[THEME MUSIC] >> WELCOME TO THIS WEEK'S EDITION OF NEW YORK NOW.

I'M SHANTEL DESTRA.

DURING THE MOST RECENT LEGISLATIVE SESSION, NEW YORK STATE LAWMAKERS PASSED KYRA'S LAW.

THIS IS A BILL THAT WOULD REQUIRE COURTS TO EVALUATE ABUSE ALLEGATIONS AND SAFETY RISKS IN DECIDING CUSTODY AND VISITATION FOR CHILDREN.

THE BILL IS NAMED AFTER THE LATE TWO-YEAR-OLD KYRA FRANCHETTI - WHO WAS TRAGICALLY KILLED BY HER FATHER DURING AN UNSUPERVISED COURT-APPROVED VISIT TEN YEARS AGO.

SINCE THEN, KYRA'S MOTHER, JACQUILINE HAS BEEN TRYING TO BRING AWARENESS TO HER TRAGIC DEATH AND HAS BEEN CALLING FOR STATE ACTION FOR THE LAST several YEARS.

HERE'S JACQUELINE SHARING HER STORY AT A RECENT PRESS CONFERENCE IN COLONIE, NEW YORK.

>> TEN YEARS AGO TODAY, I WAS DOING SOMETHING.

I PRAY NO OTHER FAMILY, NO OTHER PARENT EVER HAS TO DO.

I WAS PLANNING MY DAUGHTER'S FUNERAL, AND I REMEMBER KYRA, I REMEMBER THE SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS AS SHE WOULD RUN DOWN THE HALL.

I REMEMBER HER GIGGLE.

I REMEMBER WHEN SHE WOULD SAY MAMA.

AND I REMEMBER THE SILENCE, THE deafening SILENCE WHEN SHE WAS TAKEN BY HER ABUSIVE FATHER AFTER SHE WAS COURT ORDERED TO BE ON A VISIT WITH HIM.

>> AND UNFORTUNATELY, KYRA IS NOT THE ONLY TRAGIC STORY.

FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD MEGAN MARGARET APPEARED WITH JACQUELINE AT THAT PRESS CONFERENCE AND SHARED HER OWN STORY ABOUT THE YEARS OF SEXUAL ABUSE THAT SHE ENDURED AT THE HANDS OF HER BIOLOGICAL FATHER AS WELL AS HER PROCESS OF REPORTING IT TO FAMILY COURT.

BEWARE, THIS CONTENT IS VERY GRAPHIC IN NATURE.

>> BUT THE COURT DID NOT CARE AND THEY repeatedly SENT ME BACK AND THIS PARENT WAS SEXUALLY ABUSING ME.

KYRA'S LAW WILL BE ABLE TO BREAK THE CYCLE AND SAVE CHILDREN.

THE PROBLEM IS NOT THAT KIDS DON'T SPEAK UP, IT'S THAT WE'RE NOT LISTENED TO WHEN WE DO.

THE ABUSE STARTED WHEN I WAS THREE YEARS OLD.

I WAS TOLD BY MY ABUSIVE DAD THAT MY MOM WANTED THIS TO HAPPEN, WHICH SHE DIDN'T.

IT WAS ONE OF HIS MANY lies.

I WAS TOLD THAT IF I TOLD HER OR ANYONE ELSE THAT MY MOM WOULD BE KILLED.

AT ONE POINT I THOUGHT I WAS SAFE.

MY MOM PACKED UP.

MY SIBLING and ME LEFT.

THAT HE WOULD LEAVE ME ALONE.

HE DIDN'T.

>> MEGAN MARGARET SAYS THAT IF KYRA'S LAW HAD BEEN SIGNED INTO LAW, IT WOULD HAVE PROTECTED HER FROM THE YEARS OF CHILD ABUSE SHE ENDURED.

>> IF KYRA'S LAW HAD BEEN IN PLACE WHEN I WAS YOUNGER, MY LIFE WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT.

KYRA'S LAW WOULD MAKE SURE THAT JUDGES LOOK AT ALL OF THE WARNING SIGNS AND PUT THE CHILDREN'S SAFETY FIRST.

