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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: In re A.B.
07.15.2010 | Child Protection / Adjudication
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's adjudication of neglect as to appellant-mother's youngest child, holding that an expert witness, in formulating her opinion, may reasonably rely on the opinion of another expert in a different specialty; the court, however, reversed the trial court’s adjudication of appellant-mother’s two older children as neglected, finding the evidence was insufficient. The court found that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in permitting a pediatrician and expert on child abuse to render her opinion on the cause of the youngest child's multiple fractures where she relied, in part, on the findings of a geneticist to exclude another unlikely cause. The court reversed the trial court's neglect adjudications of the child's two older siblings, holding that courts must make individualized findings of imminent danger for each child, and that excessive physical punishment does not meet the statutory definition of "abuse" unless it causes physical or mental injury. The court found that the parents had not abused the older children by hitting them with a belt and a ruler when they endured no more than transient pain or temporary marks, and neither child suffered or was threatened with mental injury.
Cite: Nos. 06-FS-1010, 06-FS-1011, 06-FS-1012, 2010 D.C. App. LEXIS 343 (D.C. July 1, 2010)
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