In Re AKF

164 S.W.3d 149, 2005 WL 1272536
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 31, 2005
Docket26329
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 164 S.W.3d 149 (In Re AKF) 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
In Re AKF, 164 S.W.3d 149, 2005 WL 1272536 (Mo. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

164 S.W.3d 149 (2005)

In the Interest of A.K.F., D.A.F., D.J.F., and K.D.F., Minors.
Kitarra Daniel James Fort, Appellant
v.
Greene County Juvenile Office, Respondent.

No. 26329.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, Division Two.

May 31, 2005.

*150 M. Elise Branyan Barker, Springfield, for appellant.

Bill Prince, Springfield, for respondent.

JOHN E. PARRISH, Presiding Judge.

Kitarra Daniel James Fort (father) appeals a judgment terminating his parental rights to A.K.F., born July 14, 1993, D.A.F., born July 8, 1995, D.J.F., born August 6, 1996, and K.D.F., born October 25, 1999. The parental rights of the children's mother, Jacqueline Denise Fort (mother), were also terminated. She appeals separately. This court affirms.

The Missouri Division of Family Services (DFS) took protective custody of the children on or about April 24, 2002. The children were removed from the custody of father and mother as a result of suspected physical abuse inflicted on A.K.F. and D.A.F.

Officer Patrick Carey of the Springfield, Missouri, Police Department was called to the Disney Elementary School because of a report of suspected child abuse. Officer Carey was accompanied by Emilie Dortch, an investigator for the Children's Division of DFS. Ms. Dortch had received a report that D.A.F. had "strangulation marks" and "bruising" on his face and shoulders.

Officer Carey, Ms. Dortch, and the school nurse met with D.A.F. and A.K.F. Officer Carey and Ms. Dortch observed marks and bruises on and around D.A.F.'s eyes, neck, chest, and chin and broken blood vessels on and around his eyes, neck, and chest. D.A.F. told the investigators that he had gotten in trouble the night before for kicking out a window in his bedroom and that father choked him "until he died." D.A.F. explained that father choked him until he could not breathe; that he fell asleep and later woke up. D.A.F. said father told him he wanted to kill him and "smacked [him] through [his] eyes."

Officer Carey and Ms. Dortch also spoke with A.K.F. She had not observed the choking incident that D.A.F. described, but she had heard D.A.F. scream and then become quiet. She told them that D.A.F. later told her he had been hurt. Officer Carey observed old bruises on A.K.F.'s temples.

A.K.F. and D.A.F. said that father would "choke slam" them. They described a "choke slam" as a wrestling maneuver where a person is grabbed by the neck and thrown down. The children stated that father would choke slam them on the bed in play and on the floor when he was angry. A.K.F. and D.A.F. said father would spank them with a baseball bat, a paddle, or belts. They said father and mother had told them not to tell others what happened in their home; that spanking would be considered child abuse. A.K.F. and D.A.F. said mother and father also hit one another.

Photographs of D.A.F.'s injuries were introduced in evidence. Officer Carey reported that based on the incidents reported by A.K.F. and D.A.F., he believed there was probable cause that father had committed one or more criminal offenses. Officer Carey signed an authorization for the children to be placed in the custody of DFS.

Father testified at the evidentiary hearing on the petition to terminate parental rights. He said he had "practiced wrestling moves" on his children in play. He *151 said the night before the date when Officer Carey and Ms. Dortch were called to the school, he had played a wrestling game with D.A.F. "in the context of [a] videogame." Father explained, "My character actually choked his character into submission where the character, as [D.A.F.] describes it, died and came back to life." Father told of an earlier incident when he held D.A.F. by the neck against a wall. He said that had not occurred near the time the officer and DFS worker had gone to the school; that it had occurred at an earlier date.

The petition to terminate father's and mother's parental rights was filed April 24, 2003, one year after the children were taken into protective custody. The petition alleged that the children had been in alternative care pursuant to an order of the juvenile court due to parental neglect and abuse. It asserted that the children had been subjected to physical abuse by father under conditions that indicated mother knew or should have known of the abuse. It also alleged that father and mother repeatedly and continuously failed, although physically and financially able, to provide the children with adequate food, clothing, shelter, or education as defined by law, or other care and control necessary for the children's physical, mental, or emotional health and development. The petition asserted that the children had been under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court in excess of one year without conditions that led to the assumption of jurisdiction being rectified; that there was little likelihood these conditions would be remedied at an early date; that continuation of the parent-child relationship greatly diminished the children's prospects for early integration into a stable and permanent home.

The juvenile court found and concluded, based on clear, cogent, and convincing evidence, that the allegations contained in the petition to terminate parental rights were true and the statutory grounds for termination of the parental rights of the father and mother existed in that the minor children were abused and/or neglected, § 211.447.4(2),[1] and the children had been under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court for one year and the conditions leading to the assumption of jurisdiction remained, § 211.447.4(3). The juvenile court found it was in the best interest of the children to terminate the parental rights of father and mother, § 211.447.5. Judgment was entered terminating both parents' parental rights.

The trial court's decision to terminate parental rights will be sustained on appeal unless there is no substantial evidence to support the judgment, it is against the weight of the evidence, or it erroneously declares or applies the law. [In the Interest of] S.L.J., 3 S.W.3d [902] at 907 [(Mo.App.1999)]. In our review, we are mindful that the juvenile court was in a superior position to judge the credibility of the witnesses and that it was free to believe all, part, or none of the witnesses' testimony. Id. Furthermore, the standard of proof may be satisfied even though the trial court has contrary evidence before it or evidence in the record might support a different conclusion. [In the Matter of] C.M.B., 55 S.W.3d [889] at 893 [(Mo.App.2001)].

In re B.C.K., 103 S.W.3d 319, 322 (Mo.App. 2003). "In our review, we consider all facts and reasonable inferences therefrom in a light most favorable to the judgment below, and we will reverse `only when we firmly believe that the judgment is wrong.'" In re A.M.C., 32 S.W.3d 155, *152 158 (Mo.App.2000), quoting In re C.M.D., 18 S.W.3d 556, 560 (Mo.App.2000).

Father presents one point on appeal.

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Related

M.D.R. v. Greene County Juvenile Office
179 S.W.3d 418 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2005)

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Bluebook (online)
164 S.W.3d 149, 2005 WL 1272536, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-akf-moctapp-2005.