SOMETHING THAT DID NOT HAPPEN IN MY CASE.

KYRA'S LAW WOULD MEAN THAT MY SAFETY WOULD COME FIRST.

THE SYSTEMS THAT ARE IN NEW YORK THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT US, OR COMPLETELY BROKEN.

CHILDREN ARE NOT EVIDENCE.

WE ARE PEOPLE.

WE DESERVE TO BE SAFE.

WE DESERVE TO BE HEARD, AND WE DESERVE TO BE BELIEVED.

AND TODAY, I STAND BEFORE YOU AND ADVOCATE FOR CHANGE.

WHY DON'T OUR COURTS LISTEN TO US?

WHY DID MY ABUSE HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN ME?

>> KYRA'S LAW PASSED BOTH HOUSES THIS YEAR, BUT NEEDS THE GOVERNOR SIGNATURE TO OFFICIALLY BECOME LAW.

IN THIS NEXT SEGMENT, OUR ELISE KLINE SAT DOWN WITH THE BILL'S SPONSOR IN THE LOWER CHAMBER, ASSEMBLYMEMBER ANDREW HEVESI, ON THE STATUS OF THE BILL AND HOW THE STATE CAN BETTER SUPPORT VICTIMS OF CHILD ABUSE.

HERE'S THAT CONVERSATION.

>> Thank you so much for joining us today, Assemblymember.

>> My pleasure.

Good to see you.

>> Can you start by telling us what your biggest concerns are with family courts in the state, particularly when it comes to how child abuse cases are dealt with, and do you think the state is doing enough to address those concerns?

>> Well, first, thanks for having me.

I really appreciate it.

The answer to the question is that New York courts are operating without a statewide uniform standard for cases when parents are involved in custody or visitation cases and either child abuse or domestic violence arises.

And what is happening, without the statutory guidance, we're seeing that judges are putting in place stay-away orders that are not always based on the best evidentiary foundation.

So we're looking to change that, to prevent any future abuse of children and murders, and also to make sure the parents know exactly what's going on with their cases in family court.

There's a whole overhaul of the uniform procedures that we needed to jump into here.

>> What are the biggest policy reforms that need to happen from your perspective to address those challenges in family court?

>> Well, so KYRA'S LAW is, I want to start by giving credit to Jacqueline Franchetti.

I know you have spoken to her and her incredible story.

Jacqueline's courage and tenacity are incredible and I'm honored to work with her.

But what we need to do is make sure that there is a procedure from the beginning stages of these proceedings when anybody raises, I'm sorry, when anybody raises child abuse or domestic violence or any other standard, any other incident that could hurt the child.

So we have created a new standard that will trigger a review in family court that has a variety of new factors that the judges are now required to consider, including they prioritize the safety of the child, but they include what we're calling lethality factors in domestic violence and child abuse cases, which are the factors that will lead most likely to further bad, horrible abuse or death of the people we're trying to protect.

So we have put those in.

The biggest component, I think, and this is arguable because it's a really comprehensive bill, is the first use of the, I'm sorry, the coercive control in this statute.

That's the first time in New York State that we're using that particular term.

And I think that that is one of the most important parts of KYRA'S LAW.

We're now going to establish what coercive control is and have our judges look out for it.

Now, let me just say one last thing.

After the judges conduct their review, they are now going to be required by law to put their decisions in writing.

So if they're issuing a temporary order of custody or a permanent order of custody, judges will now be required in writing and on the record to state what they are basing their decisions off of after they've done that review.

And if there's any part of that review that shows there's a preponderance of the evidence that any of these events happen, these lethality factors that I talked about, then the judges are going to have to take that as a significant factor and explain that on the record when they are going to be making these determinations for kids.

>> And KYRA'S LAW, as you know, passed both houses this year for the first time.

The bill is named in memory of two-year-old KYRA Franchetti, who in 2016 was shot to death in her sleep by her father during a court-ordered unsupervised visit, despite repeated reports and accounts of his abusive behavior.

