Dozier v. Arkansas Department of Human Services

372 S.W.3d 849, 2010 Ark. App. 17, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 17
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 6, 2010
DocketNo. CA 09-790
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 372 S.W.3d 849 (Dozier 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
Dozier v. Arkansas Department of Human Services, 372 S.W.3d 849, 2010 Ark. App. 17, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 17 (Ark. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

KAREN R. BAKER, Judge.

|! Appellant, Ray Dozier, appeals from an order terminating his parental rights to his daughter, R.D., born October 6,1999.1 On appeal, appellant asserts that the evidence was insufficient to support the trial court’s termination of his parental rights to R.D. We affirm the termination order.

On September 14, 2007, the Department of Human Services (Department) placed a seventy-two-hour hold on R.F. and R.D., children of Rita Adams-Fairrow, due to allegations of domestic violence occurring in the home and Ms. Adams-Fairrow’s inability to protect herself or her two younger children. After a hearing on the Department’s petition for ex-jparte2 emergency custody and dependency-neglect, the court found that immediate removal of the juveniles from the present custodian was necessary to protect the health and safety of the juveniles from immediate danger and entered an order for emergency custody on September 17, 2007. On September 20, 2007, a probable-cause hearing was held. There, the court found that probable cause existed that the emergency conditions that necessitated removal of the juveniles from the custody of the mother continued so that it was necessary that the juveniles continue in the custody of the Department and that it was contrary to the welfare of the children to be returned home.

On November 6, 2007, the children were adjudicated dependent-neglected. The adjudication was based on the mother’s testimony at the adjudication hearing that she used cocaine, her positive drug screen in September, and her positive drug screen at the adjudication hearing. The adjudication was also based on the history of conflict and domestic violence in the home, environmental neglect, and the mother’s significant health problems, including mental-health issues, kidney failure, hepatitis, and congestive heart failure. In the adjudication order, the court noted the issues of drug use in the home and the mother’s alleged association with drug dealers. The goal of the case was reunification, and the Department’s case plan was approved.

A review hearing was held in March 2008, and by the time of that hearing, Rita Adams-Fairrow had passed away. Appellant, father of R.D., appeared at the March 2008 hearing and sought custody of both juveniles. The court ordered that custody remain with the [.^Department pending a paternity test and noted that appellant had a criminal record, including a domestic-battery conviction.

At a permanency-planning hearing on August 12, 2008, the court determined that the case goal was still reunification. The court found that appellant was not credible when he stated that he was not aware of the dependency-neglect case involving LaQualla Plair, to whom appellant was married, and her children. The court further found that appellant “did in fact know of same. In Ms. Plair’s court case, she told the court that she was through with [appellant]. Now it is evident that she and [appellant] got back together right after that case was closed and are now married.” The court noted appellant’s personality disorder, forensic psychologist Dr. Paul Deyoub’s concerns about appellant’s inadequacies, and that appellant was virtually a stranger to R.D. Although reunification did not seem realistic, the court ordered that appellant be given more time in which to receive services due to the Department’s failure to set up domestic-abuse classes for him. Appellant was ordered to obtain and maintain stable housing and employment, attend individual counseling, attend marital counseling with his wife, attend family therapy if recommended by the social worker, and follow recommendations from his psychological evaluation.

At a permanency-planning hearing on November 25, 2008, the court found that returning custody to the parent was contrary to the welfare of R.D. and that continuation of custody in the Department was in the best interest of and necessary for the protection of R.D.’s health and safety. The court determined that it was also in the best interest of R.D. Rthat the goal of the case be termination and adoption. In so finding, the court reviewed the history of this case involving R.D., as well as the history of another related case involving appellant, appellant’s wife LaQual-la Plair, and Plair’s children. Court orders from the Plair case were entered as exhibits in the case involving R.D. The court noted that appellant had no relationship with R.D. before this case began and that appellant had a personality disorder and a history of domestic battery. The court found that appellant had not complied with the case plan and orders of the court and set supervised visitation for one hour per week.

On January 2, 2009, the Department filed a petition to terminate appellant’s parental rights, alleging that R.D. had been adjudicated dependent-neglected and had continued out of the custody of the parents for twelve consecutive months. Despite a meaningful effort by the Department to rehabilitate the parent and to correct the conditions that had caused removal, those conditions had not been remedied by the parent. The petition further alleged that other factors or issues arose subsequent to the filing of the original petition for dependency-neglect that demonstrated that return of R.D. to the custody of the parent was contrary to her health, safety, or welfare and that despite the offer of appropriate family services, the parent had manifested the incapacity or indifference to remedy the subsequent issues or factors or to rehabilitate the circumstances that prevented R.D.’s return to appellant.

At a hearing on the petition to terminate parental rights, social worker Nita Spann testified that she was R.D.’s therapist. She had conducted family therapy with appellant and R.D. She testified that she did not foresee reunification with appellant as a viable option for |fiR.D. She stated that R.D. did not know her father, that appellant did not have any sort of relationship with R.D. until her mother died, and that, based on the interaction between appellant and R.D. during therapy, appellant did not display the skills to parent R.D. She testified that appellant had told her that he did not have any relationship with any of his children and had left the children in the care of their drug-dependent mothers. Ms. Spann was concerned about the dependency-neglect case involving appellant’s wife, LaQualla Plair, and Plair’s children, because in that case appellant had placed Plair’s children in danger during domestic disputes. She testified that R.D. needed someone with “very specialized parenting skills” based on the signs of mental illness she already displayed. On more than one occasion, R.D. expressed to her that she did not want to live with appellant. Ms. Spann testified that, although appellant did not miss any of the therapy sessions, in her opinion, appellant did not possess the skills necessary to parent R.D., and it was in R.D.’s best interest that appellant’s rights be terminated.

Dr. Deyoub also testified at the termination hearing. He stated that he did not recommend that R.D. be placed with appellant and Ms. Plair because appellant and Plair had a significant history of domestic abuse (resulting in Plair suffering two broken arms and a fight resulting in a knife wound), which had previously led to removal of Plair’s children from her custody. A no-contact order between appellant and Plair and her children was in place after the removal of Plair’s children.

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Bluebook (online)
372 S.W.3d 849, 2010 Ark. App. 17, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dozier-v-arkansas-department-of-human-services-arkctapp-2010.