Department of Human Services v. J. L. H.

308 P.3d 323, 258 Or. App. 92, 2013 WL 4104345, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 968
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedAugust 14, 2013
DocketJ100681; Petition Number 102910KAL1; A152931
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 308 P.3d 323 (Department of Human Services v. J. L. H.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Department of Human Services v. J. L. H., 308 P.3d 323, 258 Or. App. 92, 2013 WL 4104345, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 968 (Or. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

SCHUMAN, R J.

The question in this termination of parental rights appeal is whether the record establishes, beyond a reasonable doubt, that mother’s parental rights to her two-year-old son KM should be terminated for unfitness by reason of conduct and conditions seriously detrimental to KM that would not be resolved within a reasonable time.1 ORS 419B.504.2 KM is currently placed for adoption with a relative who has already adopted KM’s siblings. KM is a member of the Alaska Native Village of St. Michael, and this case is therefore subject to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), 25 USC § 1901. In such cases, the factual bases for terminating parental rights must be established beyond a reasonable doubt. ORS 419B.521(4).3 Onde novo review, ORS 19.415(2), we affirm.

[95]*95Mother, who was 22 years old at the time of the termination trial, moved out of her parents’ family home at age 14 and moved in with father. At that time, she began smoking marijuana on a daily basis, and she also began dealing in the drug. At ages 16 and 17, she had her two daughters who have already been adopted by a relative. During and between her pregnancies, mother used prescription medications for back pain and also abused narcotics. She has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety.

Mother described father as having a violent temper, threatening throughout their relationship to harm her. She first came into contact with DHS in 2008, when, based on domestic violence and drug use, DHS removed the two daughters from the home. Mother, who at that time was essentially homeless, voluntarily relinquished her parental rights to the two daughters in 2009, agreeing that she was not stable enough to take care of them.

KM, who was 23 months at the time of trial, was placed in custody at his birth on October 27, 2010, and has been in DHS custody since that time. He was removed from mother’s custody at birth because he tested positive for marijuana and, one month later, mother admitted two allegations of the jurisdictional petition:

“A. The conditions and circumstances of the child are such as to endanger the child by reason of the following facts: The child’s mother has a chemical abuse problem involving controlled substances, including marijuana and prescription drugs, that left untreated disrupts her ability and availability to adequately and appropriately parent, compromises her mental health, endangers her liberty and sobriety to appropriately parent, and makes her a danger to the child.
“B. The conditions and circumstances are such as to endanger the welfare of the child by reason of the following facts: The child’s mother has mental health difficulties that left untreated compromise her ability to adequately and appropriately parent.”

Mother has a history of unhealthy relationships with men. As noted, she moved in with father at the age of 14 and had her two older children at 16 and 17. In the [96]*962008 dependency proceeding involving the two girls, mother agreed not to have contact with father. She then briefly separated from him, but they reunited after she relinquished her parental rights to the girls. Shortly thereafter, she became pregnant with KM. After KM was born, mother continued to have contact with father throughout his incarceration for coercion and felony assault charges. While father was in prison, mother expressed intense fear of him to her counselor. But when father was released from prison in January 2012, mother violated her in-home safety plan by allowing father to visit her. Throughout this period, mother consistently told her service providers that she was no longer seeing father; at trial, she admitted that those assurances were lies because she continued to have contact with him. She testified at trial that she is not in love with him, but will always love him because he is the father of her children. She denies that her relationship with father is romantic or that she wishes to reunite with him.

While father was in prison, mother began a relationship with, and married, Zach Sarbu in September 2011. She temporarily separated from Sarbu in August 2012, when she learned that he was abusing prescription drugs and forging prescriptions, and she told DHS personnel that she had discontinued her relationship with him. However, those assurances were, like the ones regarding father, untrue; shortly before trial, Sarbu had been staying at mother’s apartment.

In December 2010, shortly after the court assumed jurisdiction over KM, mother was evaluated by Stoltzfus, a clinical psychologist, who administered personality and intelligence tests. In a report of January 2011, Stoltzfus diagnosed mother with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a depressive disorder, cannabis and opiate abuse, and a narcissistic personality disorder. He reported that mother does not manage stress well, is easily overwhelmed, and has significant difficulty following through with commitments or intentions. Although Stoltzfus found mother to be highly motivated to participate in services at the time of the evaluation, he gave her a poor prognosis, “due to unstable social relationships, extremely self-centered orientation, [97]*97tendency to externalize blame and ongoing significant mood dysregulation (anxiety and depression, both of which are chronic).” Stoltzfus testified at trial that mother’s dishonesty about her relationships was indicative of her personality disorder and that, based on the circumstances that had transpired since he had examined her in December 2010, he did not expect mother to be able to parent KM within a reasonable period of time.

As noted, the two key areas of concern at the time of the jurisdictional petition were mother’s abuse of prescription drugs and marijuana, and mother’s mental and emotional health. We find that DHS made active efforts to address those issues in order to reunite KM and mother, that mother has been offered many services and service providers, and that mother’s participation has not been consistent or reliable. Beginning in February 2011, mother participated in a drug treatment program at Bridgeway Recovery Services, which provided medication management and service coordination. At Bridgeway, mother attended individual and group therapy sessions. Bridgeway did not provide urinalyses (UAs), and relied on mother’s self-reports to verify her sobriety. Kelly Washam, mother’s counselor at Bridgeway, testified that, in his opinion, mother lacked the ability to look at situations realistically, had a tendency to minimize, and had an “immature style of problem solving that’s very much related to magical thinking.” Washam noted that mother has a very limited support system.

Jennifer Laib, a DHS Indian child welfare caseworker, began working with mother in August 2011 and presented mother with an action agreement that required, among other things, that mother maintain contact with DHS, participate in mental health and drug and alcohol treatment, submit to random UAs, and attend visits with KM. Laib testified that, when she took over the case, mother had not been consistent in attending services and was not making much progress.

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Bluebook (online)
308 P.3d 323, 258 Or. App. 92, 2013 WL 4104345, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 968, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/department-of-human-services-v-j-l-h-orctapp-2013.