Plaintiff Wife was born in February of 1981. She is currently 34 years old. Wife attended college and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration in 2005 from Maywood University located in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2007 and discharged about $35,000 of consumer debt at that time.

In March of 2009, Wife began dating an individual named J. Sanchez who was serving a seventeen years to life sentence in Woodbourne State Correctional facility after being convicted of murder in the second degree. She testified that Sanchez "was a nice guy who was incarcerated as a minor for a mistake". (Tr. 1/28/15, p. 27). She explained that Sanchez had dropped out of high school and was making money as a street drug dealer. Wife testified that Mr. Sanchez sold cocaine, heroin and other "regular" street drugs (Tr. 1/28/15, p. 34). Sanchez had previously been shot five times by another drug dealer. One night, Sanchez opened fire in a public area in Brooklyn and killed an innocent bystander. Wife testified that Mr. Sanchez was attempting to shoot the rival drug dealer who had shot him in the past. (Tr., 1/28/15, pp.32-33).

On November 21, 2009, while she was living in Pennsylvania with her parents, Wife was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats, weapon possession, and aggravated assault among other charges. Specifically, Wife claims that she was the victim of a road rage incident in the parking lot of a department store. She claims that she was confronted by the driver and passenger of the other vehicle involved for not stopping at a stop sign. During this confrontation a physical altercation ensued. Wife claims that during the altercation she pulled out a knife in self defense after being punched in the face. When the other driver and passenger saw the knife, they backed away. Following this incident, Wife was arrested, bail was set, and she was released two days later (Tr. 1/28/15, p. 54-55; Def. Ex. A). Almost a year later, on October 25, 2010, Wife pled guilty to the making of terroristic threats and simple assault as defined by Pennsylvania Law. Based on that plea, Wife was sentenced to three months of house arrest and nine months probation (1/28/15, pp. 55-57). At the time she pled guilty, Wife understood that the aggravated assault charge carried a potential sentence of seven years incarceration. She further understood that if she violated the terms of her probation, she would face one year in prison. (Tr.1/28/15, p. 58; 2/10/15 p. 72).

Following her period of house arrest, Wife relocated to New York and resided in Riverdale from January to September 2011. While her divorce from Mr. Sanchez was pending, Wife met Defendant Husband. Wife claims that she told Husband that she had filed for bankruptcy, had a criminal history for which she was on probation, and was married to a convicted murderer and was in the process of divorcing him when they met (Tr. 1/28/15, p. 50, 58-59). While Husband admits that he was aware of much of Wife's history, he testified that he was willing to give Wife a chance as "everyone makes mistakes."

According to Wife, she has not worked since she found out in October 2011 that she was pregnant with M.N. (Tr. 1/28/15 p. 65-66). Prior to her marriage she had briefly worked for a temporary job placement agency. Wife testified that since she was not working, Husband expected her to clean the house, take out the garbage, and basically be "a slave". Wife does not claim that Husband prevented her from working at any time. Wife has recently taken classes to become a professional beautician. She has formed a company known as "Aesthetics and Ink, LLC" but is still in the process of securing the necessary licenses for waxing and other beauty services (Tr. 2/10/15, p. 153-57). Wife speculates that she could easily make about $50,000 a year from this business. Wife claims that she currently receives monthly support from her parents and has no personal responsibility for her expenses.

Defendant Husband was born in October of 1979 and is presently 35 years old. Since the summer of 2012, Husband has resided at the former marital home located at ** Wardwell Avenue in Staten Island, New York. That property is a detached private home with four bedrooms and several bathrooms. Husband lives there with the subject child during his parenting time. He co-owns this home with his mother.

Since 2003, Husband has been employed full time as manager of a window factory business owned by his parents located in Brooklyn, New York. He works on Mondays after he drops off the subject child, full days on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and half a day on Thursday until he leaves to pick up M.N. (Tr. 2/10/15, pp. 10-12). He earns approximately $84,000 per year. His schedule is flexible based on the needs of the subject child. Husband also enjoys an extensive family support system including, his parents, his two sisters, multiple cousins, aunts and uncles, all of who reside close to his home. (Tr. 2/26/15, pp. 99-100).

Husband testified that Wife is chronically late for the "drop off" aspect of the visitation exchange currently being performed at the 1st precinct in lower Manhattan, but that she is always on time to "pick up" the subject child. He further testified that Wife and the maternal grandmother, Margaret K., have been abusive to him during the course of this litigation. For example, on December 26, 2013, Wife did not show up for the exchange of M.N. Eventually she notified Husband that M.N. was in the emergency room. When Husband arrived at the hospital [*5]he found that Wife had misled security personnel as to the parameters of her Order of Protection. As a result, Husband was not permitted to see M.N., or speak to any of the professionals treating her until after Wife had left. Rather, he was told to remain in the waiting room.

Husband credibly testified that Wife engaged in a pattern of abusive, degrading and harassing conduct toward him designed to intimidate him from seeking custody and to otherwise portray him as an unfit parent. She was nasty and condescending when he would email her regarding M.N. She would make degrading remarks about his ethnicity including mockingly referring to him only by his Chinese birth name although she knew he preferred to be called by his anglicized name.

Beginning when M.N. was around 16 months old, Husband noticed she was exhibiting developmental delays. Husband admits that he had her evaluated without informing Wife. M.N. was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Husband immediately took steps to engage services for this child. After the child was diagnosed, he invited Wife to participate in the child's treatment and services. Wife objected to the fact that he had her evaluated, without her consent, and stated she did not believe there was anything wrong with her child (2/10/15, p. 14).

The subject child M.N. was born June 15, 2012. By Order dated May 24, 2013, Wife has visitation with the subject child from Mondays at 9:00 a.m. until Thursday at 12:00 p.m. with pickup and drop off at the 122 Precinct. Husband has the child from Thursday at 12:00 p.m through Monday at 9:00 a.m. (Jud No. 9). Wife currently lives in the Bronx, Husband lives in Staten Island. The child is currently exchanged at the 1st Police Precinct located in lower Manhattan as the parties agreed this was a mid-point between their residences. Under the current visitation schedule, Wife does not have time with M.N. on the weekends. (Tr. 1/28/15, p. 118-19).