In Re DH

859 N.E.2d 737, 2007 WL 60190
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 10, 2007
Docket49A05-0606-JV-318
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 859 N.E.2d 737 (In Re DH) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana 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 DH, 859 N.E.2d 737, 2007 WL 60190 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

859 N.E.2d 737 (2007)

In the Matter of D.H., J.H., J.B.H., L.H. and N.H.
Diana Hatchett, Appellant-Respondent,
v.
Marion County Office of Family and Children, Appellee-Petitioner, and
Child Advocates, Inc., Co-Appellee (Guardian Ad Litem).

No. 49A05-0606-JV-318.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

January 10, 2007.

*738 Jan B. Berg, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Donna Lewis, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellee.

OPINION

SHARPNACK, Judge.

Diana Hatchett ("Mother") appeals the trial court's determination that D.H., Ja. H., Ju.H., L.H., and N.H. (collectively, "Children") are children in need of services ("CHINS"). Hatchett raises two issues, which we restate as:

I. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by excluding certain cross examination of S.L. under the Rape Shield Statute; and
II. Whether the evidence is sufficient to support the trial court's finding that the Children are CHINS.

We reverse.

The relevant facts follow. Mother has six children, S.L., born January 1988, Ju. H., born March 1992, D.H., born October 1994, Ja.H., born October 2000, L.H., and N.H., twins who were born in July 2002. Judge Hatchett, Sr. ("Hatchett"), is the father of all of the children except S.L. Antonio Lipscomb ("Lipscomb") is the father of S.L.

On August 26, 2005, the Marion County Department of Child Services ("MCDCS") received a report in which seventeen-year-old S.L., who was the subject of a CHINS petition and was residing in foster care, alleged that she had been molested by her stepfather, Hatchett, several years earlier when she was in second through fourth grade. The MCDCS removed the Children and filed a petition alleging that the Children were CHINS because:

[O]ne or more of the children's physical or mental condition is seriously impaired or seriously endangered as a result of the inability, refusal, or neglect of a parent, guardian or custodian to supply one or more of the children with necessary food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education or supervision; and the children need care, treatment or rehabilitation that the children are not receiving and are unlikely to be provided or accepted without the coercive intervention of the Court, as show by the following, to wit:
A) On or about September 6, 2005, the Department of Child Services (DCS) determined, by its Family Casemanager *739 (FCM) Susan Jacobs, these children to be children in need of services because their sibling, [S.L.], who is a current ward under cause number 49D09-0507-JC-28528, was molested by [Hatchett]. [S.L.] indicated that the [sic] when the molest occurred, she advised [Mother], but that [Mother] took no protective measures other than to send [S.L.] to reside with [Lipscomb]. Due to the untreated sexual perpetration issues of [Hatchett] and [Mother's] failure to take appropriate protective measures with regards to her children, all of the children are endangered in the family home.
* * * * *

Appellant's Appendix at 47.

Mother and Hatchett denied the petition's allegations. At a factfinding hearing, S.L. testified that between second grade and fourth grade, her stepfather, Hatchett, had touched her legs and "private part" on more than ten occasions. Transcript at 63. According to S.L., she told Mother about the abuse at the end of her fourth grade year, and Mother sent S.L. to live with S.L.'s father, Lipscomb. Mother testified that S.L. had told her that Hatchett had been touching her but that S.L. did not give Mother specific details. As a result, Mother took S.L. to the doctor, talked to the Children, confronted Hatchett, talked to members of Hatchett's family regarding the accusation, and sent S.L. to live with Lipscomb.

S.L. lived with Lipscomb for one and one-half years. Her relationship with Lipscomb and his wife deteriorated, and Lipscomb suddenly returned S.L. to Mother during S.L.'s sixth grade year. S.L. later alleged that Lipscomb had molested her. After being at home with Mother and Hatchett for approximately two years, S.L. started running away and lived with various friends and relatives. Eventually, Mother refused to allow S.L. to return to the family's home, and S.L. was declared a CHINS.

During cross examination of S.L., Mother's attorney sought to question S.L. regarding a prior miscarriage, her accusations against Lipscomb, and her sexual history. The State objected based upon the Rape Shield Statute. The trial court sustained the objections regarding evidence of S.L.'s miscarriage, abuse by anyone other than Hatchett, and S.L.'s sexual history, but the trial court later allowed testimony regarding abuse by Lipscomb over the State's objection. There was no allegation or evidence presented in the factfinding hearing that the Children had been abused.

After the factfinding hearing, the trial court entered the following findings of fact and conclusions thereon:

* * * * *
17. [S.L.] testified at the factfinding hearing of February 23, 2006, that [Hatchett] sexually abused her, from her second grade year to her fourth grade year; it happened at least ten times. The sexual abuse alleged was the touching of the private parts and legs.
18. [S.L.] disclosed the alleged abuse to [Mother] when she was in the fourth grade. She never told her siblings about the alleged abuse.
19. Soon after disclosing the alleged abuse to her mother, [S.L.] was sent to live with her father, [Lipscomb], in Illinois.
20. [S.L.] received counseling for sexual abuse at the Legacy House.
21. All of the Hatchett children lived in the home with [Mother] and [Hatchett] at the time of the allegations, and remained in the home after *740 [S.L.] disclosed the allegations to her mother.
22. [Mother] never sent the Hatchett children to live elsewhere after the disclosure by [S.L.].
23. [S.L.] didn't disclose the alleged abuse earlier because she didn't think anybody would believe her.
24. [S.L.] disclosed the abuse to Emily Haile, a clinician at Midtown in August 2005.
25. [S.L.] did not disclose the alleged sexual abuse to Lynn Zinn, her probation officer.
26. [S.L.'s] siblings, [Ju.H.] and [D.H.] did not witness any inappropriate contact between [Hatchett] and [S.L.].
27. [Mother] took [S.L.] to Wishard Hospital following the disclosure. No evidence of physical or sexual abuse was discovered. However, due to the time frame as well as the nature of the allegations, the Court finds the lack of physical evidence to be inconclusive.
28. The Court declines to conclude that [Hatchett] is guilty of any criminal offense stemming from the allegations in this CHINS proceedings, nor will the Court specifically find that the allegations made by [S.L.] to be true or not true.
29. However, the Court finds the allegations made by [S.L.] to be credible.
If any Finding of Fact is more appropriately a Conclusion of Law, it is so designated.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW:
* * * * *
9.

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Related

Davis v. Marion County Department of Child Services
869 N.E.2d 1267 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
859 N.E.2d 737, 2007 WL 60190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-dh-indctapp-2007.