La Croix v. Deyo

Levine, J. (dissenting). I respectfully dissent. The unrebutted testimony of respondent’s psychological expert, the Associate Director of Mental Health Services for Ulster County, whose major clinical experience has been the treatment of children and adolescents, was that having recently lost his mother in a sudden, unexpected, fatal accident, the enforced separation from his stepfather and maternal grandmother — the child’s only other major sources of nurturance — “would represent a major, major destruction in his life on top of what has been clearly a traumatic experience.” The intimacy and…