Earls v. Arkansas Department of Human Services

2017 Ark. App. 53, 511 S.W.3d 373, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 69
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 1, 2017
DocketCV-16-752
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2017 Ark. App. 53 (Earls 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
Earls v. Arkansas Department of Human Services, 2017 Ark. App. 53, 511 S.W.3d 373, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 69 (Ark. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

BART F. VIRDEN, Judge

| ]Jacob Earls appeals the order of the Greene County Circuit Court terminating his parental rights. Earls asserts that the circuit court erred in finding that there was sufficient evidence to support statutory grounds for termination. Based on our review, we are not left with a definite and firm conviction that the circuit court’s statutory-grounds findings were in error, and we affirm.

I. Facts

On July 27, 2014, twins S.M. and D.M. (b. 7/16/2014) were removed from their mother’s custody due to the presence of methamphetamine in their systems. A hearing was held on July 31, 2014, and in the subsequent order the circuit court found that probable cause existed to remove the children from the custody of their mother, Charity Sessums. The circuit court noted that Earls was a putative father, that his whereabouts were unknown, that he had not been served, and that he was not present for the hearing. The Arkansas | ¡.Department of Human Services (Department) was ordered to develop a case plan and make diligent efforts to discover Earls’s location, and Earls was ordered to establish paternity.

On August 19, 2014, the circuit court adjudicated the children dependent-neglected. Earls did not appear at the hearing. In the written order, the circuit court found that the process server had attempted to serve Earls, but was unable to because his attempts were “actively avoided by the parent(s). The court finds that the Department has made thorough and diligent efforts to locate the mother and putative fathers.” The Department was ordered to provide standard welfare services and develop an appropriate case plan. The parents were ordered to comply with the case plan, with the court’s orders, and with any reasonable Department requests. A review hearing was set for January 15, 2015.

An amended petition for dependency-neglect was filed January 12, 2015. Earls’s address was listed in the amended petition and “abandonment” was added to the grounds supporting the Department’s assertion of dependency-neglect. A second amended petition was filed on January 13, 2015, and it set forth that the Department had concerns about service of process and was seeking a new adjudication on the parents. The Department reiterated that abandonment was among the causes of the dependency/neglect. On the same date, the Department filed a motion on Earls’s behalf, requesting that the circuit court order a DNA test to establish Earls’s paternity. The circuit court granted the motion on January 15, 2015.

On March 31, 2015, Earls filed a pro se answer to the second amended petition for dependency neglect. In it, he listed several relatives he felt would be placement options for the children. On April 23, 2015, the circuit court entered an adjudication- and-review order [.¡finding that the children were dependent-neglected due to the presence of controlled substances in their systems at birth. The circuit court found that Earls was incarcerated and had been served on January 27, 2015, via service on the warden. The circuit court found that the Department had made reasonable efforts to provide services. The parents were ordered to cooperate and maintain contact with the Department, obey all orders of the court, watch “The Clock is Ticking,” complete parenting classes, and submit to drug screening. The putative fathers were ordered to establish paternity.

On May 1, 2015, the DNA test results were filed with the court, and they showed that Earls’s probability of paternity was 99.99%.

On August 28, 2015, the circuit court entered a permanency-planning order. In it the circuit court found that Earls had not established significant contacts with the children and his parental rights had not attached. The circuit court found that Earls was incarcerated and that his projected release date was September 7, 2015. Earls did not appeal the permanency planning order.

On January 8, 2016, the Department filed a petition for termination. In its petition it cited two statutory grounds regarding Earls: (1) Arkansas Code Annotated section 9-27-341(b)(3)(B)(i)(6 )(Repl. 2015)—that the children had lived out of the home of the noncustodial parent for twelve months, and despite meaningful efforts by the Department to rehabilitate Earls and correct the conditions that prevented placement with Earls, the conditions had not been remedied by him; and (2) Arkansas Code Annotated section 9-27-341(b)(3)(B)(ii)(a)—that the children had lived outside the parents’ home for twelve months, band that Earls had failed to provide financial support or maintain meaningful contact with the children.

On March 30, 2016, the circuit court held a termination hearing at which Earls appeared and was represented by counsel.

Marsha Bobo, the family service worker assigned to the case, testified that because Earls was incarcerated, services could not be provided to him; however, she also testified that the Arkansas Department of Correction offered some of the same services that the Department provided, such as parenting classes and counseling. Bobo testified that she did not know if the Department had contacted Earls regarding the services offered at the Cummins Unit, and she confirmed that his case file did not mention any discussion of services. Bobo testified that she was unaware of Earls contacting the Department or of any requests for visitation with the children. Bobo testified that placing the children with Earls was impossible because he was in prison. Bobo testified that in the case of extenuating circumstances, such as imprisonment, the Department should make accommodations in the case plan.

Bobo testified that the children are adoptable and the foster parent with whom the children had lived since their removal was in a position to adopt.

Earls testified that he would like the children to be placed in his custody when he is released from prison. He testified that he thought he would be released in two-to-three months, but that his sentence that was issued on December 22, 2014, was for 5 years. Earls testified that he received a letter dated September 17, 2014, notifying him that the children were in the Department’s custody and inviting him to a “family centered meeting.” Earls | ^testified that when he arrived at the scheduled time of 3:00 he discovered that the meeting had already taken place at 8:00 that morning. Earls testified that he was served with a case plan, but that there were requirements in it that he could not meet, such as watching the video “The Clock is Ticking” and going to counseling in Paragould.

Earls testified that he had contacted the Department over the course of the case and that he had requested a DNA test by filing a motion with the court. He explained that he had written letters to legal counsel for the Department and the Office of Child Support Enforcement. He also testified that he had taken three classes since he had been incarcerated, but that the parenting classes were backlogged and he could not get a place in them.

Earls made a motion to dismiss and argued that the Department had not made meaningful efforts to rehabilitate him, despite his efforts to contact the Department; thus, section 9-27-341(b)(3)(B)(i)(h) could not be cited as a ground supporting the Department’s petition to terminate his parental rights.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Earls v. Arkansas Department of Human Services
2017 Ark. 171 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2017)
Howard v. Arkansas Department of Human Services
2017 Ark. App. 68 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2017 Ark. App. 53, 511 S.W.3d 373, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/earls-v-arkansas-department-of-human-services-arkctapp-2017.