For viewers who may not know, can you tell us what the biggest family court reforms in this law stand out to you, as you were mentioning before and the overall impact KYRA'S LAW would achieve if signed into law?

>> So KYRA'S LAW, hopefully gets signed into law very soon, we're in active conversations with the governor's office, What we're hoping to have happen is any time that any party raises child abuse and/or domestic violence and/or anything that could pose a serious risk to the child, we created that as a new standard.

When that standard is, that threshold is crossed, that the judges are going to now have to do their due diligence.

And they're going to be looking for the things that all of the experts in domestic violence and in child abuse are able to point to and say these are the things that are most likely will lead to fatality.

And so I think with this comprehensive process, what we're going to be able to do is slow down or stop possibly, but definitely slow down the number of children who are placed via New York's family court and their judges into the hands of abuse.

I think this bill will do a great job in preventing that from happening and giving our judges the best information as they go in to make these reviews.

So I think this is going to save lives, and I'm honored to work with Jacqueline and Senator Skoufis and all of my colleagues to get this one done.

>> KYRA is sadly one example.

During a recent press conference about KYRA'S LAW, a child survivor, 15-year-old Megan Margaret, spoke about her experience being ignored by family courts in Schenectady County.

She talked about how she was repeatedly sexually abused by her father from age three and begged for the courts to listen and protect her, but was still mandated to have visitation.

What do you think is contributing to families' cries for help being seemingly ignored in family court?

And how will KYRA'S LAW potentially help break down this issue?

>> So that was incredibly important and impactful.

You know, a quote from a young lady who went through the system and had to deal with that horribly.

But she's not alone.

Julissa Batiz, Autumn Coleman, Montrell Williams, Ricklin Brown, and just some of the other kids who have lost their lives.

So what we're hoping to do is to make sure our judges not only are looking for the right things when they do their review, but they're also trained.

So I think that was a small part of the problem.

I want to be very clear.

The Office of Court Administration, the judges have been terrific in negotiating and working with us on this bill over the last couple of years.

They've been great.

But prior to our work together, there are some judges that are sitting on the bench that don't have the technical expertise that we think they need.

So KYRA'S LAW is going to help provide them through judicial training as well.

>> Yes, the judicial training piece.

I know you've mentioned a lot.

What has changed with this bill this year compared to previous years?

Why was it able to pass this year and why has it taken many years to pass both houses?

Can you tell us about what the challenges were to get it to this point?

>> Sure.

So first, the challenges are, this is one of the most complicated sections of law that you can operate in.

If you make a mistake, people are going to get hurt.

Kids could get abused.

Kids could die.

So you're going to go slowly and make sure that what you're doing doesn't cause more harm.

That's one.

Second, and I don't want to be crass about this, but blood was spilt, which means that the parties that you're negotiating with are not happy with each other.

Then you add into the mix that there are a variety of different interests.

You have courts.

You have defense attorneys.

You have children's attorneys.

You have matrimonial attorneys.

And almost every one of them over the last six years were coming in not only with suggestions on how to make KYRA'S LAW better on the existing language, but adding language.

Every meeting we had, we added six more components that we had to do our due diligence on.

And Jacqueline and some of our friends, Joan Gerhardt from NYSCADV and Jennifer Friedman and Dorchen from Sanctuary for Families have been instrumental.

But we've been doing our due diligence and taking a long time because you don't get this one wrong.

If you get this one wrong, somebody gets hurt.

So we were making sure that we did it right.

>> And this is a bill, as you have mentioned, it's a long time coming.

Advocates have been pushing for a decade.

Kyra's mom, Jacqueline, told me that she sobbed watching this pass both houses this year.

You've been a key lawmaker on this, carrying this bill for a long time.

Can you tell me, what did it mean to you to watch this pass?

>> It was an incredible relief.

I will be more relieved when we get it signed by the governor.

But to have it pass both houses unanimously was an incredible relief.

And I want to talk about the difficulty, particularly for Jacqueline, having to fight through this, because I want to be clear, during those six years - - So we didn't introduce the bill.

