Awg v. Jefferson County Dept. of Human Resources

861 So. 2d 400, 2003 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 248, 2003 WL 1900755
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedApril 18, 2003
Docket2010800
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 861 So. 2d 400 (Awg v. Jefferson County Dept. of Human Resources) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Awg v. Jefferson County Dept. of Human Resources, 861 So. 2d 400, 2003 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 248, 2003 WL 1900755 (Ala. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

861 So.2d 400 (2003)

A.W.G.
v.
JEFFERSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES.

2010800.

Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama.

April 18, 2003.

*402 W. Davis Lawley, Jr., Birmingham, for appellant.

William H. Pryor, Jr., atty. gen., and J. Coleman Campbell, deputy atty. gen., and Lynn S. Merrill, asst. atty. gen., Department of Human Resources, for appellee.

PITTMAN, Judge.

A.W.G. ("the mother") appeals a juvenile court's judgment terminating her parental rights as to A.B.G. ("the child").

The genesis of this case is very convoluted. In September 1999, when the child was just six months old, the mother and R.G. ("the father") had an argument that culminated in the father's threatening the mother with a machete. The Jefferson County Department of Human Resources ("DHR") took custody of the child on September 7, 1999. The dependency action filed by DHR on September 9, 1999, alleged that the child's parents were separated and involved in an ongoing custody dispute and that neither parent had established a place for the child to live. At a shelter-care hearing in September 1999, the juvenile court declared the child dependent and awarded DHR temporary custody of the child. On September 16, 1999, the trial court issued an order stating that the mother could regain custody of her child if she moved into a domesticabuse shelter, began attending parenting classes, and agreed to undergo random drug testing.

On July 31, 2000, over the objection of counsel and without the mother's being present, the juvenile court entered a default judgment of dependency against the mother and directed her to pay child support to DHR. The court noted in its order that at that time the case had been pending 11 months; it directed DHR to comply with the federal permanency statutes requiring that a plan be presented to the trial court within 12 months of taking custody of a child. See Adoption and Safe Families Act, 42 U.S.C. § 671 and § 675 ("ASFA"). The juvenile court set the case for a dispositional review hearing to be held on October 4, 2000.

At the October 4, 2000, hearing, after DHR had submitted a report concerning the case, the juvenile court continued DHR's custody of the child and found that reunification was contrary to the best interest of the child. At that time, the juvenile court did not approve the case plan submitted by DHR pursuant to the ASFA. The juvenile court set the case for another review hearing on January 10, 2001. Following that hearing, the juvenile court held that DHR had failed to comply with the ASFA and with the court's order of October 4, 2000, and noted that the child remained in foster care and that no permanency plan was being pursued. The juvenile court noted that all parties were present at that time, but that before the hearing the court had been unable to locate either the mother or the father for lengthy periods of time. The juvenile court ordered the father to undergo drug screening and set the case for trial on February 22, 2001.

On January 31, 2001, DHR filed a petition to terminate the parental rights of the mother and the father based upon their having failed to comply with certain provisions of the July 31, 2000, default dependency judgment. On February 20, 2001, *403 the child's maternal grandmother, R.A., filed a motion to intervene; arguments concerning her motion were heard at the trial previously set for February 22, 2001. Following that hearing, the juvenile court entered an order conditionally granting the maternal grandmother's petition to intervene. Because the mother had not been served with the petition to terminate her parental rights, she was served on February 22, 2001, and the juvenile court reset the trial for April 26, 2001; however, on April 26, 2001, the juvenile court continued the trial to August 14, 2001.

At the end of July 2001, the mother's attorney sent the juvenile court a letter regarding counsel's potential scheduling conflicts. On August 7, 2001, the mother's attorney filed a motion in limine to suppress all court reports filed before the trial. Also filed at that time was a motion requesting the guardian ad litem and DHR to produce all documents pertinent to the proceedings. Numerous reports were placed in the court file during the pendency of this action, some stamped "filed in court" and some neither stamped nor marked as filed in court (such as DHR's court reports dated November 10, 1999; July 31, 2000; January 10, 2001; February 22, 2001; and August 14, 2001). The DHR reports dated February 22, 2001, and August 14, 2001, were filed in court during the trial held on August 14 and 15, 2001.

Vivian Hunter, a DHR child-abuse-and-neglect investigator, and Tikiella Sanders, the DHR caseworker who had been assigned to the child's case since January 2001, testified at trial. Although these DHR employees had prepared some of the reports appearing in the record, certain reports were offered into evidence that had been prepared by persons other than the two DHR witnesses. The mother's attorney and the father's attorney objected to the introduction of the reports not prepared by Hunter or Sanders, and the juvenile court allowed counsel a "continuing" objection throughout the trial. Both the father and the mother also testified.

Hunter testified that she had been assigned to this case from September 1999 through January 2000. She stated that she had personally prepared the DHR reports dated November 10, 1999, December 1, 1999, and January 7, 2000. The juvenile court admitted those three reports into evidence at the trial. Hunter stated that during the time she was handling the case, the mother did not comply with the court's September 16, 1999, order in that she did not move into a domestic-abuse shelter, did not take any domestic-abuse or parenting classes, and did not undergo any of the court-ordered random drug testing. Hunter also testified that she completed a home evaluation for the mother and for D.L., a cousin of the father. Those evaluations concluded that D.L. would be an acceptable placement except for the fact that the father was then living in that residence. Because of the threat of future violence, it was determined that D.L.'s home was not an acceptable placement for the child at the time of Hunter's evaluations.

Sanders testified that she had been the social worker assigned to the case since January 2001. She authenticated a DHR court report dated March 29, 2000; she stated that she did not write that report but that she had seen it in the DHR files of the case. The juvenile court admitted the report (DHR Exhibit 5) over the objection of the mother's attorney.

Sanders testified that she had prepared two court reports: one dated February 22, 2001, and one dated August 14, 2001. Those reports were admitted over objections by both the mother's and the father's attorneys. Sanders stated that she had talked to the father only once during the *404 months that she had been the caseworker; that the father had never given DHR an address or telephone number by which he could be reached; that the father had never paid any child support; and that the father had not complied with any of the juvenile court's previous orders.

On cross-examination, Sanders testified that she had not visited the home where the mother currently lives. She also reiterated that none of the father's or the mother's relatives were reviewed before the hearing to determine if any of them would qualify as an alternative placement.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
861 So. 2d 400, 2003 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 248, 2003 WL 1900755, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/awg-v-jefferson-county-dept-of-human-resources-alacivapp-2003.