Chapman v. Arkansas Department of Human Services

2014 Ark. App. 525, 443 S.W.3d 564, 2014 Ark. App. LEXIS 731
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 1, 2014
DocketCV-14-212
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2014 Ark. App. 525 (Chapman v. Arkansas Department of Human Services) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chapman v. Arkansas Department of Human Services, 2014 Ark. App. 525, 443 S.W.3d 564, 2014 Ark. App. LEXIS 731 (Ark. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinions

RHONDA K. WOOD, Judge.

| iThis is a no-merit appeal from a circuit court’s order terminating the parental rights of Sharon Chapman and Shannon Riddle, Sr., to their son S.R., age nine. Counsel for appellants filed a motion to withdraw as counsel and a no-merit brief pursuant to Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 6 — 9(i). Neither parent filed pro se points for reversal. The attorney ad litem filed a letter stating he did not find merit to an appeal and declined his option to file a brief. After a complete review, we affirm the termination and grant the motion to withdraw.

On April 19, 2013, the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) received a report of suspected educational neglect of S.R. due to his being absent from school since March 11, 2013. DHS found the allegation true and opened a protective-service case. On 12May 29, 2013, residents of an apartment complex contacted law enforcement after they observed S.R. “dumpster diving” for food. When law enforcement arrived, they found S.R. with multiple faded bruises on his legs and a bruised eye. S.R. told the police that his dad had “bashed his head into a car” and had whipped him with a belt. The police reported that S.R.’s ribs were visible and he was very thin. Upon further questioning, S.R. reported that he had sometimes gone two months without food1 and that his dad would not let him go to school because of “my bruises and welts.” DHS fed S.R. chicken nuggets, and when questioned as to why he was eating slowly, he stated “I’m going to save them for later.”

Upon a physical exam, the doctor reported that S.R. was underweight at 58 lbs., had bruises on his eyes and knees, had a lesion on his wrist, expressed suicidal ideations, and had .a dental contusion. The police arrested the father, Shannon Riddle, and charged him with endangering the welfare of a minor. The mother’s whereabouts were unknown. DHS took an emergency hold on S.R.

The court adjudicated S.R. dependent-neglected. This was the third dependency-neglect case involving S.R. While the court’s order stated the goal was reunification, the court approved the DHS case plan of termination and adoption and also set a no-reunification hearing. Seven months later, the court terminated appellants’ parental rights.

In termination-of-parental-rights cases, our standard of review is de novo. We explained in Pine v. Arkansas Department of Human Services as follows:

IsGrounds for termination of parental rights must be proven by clear and convincing evidence, which is that degree of proof that will produce in the finder of fact a firm- conviction of the allegation sought to be established.... Termination of parental rights is an extreme remedy and in derogation of a parent’s natural rights; however, parental rights will not be enforced to the detriment or destruction on the health and well-being of the child.
In order to terminate parental rights, a trial court must find by clear and convincing evidence that termination is in the best interest of the juvenile, taking into consideration that (1) likelihood that the juvenile will be adopted if the termination petition is granted; and (2) the potential harm, specifically addressing the effect on the health and safety of the child, caused by returning the child to the custody of the parent. Additionally, the trial court must also find by clear and convincing evidence that one or more statutory grounds for termination exists.

2010 Ark. App. 781, at 9-10, 379 S.W.3d 703, 708-09 (citations omitted).

Here, the court’s best-interest finding was not clearly erroneous. The evidence showed that S.R. was adoptable and that returning him to his parents’ custody could cause potential harm. First, the caseworker testified that S.R. was adoptable, that there was at least one specific family interested in adopting him, and that his displayed aggression would not hinder adoption. We have held before that evidence like this is sufficient to support the adoptability prong of the court’s best-interest analysis. Cobbs v. Ark. Dep’t of Human Servs., 87 Ark.App. 188, 189 S.W.3d 487 (2004). Second, DHS presented evidence that both parents failed to have stable housing during the seven months the case was open, that this was the third time S.R. had been in foster care, and that he had spent more than three out of his nine years in foster care. Coupled with the physical abuse, educational neglect, and the continued financial and residential instability of the parents, this evidence is sufficient for the court to find that potential harm existed if S.R. were returned a third time to his parents’ custody. Altogether, there is clear and convincing evidence to support the circuit court’s finding that termination was in S.R.’s best interest.

14Next, the court found that DHS proved two statutory grounds for termination of parental rights. The first ground was that the juvenile was adjudicated dependent-neglected and had continued to be placed out of the parents’ home for more than 12 months and, despite a meaningful effort on the part of DHS to rehabilitate the parents and correct the conditions which caused removal, the parents have not remedied the conditions. Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-341(b)(3)(B)(i)(a) (Supp. 2013). We agree with counsel that the court erred in finding this ground applicable to the present case. Here, S.R. had been out of the home for only seven months at the time of the termination hearing. The court calculated the time out of the home as more than twelve months by adding together the total time S.R. spent in foster care in prior cases. This is considered “stacking” time. We have previously held that it is impermissible to add time in multiple cases to obtain the twelvemonth out-of-home placement as required by this statutory ground. Williams v. Ark. Dep’t of Human Servs., 2013 Ark. App. 622, 2013 WL 5872757. This error does not result in reversal in the present case, however, because the court is required to find only one statutory ground for termination. See Dawson v. Ark. Dep’t of Human Servs., 2011 Ark. 106, 391 S.W.3d 352.

The court’s finding on the second statutory ground was not made in error. It ruled that DHS proved an additional ground by clear and convincing evidence: that the parents had subjected S.R. to aggravating circumstances in that there is little likelihood that services to the family would result in successful reunification. The court made specific findings that DHS had worked with this family on and off for seven years and that the juvenile had spent more than three years in foster care. The court found that although it | shad returned S.R. to the parents twice, reunification was not successful in either case because the end result was a subsequent removal.

Other evidence also showed that reunification was unlikely. At the time S.R. entered foster care in May, 2013, he was living with his father because his mother had moved to Missouri. The mother had moved often since the case began, four times in the month before the hearing alone, including living in (1) Missouri, (2) the homes of several friends, (3) a motel room, (4) the Salvation Army shelter, and (5) an apartment.

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Chapman v. Arkansas Department of Human Services
2014 Ark. App. 525 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
2014 Ark. App. 525, 443 S.W.3d 564, 2014 Ark. App. LEXIS 731, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chapman-v-arkansas-department-of-human-services-arkctapp-2014.