Court: Molester can see his child

ALBANY -- A teacher convicted of molesting young boys can retain visitation rights to his own child, the state's highest court determined Thursday.

The Court of Appeals decided not to hear an appeal by the ex-wife of Christopher Culver, a Saratoga County teacher who in 2008 pleaded guilty to a 49-count indictment involving crimes against elementary school students during a five-month period in 2006 and 2007.

By declining to hear the case, the high court upheld rulings by two lower-level courts that granted Culver visitation rights.

Culver, held at the Clinton Correctional Facility near the Canadian border, is serving a 12-year sentence. He and his wife had a child in 2005, but separated about two years later. Culver filed for visitation rights in 2008, after he was convicted.

A Saratoga County Family Court judge granted Culver rights to have his daughter visit him four times a year, along with weekly phone calls. The judge also ordered that the girl be accompanied by a "familiar, responsible adult other than the mother," a court spokesman said, and that the ex-wife, Kristi Van Patten Culver, must pay for the child's counseling before each visit. A midlevel court largely upheld that determination, although it ordered the father to pay for the counseling.

The ruling had stunned some advocates for women and children. A representative of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women didn't immediately return a call for comment.