In re Kelly S.

616 A.2d 1161, 29 Conn. App. 600, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 425, 1992 WL 351238
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedDecember 1, 1992
Docket10979
StatusPublished
Cited by101 cases

This text of 616 A.2d 1161 (In re Kelly S.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Kelly S., 616 A.2d 1161, 29 Conn. App. 600, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 425, 1992 WL 351238 (Colo. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

Freedman, J.

This appeal involves coterminous petitions for custody and for termination of parental rights filed by the commissioner of children and youth ser[602]*602vices (commissioner or DCYS). The respondent mother1 appeals from the judgment of the trial court adjudicating Kelly S. to be a neglected and uncared for child under General Statutes § 46b-129 and terminating the respondent’s parental rights pursuant to General Statutes § 45a-717.2 On appeal, the respondent argues that [603]*603the trial court improperly (1) permitted the introduction of certain hearsay evidence, (2) concluded that Kelly S. was neglected and uncared for under General Statutes § 46b-129, (3) concluded that there were parental acts of commission or omission that denied the child the care, guidance or control necessary for her physical, educational or moral well-being under General Statutes § 45a-717 (f) (2), (4) concluded that there was no ongoing parent-child relationship pursuant to § 45a-717 (f) (3), and (5) concluded that DCYS had met its statutory duty to provide reunification services. We affirm the trial court’s judgment to the extent that it granted custody of the child to DCYS pursuant to § 46b-129, but reverse the judgment as to the termination of respondent’s parental rights pursuant to § 45a-717.

Kelly S. was born on November 5, 1990. On November 8, 1990, while Kelly was still in the hospital, an order of temporary custody was granted by the trial court, Potter, J., on the ground that she was in immediate physical danger from her surroundings and that immediate removal from such surroundings was necessary to ensure her safety. Simultaneously with the order of temporary custody, coterminous petitions were served on the respondent. The petitions, as amended on October 17, 1991, alleged that Kelly is neglected and uncared for, and sought to terminate the parental rights of the respondent on the ground of parental acts of commission or omission and on the ground of no ongoing parent-child relationship.

[604]*604After hearing testimony from numerous witnesses, the trial court, Teller, J., found the following facts. The respondent mother, Lynn, is thirty-six years old and has a long history of mental illness, including psychiatric hospital admissions. She has a psychotic disorder, which has manifested itself with two distinct personalities, “Lynn I” and “Lynn II.” Lynn I carries on an internal conversation with Lynn II. The respondent has demonstrated poor hygiene and urinary incontinence and has shown angry, aggressive behavior. She has hallucinated, and was unable to participate meaningfully in prenatal visits because of distractions relating to the hallucinations, which were, most likely, interactions with her other personality. She demonstrated no initiative or motivation to attend prenatal visits and would do so only when transportation was provided. She failed to attend postnatal visits. The respondent has denied that she had any mental illness or emotional disorder. In addition to Kelly, the respondent has given birth to three other children, one fathered by Kelly’s father. All three were taken from her at birth by the New Hampshire equivalent to DCYS and placed in foster care because that agency felt she could not appropriately care for them. Termination proceedings in New Hampshire were completed as to the two older children and were pending as to the third at the time of the hearing in this case.

At the time the petitions were served, the respondent was living in a shelter for the homeless. At the time of trial, she resided with Kelly’s father and two pets in a single room in the town of Rogers. That room had no cooking facilities and the residents use a common bathroom in the hall, which is not suitable for a child. Neither parent is employed, and both receive public assistance.

Kelly is a child with special needs. At the time of the hearing, she was developmental^ delayed by at least [605]*605six months. According to her pediatrician, Kelly is a high risk baby with special needs and is demanding. Rearing a child in this condition would be taxing for a parent with ordinary abilities, as her medication and feedings require strict regulation. Caring for her requires constant diligence and vigilance. She has a gastroesophageal reflux condition that could cause food to be regurgitated into her lungs. This condition could be life threatening. Kelly must be held and positioned in a special way; she will not tolerate lying on her stomach or on her back for long. The “birth-to-three” program performed a developmental evaluation of Kelly when she was three months old at the request of Kelly’s foster mother. Nancy Canata, the birth-to-three social worker, found that Kelly had developmental delays in visual tracking, language and motor development, and she recommended early intervention services. These services were arranged for and provided so that Kelly is seen by a visiting nurse and a speech-occupational therapist on a regular basis. These professionals have instructed the foster mother on the therapies she performs on Kelly. According to the foster mother, who has been a foster mother for ten years, she has three to four people in her home every week who help her with Kelly, including a department of mental retardation aide, an occupational therapist, a visiting nurse and a speech therapist. The therapists and foster mother try to teach Kelly to grasp and squeeze toys, roll over, track things visually and the like. Kelly needs full-time care, including therapy, medication, slow feedings of thirty to thirty-five minutes, sphincter muscle stimulation and other care beyond that required by a “normal” baby. It is reasonably likely that she will require such care in the future. The court found it significant that with all of this intervention and therapy and with round-the-clock care of a loving foster mother whose family helps care for the child, Kelly remains substantially developmentally delayed.

[606]*606The court further found that the respondent was barely able to care for herself. She did not have a secure, stable, adequate home in which the child could reside. She did not exercise appropriate judgment and was no better able to deal with her ongoing psychiatric difficulties at the time of trial than she had in the past. According to the psychologist who performed a court ordered evaluation of the respondent, the respondent’s impairments, which go back to at least 1975, greatly affect her ability to parent, rendering her unable to do so. He testified that the child would be placed at emotional risk and risk of physical harm if she were in the respondent’s care. He opined that even with intensive therapy and treatment there is no reasonable likelihood that the respondent could ever be an adequate parent. Even if she were placed in a supervised residential setting with the child, the respondent would be unable to parent a child effectively.

In its memorandum of decision, the trial court observed that there was “no evidence that Kelly has been actually neglected or uncared for by her parents” since she had never been in their custody. (Emphasis in original.) On the basis of its findings of fact, however, the court concluded that the respondent’s parental deficiencies, if Kelly were in her care, would have permitted the child to live under conditions, circumstances or associations injurious to her well-being and would have denied her proper care and attention physically, educationally, emotionally or morally.

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Bluebook (online)
616 A.2d 1161, 29 Conn. App. 600, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 425, 1992 WL 351238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-kelly-s-connappct-1992.