The unfortunate incident with KYRA was 10 years ago.

We introduced the bill about five years ago.

But that means that the last five years, Jacqueline has had to endure, me primarily and Senator Skoufis as well, telling her no.

No, we can't do it.

No, we don't have it.

No, this is not right.

No, we're going to hurt -- and keep going back.

And for her to have to keep dealing with us and in turn revisiting this horrific incident in her life.

She has an incredible amount of courage.

And I'm so proud to work with her.

And I think we're there.

So the relief is that we finally have a product.

I don't see anybody of note who is saying that this is a bad bill.

We passed it unanimously.

We're working with the governor to get this signed.

I am very hopeful where I wasn't over the last couple of years, even up until this year, to be perfectly honest with you.

We were under a time crunch.

Remember, session ran short.

We got this bill done within the last five or six hours of session this year, and we had to rush it, because in the last years we were taking our time to make sure that we were doing our due diligence.

So this is a complicated one.

I feel much better that it's passed, and I will feel incredibly relieved once Governor Hochul signs it and starts saving lives.

>> And on that note, have you had any conversations with the governor and her team about the bill?

Do you think she will sign it?

>> So we're in contact with the governor about this bill and other bills.

They are terrific.

They don't give you an indication if they're going to sign it.

But my sense is they're going to work with us.

By the way, Kathy Hochul, Governor Hochul, who I'm supporting for reelection, has a terrific record on bills like this dealing with domestic violence.

She passed, I believe it's called Melanie's Law, earlier in the year.

So she's been right where you need a governor to be.

And her team is terrific.

So I am hopeful for a good outcome.

Although, there's no promises in this place.

>> And what are your priorities for the next legislative session to address child abuse?

What more needs to be done to reform the system?

I know you mentioned there are some other bills.

>> Yeah, terrific question.

So there's another bill on the governor's desk that I think goes perfectly hand in hand with KYRA'S LAW.

And that is to create a supervised visitation in every corner of New York State.

Because one of the problems that we're seeing in family court is that judges are wanting to have parents continue to have contact with their kids, even though there are allegations of abuse.

And if you have supervised visitation setups where there are professional operations in each county of New York state, people can come in and they can safely have visitation with their kids.

If you don't have that, which is what we have now, then you're putting kids and parents in unsafe situations.

And particularly, we are in a dire circumstance.

I believe it's over 33 counties have zero supervised visitation centers in their area.

In New York City, we have incredible wait lists that can take up to two years.

Also, some of them are cost prohibitive.

So we have passed a bill.

It's on the governor's desk waiting for her to be signed.

That will establish supervised visitation in every corner of the state that is state funded that does a variety of things.

The most important is it will protect kids, but it will also stop the backlog of family court cases that are waiting for information on those visits.

And it will make sure the family court is not as slow as it is now.

One of the significant reasons that our judges tell us that family court slows down is because they don't have access to reports from that kind of supervised visits.

So if the governor wants to really help on child abuse, this is a one-two punch.

It's KYRA'S LAW.

And then it's a supervised visitation program, and the governor will be regarded as the hero that she should be and she is on these topics.

>> And so when you come back to session, if both of these bills are signed, do you have any other priorities that you'll be looking at?

>> Yeah, there's a number of bills that we'll be looking at.

One particular note is about the mandated Reporter System.

So we've been looking at this particular system for a while, for many years.

We've conducted a number of hearings.

I have a bill that -- it's called Keeping Families Safe Together.

I love the names of the bills.

They're great, but they don't really tell you what the bill does.

What this bill does in particular is it eliminates the criminal and civil penalties for mandated reporters.

Now, the mandated reporter system states: Because you need that.

You want that.

But what we're finding now is that there's an overreporting in the system.

And more kids are being reported and shuffled into that system, which is actually, unfortunately, a path to family separation, which is a childhood trauma that you do not want.

So we are going to be making the case to our colleagues, slowly but surely, to build consensus that you still want the mandated reporter system for people to call in child abuse.

