E.W.G. v. Dent County Juvenile Office

399 S.W.3d 48, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 501
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 25, 2013
DocketNos. SD 32090, SD 32091, SD 32092, SD 32093
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 399 S.W.3d 48 (E.W.G. v. Dent 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
E.W.G. v. Dent County Juvenile Office, 399 S.W.3d 48, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 501 (Mo. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

WILLIAM W. FRANCIS, JR., J.

E.W.G. appeals the judgment terminating his parental rights. We dismiss the appeal as to J.L.G.1 Finding no merit in his seven points on appeal, we affirm the judgment of the Juvenile Division of the Circuit Court of Dent County (the “trial court”) as to T.D.G., A.D.G., and M.A.G.

Factual and Procedural Background

“In reviewing a judgment terminating parental rights, this Court consider[s] the facts and reasonable inferences derived therefrom in a light most favorable to the judgment.” In re C.A.M., 282 S.W.3d 398, 401 (Mo.App. S.D.2009) (internal quotations and citations omitted). Viewed in that context, the following information is pertinent to this appeal. The record reveals that E.W.G. is the biological father of T.D.G., born October 22, 1997; A.D.G., born November 28, 1999; and M.A.G., born February 13, 2001 (collectively “the Children”).2

While E.W.G. is not the biological father of J.L.G., Mother is the natural mother of all four children. J.L.G. had been living solely with E.W.G. and her siblings since 2006, when Mother left the home and moved to Iowa. Mother’s whereabouts were unknown at the time of the hearing for termination of parental rights.

On April 21, 2010, J.L.G. and T.D.G. told their junior high school counselors and a police officer that E.W.G. had physically abused them. Both girls had bruises on their legs and arms, and J.L.G. also had several red marks on her arm that were suspected to be cigarette burns. Upon being taken to the police department for questioning about the allegations, E.W.G. refused to cooperate. He was then arrested and jailed. E.W.G. was charged with the class C felony of abuse of a child in violation of section 568.060 (Charge 1);3 the class C felony of domestic assault in the second degree in violation of section 565.073 (Charge 2); the class C felony of abuse of a child in violation of section 568.060 (Charge 3); and the class C felony of domestic assault in the second degree in violation of section 565.073 (Charge 4).

On April 22, 2010, a “Petition,” including an “Affidavit for Removal and Affidavit of Efforts Provided by Children’s Division Section 211.183 RSMo[,]” was filed with the court by a Juvenile Officer with the Dent County Juvenile Office (“Juvenile Office”) on behalf of all the children, alleging the children were in “need of the care and [52]*52treatment of [the] [c]ourt.”4 Sara Lancaster (“Lancaster”), a caseworker with the “Dent County Children’s Division,” was assigned to the Children’s case on the same day.

The petition alleged that E.W.G. “repeatedly whipped [J.L.G.] ... and [T.D.G.] ... with an extension cord or cable leaving extensive bruising” on said children; that E.W.G. had “burned [J.L.G.]’s arm with a cigarette,” leaving approximately “seven round marks in various stages of healing[ ]”; “knocked [J.L.G. and T.D.G.]’s head[s] into the walls on more than one occasion[]”; “pulled T.D.G.’s hair”; and whipped A.D.G. and M.A.G. with a paddle. The petition also alleged the children reported the beatings or whippings were so frequent that they could not “remember a great deal of the reasons for the beatings[,]” and the abuse began after Mother left the home. The children reported E.W.G. did not “beat the boys and [treated] the girls differently than the boys.”

This was not the first time the children had come into care as the result of abuse by E.W.G. E.W.G. pled guilty to two counts of assault in Iowa and as a result, there was a court order prohibiting E.W.G. from having contact with J.L.G. while on probation for these offenses. On July 30, 1997, the Children’s Division in Grundy County, Iowa, was notified that Mother refused to abide by the order and E.W.G. was having contact with J.L.G., so the Iowa Children’s Division took custody of J.L.G.5 In October 1997, when T.D.G. was born, she was taken into protective custody when she was two days old because E.W.G. was living in the home with Mother. In 1998, when E.W.G. and Mother married, visits with J.L.G. and T.D.G. were suspended. The Iowa Children’s Division had no further contact with E.W.G. and Mother until the birth of A.D.G. on November, 28, 1999, when he too was taken into custody at the age of two days. The record indicates that termination of parental rights “was sought on 8/21/00 but was denied by the Court.”

The record also revealed that “an unexplainable death ... occurred with [E.W.G.]’s child of a prior marriage in the state of Kansas. The hospital reported that the child died of an illness and [E.W.G.] reported that the child was struck in the head by a rock from another child and put in a bag.” Also mentioned was “a hotline received on 9/3/10 for other sexual abuse; lack of supervision ... due to [E.W.G.] showing the children pornographic material ... [which] was concluded as Unsubstantiated-Preventative Services Indicated”; an assessment relating to J.L.G. “received on 9/5/08 for Poor Hygiene” that was “concluded as Services Needed-Family Declined”; and an investigation “on 5/11/09 for bruises, welts, red marks” that was concluded as “Unsubstantiated.”

On May 14, 2010, the trial court found the allegations against E.W.G. to be true, found all the children to have been abused by E.W.G., assumed jurisdiction of all the children, and placed all the children in the physical custody of the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services (“Children’s Division”) because an “emergency existed which placed [all the children] in imminent danger of serious physical harm or death.” The trial court ordered E.W.G. to complete a psychologi[53]*53cal evaluation and that visitation with the Children be supervised by Children’s Division.

After gaining his release from jail, E.W.G. visited A.D.G. and M.A.G. every week at the office of Children’s Division during May through September, 2010. E.W.G. was not allowed to see J.L.G. or T.D.G. due to the felony charges against him for child abuse.

On August 29, 2010, E.W.G. completed his court-ordered psychological evaluation with Dr. Frederick Nolen.6 E.W.G. was diagnosed as having alcohol dependence with unknown remission, “[njeglect of child, perpetrator,”' and antisocial personality disorder. Dr. Nolen stated he knew of no services or medication that “would improve or cause some sort of improvement” with E.W.G. Dr. Nolen recommended there be no further contact between E.W.G. and the Children and that his parental rights be terminated immediately.

E.W.G.’s last visit with any of the children was on September 22, 2010, when he saw A.D.G. and M.A.G. for an hour while under supervision at Children’s Division. One week later, the trial court followed Dr. Nolen’s recommendation and ordered no further contact between E.W.G. and the children.

On March 22, 2011, E.W.G. entered Alford 7 pleas of guilty to Charges 1 and 3, felony child abuse; Charges 2 and 4, domestic assault, were dismissed. The court sentenced E.W.G. to seven years’ imprisonment each on Charges 1 and 3, with the sentences to run consecutively, suspended those sentences, and placed E.W.G. on five years’ supervised probation. One condition of E.W.G.’s probation was that he have no contact with J.L.G. and T.D.G.

On November 23, 2011, the Juvenile Officer filed a “Petition for Termination of Parental Rights” (“Petition for Termination”) requesting the trial court terminate E.W.G.’s parental rights to T.D.G., A.D.G.

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399 S.W.3d 48, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 501, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ewg-v-dent-county-juvenile-office-moctapp-2013.