C.M.S. v. Greene County Juvenile Office

213 S.W.3d 161, 2007 Mo. App. LEXIS 90, 2007 WL 102140
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 17, 2007
Docket27871
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 213 S.W.3d 161 (C.M.S. v. Greene County Juvenile Office) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
C.M.S. v. Greene County Juvenile Office, 213 S.W.3d 161, 2007 Mo. App. LEXIS 90, 2007 WL 102140 (Mo. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

DANIEL E. SCOTT, Judge.

Appellant (“Mother”) appeals the termination of her parental rights1 to her two-year-old daughter, L.R.S. (“Child”), raising two points of error. Mother’s second point is dispositive. We affirm.

Ten months before Child was born, Mother’s other child (“Sibling”) was placed [162]*162in foster care after repeated sexual abuse by Mother’s paramour. There was substantial evidence Mother knew or should have known of the abuse — including Mother’s own statements that she knew the two were sleeping together — but failed to protect Sibling therefrom. Shortly thereafter, Mother became pregnant with Child, who was born in April 2004 with heart problems and other special needs. In June 2004, an abuse and neglect petition was filed regarding Child. After a hearing, the juvenile court found that Mother was unable to provide Child with the necessary care, custody, and control and Mother’s failure to protect Sibling from sexual abuse resulting in Sibling being placed in foster care, created a substantial risk of abuse and/or neglect for Child. Thus, the court placed Child in foster care also, and due to her special needs, into a medical foster home.

The original treatment plan for both children sought reunification with Mother. But largely due to Mother’s lack of progress, the juvenile office filed a petition to terminate parental rights in November 2005, more than one year after Child was taken into care. With respect to Mother, the petition alleged two statutory grounds for termination: Section 211.447.4(2)2 abuse/neglect and Section 211.447.4(3) failure-to-rectify. In June 2006, after a trial in which both sides offered evidence, the court entered findings of fact, conclusions of law, and a judgment and order terminating parental rights. The court found both alleged statutory grounds for termination had been established, and termination of Mother’s parental rights was in Child’s best interest.

For a court to terminate parental rights, it must find (1) at least one statutory ground for termination by clear, convincing and substantial evidence, and (2) that termination of parental rights is in the child’s best interest. In re N.L.B., 145 S.W.3d 902, 906 (Mo.App.2004). Mother’s two appeal points challenge, respectively, the juvenile court’s abuse/neglect and failure-to-rectify findings. To affirm, however, we need only find that one such basis was proven and that termination was in the child’s best interest. Id. at 906. We consider first Mother’s Point II, which challenges the failure-to-rectify determination.

The juvenile court found Mother had failed to rectify conditions regarding her continuing neglect, ongoing mental condition and failure to seek treatment therefor, ongoing lack of insight about protecting her children, and ongoing inability to appropriately parent Child; that these conditions were of a potentially harmful nature; and there was little or no likelihood they would be remedied at an early date so Child could be returned to Mother in the near future. As required by statute, the court made further findings regarding Mother’s mental condition, her progress under the treatment plan, and the success or failure of agency efforts.

The court noted Mother was subject to treatment plans relating to both Child and Sibling which required Mother to cooperate with the Children’s Division, but Mother denied being subject to any such plan, and said she intended to file a motion to relieve her of same. As to progress under the treatment plans, Mother had refused to permit caseworker home visits; failed to consistently provide requested information, or to verify attendance at or completion of parenting classes; and refused to voluntarily submit to psychological evaluation or to follow through with psychological/psychiatric care.

[163]*163The court found that Mother was provided intensive and extensive services in both Child’s and Sibling’s cases, but she either refused to participate or failed to demonstrate an assimilation of information provided in those programs/services she did participate in.

The court further found that Mother suffers from a mental condition which is either permanent or not reasonably likely to be reversed and which renders her unable to knowingly provide Child the necessary care, custody, and control. Despite uncontradicted professional testimony that “much treatment” was necessary for Mother to improve her mental difficulties (which included affective instability, impulsive sexual relationships, and maladaptive and difficult interpersonal relationships), she failed to follow through with intensive therapy or other recommendations. In fact, Mother denied having any mental illness or that she needed mental health services; refused to submit to psychological evaluations;3 and refused or failed to attend counseling or therapy to address any of her diagnosed mental health disorders. Mother’s ongoing untreated mental illness directly impacted her parenting ability, her ability to protect Child from the type of abuse to which Sibling was subjected, and her ability to provide for Child’s special medical needs.

The court found that Mother failed to provide financial support, nor (except for one stuffed animal) anything else for Child’s care, although there was no evidence Mother was incapable of providing at least minimal support.

The court further found that, subsequent to Child’s removal, Mother had failed to demonstrate the ability to emotionally care for Child’s special needs; that Mother’s continuing/untreated mental condition, her ongoing lack of insight as to how her actions put her children at risk of sexual abuse, and her failure to participate in services designed to provide her such insight so Child might safely be returned to her care, combined to pose a significant likelihood of future harm to Child; and that Mother’s failure to participate in services and her neglect evidenced a disinterest in and a lack of commitment to Child, and resulted in a negative impact on Child.

Point II claims the juvenile court’s failure-to-rectify finding is unsupported by substantial evidence and against the weight of the evidence in four respects, to-wit:

a. The evidence at trial indicated that Mother’s mental condition was treatable to allow her, with the help of her family, to take care of the child and that she was receiving mental health treatment at the time of trial;
b. There was little attempt on the part of the Division of Children’s Services to provide mental health services to Mother in a form that she could take advantage of, given her mental illness and her poor financial circumstances;
c. Mother did substantially comply with the treatment plan in this case and in another case involving another child, in that she obtained a psychological evaluation and consistently visited the child, including making numerous trips to see the child when she was in a hospital in St. Louis; and
d. There was no evidence of Mother’s ability to support the minor child while she was [in] foster care in that Mother had only one brief job delivering telephone books and could not [164]*164contribute to paying rent much less to contribute to the support of the minor child in this case.

Our review is guided by established principles:

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C.M.S. v. Greene County Juvenile Office
213 S.W.3d 161 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
213 S.W.3d 161, 2007 Mo. App. LEXIS 90, 2007 WL 102140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cms-v-greene-county-juvenile-office-moctapp-2007.