But what you don't want is the coercive nature of the penalties that mandated reporters have to have, because what it does is it takes them away from using their professional judgment.

If they're a teacher or a psychologist or any other doctor who comes in contact with kids and puts in their mind, well, I've got to do this, otherwise I'm going to be sued or otherwise I'm going to go to prison.

And that doesn't always manifest in what is best for the child.

So we're going to have those conversations in the upcoming session.

>> Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today.

Thank you for sitting down with us.

>> It was a pleasure.

Thanks for having me.

Take care.

>> We were speaking with Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi, Chair of the Children and Families Committee.

>> AND FOR MORE INFORMATION ON KYRA'S LAW, YOU CAN VISIT OUR WEBSITE.

THAT'S AT nynow.org.

NOW TURNING TO ANOTHER IMPORTANT TOPIC.

AS WE'VE DISCUSSED HERE ON THE SHOW, A WAVE OF PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES IN THE JUNE PRIMARY ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK WERE VICTORIOUS IN THEIR RESPECTIVE RACES.

SOME OF THOSE CANDIDATES RAN FOR SEATS IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE AND ARE SLATED TO SECURE A GENERAL ELECTION WIN this NOVEMBER.

NOW THERE IS SO MUCH SPECULATION FROM POLITICAL INSIDERS ABOUT THE IMPACT that THOSE PROGRESSIVE MEMBERS WILL HAVE ON THE BODY AND HOW ASSEMBLY SPEAKER CARL HEASTIE WILL BALANCE THE POLITICAL INTERESTS OF HIS MEMBERS.

DAVID LOMBARDO OF WCNY'S THE CAPITOL PRESSROOM SAT DOWN WITH NICK REISMAN OF POLITICO TO LEARN MORE.

HERE'S THAT CONVERSATION.

>> Well, thank you so much for making the time, Nick.

I really appreciate it.

>> Thanks for having me.

>> So coming out of the June primaries, there is this narrative about the growing progressive wing in the state legislature.

Thinking about the assembly, the Democratic Socialists doubled their ranks.

They've got 12 members.

How much stock are you putting into this idea that the chambers themselves will be demonstrably different in what they prioritize, and how they approach it in 2027?

>> Look, I mean, I think the thing is, like, in the state assembly in particular, you've got a speaker like Carl Heastie, who is most likely going to have a Democratic supermajority when they all come back in January.

We're talking a dozen members out of 150 in the assembly chamber.

More than 100 Democrats overall.

So you're still only talking about a 10% or so of the State Assembly Democratic Conference.

Not necessarily enough to truly complicate life for Carl Heastie, who we have seen over the years is far more concerned about shoring up and bolstering his so-called marginal members in parts of upstate New York, Long Island, the Hudson Valley.

These are moderate Democrats who are occasionally challenged in Democratic primaries by members of the DSA, or they face genuinely competitive general election challenges from Republican.

So there is going to have to be a balance between Carl Heastie wanting to protect those members and also having to listen now to these DSA-elected lawmakers who are going to try and flex their muscle.

They are going to learn, though, awfully quick, if they don't know this already, that the state assembly, the state legislature overall, is a very top-down institution.

This is something where the speaker himself controls all of the legislation, what comes to the floor for a vote.

And ultimately, while he does listen to the conference and says he wants to listen to the will of the conference, At the end of the day, it's the Speaker's decision as to what actually comes onto the floor for a vote.

He still has a lot of power here outside of the DSA.

We know he is highly skeptical of the far left and the Democratic Party.

So it remains to be an open question just how much actual muscle they'll be able to flex when they come back in January.

>> Thinking about the math, though, in the chamber, as you pointed out, the Assembly Democratic Conference has more than 100 members.

And there are bills.

There's budget bills that could pass with Democratic and Republican support.

But we both know that's not how Albany works.

Carl, the speaker, needs to have 76, 77 of his own members.

So if the socialists can make coalitions, if they can find partners, if they can hold the line, they can potentially cause some headaches.

