at the South Kortright facility. He was paroled from there on June 14, 1985. On August 13, 1985, he was returned to South Kortright pending a parole revocation hearing. The hearing was held and his parole was revoked. On August 14, 1985, a petition for extension of respondent’s placement was filed in Family Court. The petition was based on the same grounds as those contained in the parole revocation petition, namely, failure to adhere to curfew, failure to be available for supervision, associating with negative peers and consuming alcohol. After a hearing, an order was issued by Family Court sustaining the allegations of the petition and extending respondent’s placement in the custody of the State Division for Youth to September 1, 1986. This appeal ensued.
There should be an affirmance. Respondent’s claim that Family Court’s determination was not supported by a preponderance of the evidence is rejected. Family Court is authorized to consider a wide range of evidence (Family Ct Act § 350.3 [1]) in arriving at its decision in a dispositional hearing (Matter of Dennis NN., 107 AD2d 914, 915; see, Matter of Addison, 20 AD2d 90). Only material and relevant evidence is admissible at the hearing and the "adjudication at the conclusion of a dispositional hearing must be based on a preponderance of the evidence” (Family Ct Act § 350.3 [2]; see, Family Ct Act § 355.3 [3]).
At the hearing for extension of respondent’s placement, his mother testified that: (1) respondent had violated curfew on several occasions; (2) respondent associated with undesirables in the collegetown area of the City of Ithaca; and (3) she suspected respondent of using drugs and alcohol. She stated that respondent’s curfew was 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends and that he had been seriously late for curfew on four occasions, arriving home between 1:00 and 3:00
Order affirmed, without costs. Kane, J. P., Main, Casey, Weiss and Mikoll, JJ., concur.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.