Judges: McCarthy
Filed Date: 2/19/2015
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 10/19/2024
Appeal from an order of the Family Court of Madison County (McDermott, J.), entered March 7, 2014, which granted petitioner’s application, in a proceeding pursuant to Family Ct Act article 7, to adjudicate respondent a person in need of supervision.
Respondent argues that the juvenile delinquency petition and the PINS petition should each have been dismissed as legally insufficient. His argument concerning the juvenile delinquency petition is academic, inasmuch as that petition was supplanted by the PINS petition (cf. Matter of Jennifer QQ., 63 AD3d 1232, 1233 [2009]). Although the PINS petition itself does not adequately specify the acts supporting the accusations and the time and place where they allegedly occurred (see Family Ct Act § 732 [a] [i]), that petition states that it is being substituted for a juvenile delinquency petition and is based upon statements and depositions already on file with Family Court. Considering the allegations in the juvenile delinquency petition and the attached supporting documents, which are incorporated by reference in the PINS petition, the PINS petition is legally sufficient.
Family Court erred by failing to advise respondent of his rights. Pursuant to statute, at the initial appearance and at the commencement of any hearing concerning a PINS petition, Family Court must advise the respondent and his or her parent of the respondent’s rights to remain silent and to be represented by counsel of his or her choosing or an assigned attorney (see Family Ct Act § 741 [a]; Matter of Jodi VV., 295 AD2d 659, 660 [2002]). Here, the court did not mention these rights at the first appearance on the PINS petition, at which time the court accepted respondent’s consent to a PINS finding, nor at the dispositional hearing. The court’s failure to advise respondent of these rights constitutes reversible error
Based on our remittal, we need not address respondent’s remaining contentions.
Peters, P.J., Lahtinen and Lynch, JJ., concur.
Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, without costs, and matter remitted to the Family Court of Madison County for further proceedings not inconsistent with this Court’s decision.