When you think about their track record because since 2018, we've had a handful of Democratic Socialists in the state legislature in both houses, When you think about their track record, do you think they're going to be successful in building bridges, in reaching across the aisle within their own party to people who might not necessarily be natural allies but maybe will find common ground?

>> What we have seen with some lawmakers who have been elected in the past who are members of the DSA or elected with DSA support, I'm thinking like Senator Julia Salazar in the state senate, someone who has actually taken on some of the trappings of the institution.

She is seen as a relatively effective legislator.

She's the chair of a pretty important committee overseeing the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

And so you have seen some of these DSA members come in and actually want to legislate, which is a complicated task.

It requires, as you said, building these coalitions and finding partners with people who you don't necessarily agree with.

And there is a path to being an effective legislator.

It's boring.

It's tough.

It takes some time.

But there is a pathway to doing that.

And somebody like Julia Salazar, just as an example, there are others too, but Julia Salazar is an example of actually being able to rack up these accomplishments in the state legislature.

>> And what about Zohran Mamdani of it all?

We saw in 2026 that the New York City mayor focused on those areas of agreement that he had, say, with the governor on child care and other areas of investment.

But in 2027, do you think we could have a different dynamic where the mayor is willing to flex his muscles, so to speak, And could that embolden some of, not just the DSA members, but progressive members more broadly in the legislature?

>> I mean, so much of this depends on what his relationship with Governor Kathy Hochul is going to be like.

I mean, obviously, we saw this past year where the governor essentially billed out the city of New York.

There was this large budget gap that the mayor was facing.

He had a pretty costly agenda that he wanted to enact.

And the governor came in and did a menu of things, including just direct cash, expanded no-cost child care, granted the pied-à-terre tax for New York City, which was kind of a half-step towards raising taxes on rich people.

But it was not like a broad-based thing, like an income tax increase.

So, you know, the governor is, at least at this rate, going to be re-elected this year, or at least is in pretty good position to be re-elected next year.

So it does remain to be seen if the governor is going to feel as beholden to the mayor as she perhaps felt this time around because she did not want to be at odds with his rather engaged and rather vibrant political coalition that he has built in the city.

But she is not going to be facing that reelection next year if she's reelected.

So there is going to be a big question to ask about whether the mayor is going to take a much more confrontational approach with the governor, whether the governor continues what has been kind of a stubborn streak on raising income taxes on rich people and corporations, and whether the mayor starts harnessing his growing ranks, not just in Albany, but also in Washington, D.C., with his allies from the DSA who have won these primaries.

>> You mentioned Washington, D.C., that is the other variable because state lawmakers might come to this with a plan, but depending on what you get out of Washington, D.C., you might spend all of your time during the session responding to whatever's happening out of D.C., right?

>> Right.

I mean, and look, like the mayor is going to also be facing what I think is now estimated to be a $6.4 billion city budget gap Next year as well.

So the governor has made quite clear -- I talked to her about this in an interview recently -- where she said, you know, they manage the budget now in New York City.

You know, she's given them all this help, but they're going to have to start finding ways of reducing costs and reducing efficiencies.

That is tough to kind of do a DOGE for New York City.

You know, the mayor has said that he is trying to find ways of reducing costs, but he does have some pretty expensive items that he wants to get done in his own right as mayor of New York.

So there is going to be a tension there that's going to be building up come January.

>> Well, Nick, thank you so much for making the time.

Really appreciate it.

>> Good to be here.

Thanks, Dave.

>> AND FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE MAKEUP OF THE STATE LEGISLATURE AND THE IMPACT OF THE INCOMING PROGRESSIVE MEMBERS, YOU CAN VISIT OUR WEBSITE.

AGAIN, THAT'S AT nynow.org.

YOU CAN ALSO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EVEN MORE ELECTION COVERAGE, BY GOING TO NEWSLETTER.NYNOW.ORG OR BY SCANNING THE QR CODE ON YOUR SCREEN.

WELL, THAT DOES IT FOR THIS EDITION OF NEW YORK NOW.

THANK YOU FOR TUNING IN AND SEE YOU NEXT WEEK.

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