In re S.P.

2023 IL App (1st) 230004-U
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 14, 2023
Docket1-23-0004
StatusUnpublished

This text of 2023 IL App (1st) 230004-U (In re S.P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re S.P., 2023 IL App (1st) 230004-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

2023 IL App (1st) 230004-U No. 1-23-0004 Order filed June 14, 2023 Third Division

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1). ______________________________________________________________________________ IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST DISTRICT ______________________________________________________________________________ In re S.P., A MINOR, ) ) Appeal from the (THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Circuit Court of ) Cook County. Petitioner-Appellee, ) ) No. 22 JA 212 v. ) ) Honorable J.F., ) Andrea Buford, ) Judge, presiding. Respondent-Appellant.) )

JUSTICE BURKE delivered the judgment of the court. Presiding Justice McBride and Justice Reyes concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: We affirm the trial court’s finding of abuse and neglect at the adjudication hearing and its finding that respondent was unable to care for the minor at the disposition hearing over respondent’s contentions that both findings were against the manifest weight of the evidence.

¶2 Following an adjudication hearing, the trial court found that the minor, S.P., was neglected

due to an injurious environment and abused due to a substantial risk of physical harm created by No. 1-23-0004

respondent, J.F., her mother. 1 Following a disposition hearing, the court made S.P. a ward of the

court with a permanency goal of returning home within 12 months. On appeal, respondent

challenges the sufficiency of the evidence at the adjudication and disposition hearings. For the

following reasons, we affirm.

¶3 I. BACKGROUND

¶4 Respondent gave birth to S.P. on March 23, 2022. On March 28, 2022, the State filed a

petition for adjudication of wardship, alleging that S.P. was neglected due to an injurious

environment and abused due to a substantial risk of physical harm created by respondent. The

petition alleged that, when S.P. was born, respondent had two other children in Department of

Children and Family Services (DCFS) custody due to abuse and neglect, as well as one prior

indicated report for inadequate supervision, substantial risk of physical injury, and an environment

injurious to a child’s health and welfare. 2 Respondent had been diagnosed with “borderline

intellectual functioning and unspecified trauma and stress related disorder,” and had a pending

psychiatric evaluation. The trial court held a temporary custody hearing on March 28, 2022, and

granted temporary custody of S.P. to the DCFS guardianship administrator.3

¶5 A. Adjudication Hearing

¶6 The trial court held an adjudication hearing on September 27, 2022. The State moved into

evidence a DCFS integrated assessment report dated December 1, 2020, regarding respondent and

1 S.P.’s putative father, D.H., is not a party to this appeal and did not appear before the trial court. The trial court found him unwilling and unable to care for S.P. 2 An indicated report is a report of abuse or neglect supported by credible evidence following a DCFS investigation. In re J.S., 2020 IL App (1st) 191119, ¶ 20 n. 2. 3 Neither the order nor the reports of proceedings from the March 28, 2022, temporary custody hearing are included in the record on appeal. However, an order dated April 1, 2022, states that an “order of temporary custody [was] entered with prejudice to the mother” on March 28, 2022.

-2- No. 1-23-0004

her two children, K.J. and Z.H., who are S.P.’s older siblings. The integrated assessment states that

respondent was psychiatrically hospitalized in June 2020 because she was acting erratically on the

side of the road, with then-10-month-old K.J. in a vehicle nearby. While hospitalized, respondent

admitted to use of phencyclidine (PCP) within the past two days. DCFS placed K.J. and then-22-

month-old Z.H. with respondent’s mother. K.J. suffered burns to her hand and foot while in her

grandmother’s care. Respondent reported the burns to DCFS and, several hours later, took K.J.

and Z.H. to a hospital. However, respondent was intoxicated and aggressive towards her children

at the hospital, so police handcuffed her and removed her from the facility. Police suspected that

respondent was under the influence of PCP. DCFS then placed K.J. and Z.H. with a family friend.

Respondent did not consistently participate in services or visitation, and she threatened the family

friend and appeared at her home while intoxicated in an attempt to take back her children.

Respondent also failed to provide adequate food, clothing, and diapers for the children, and refused

to sign consent forms needed to obtain medical care for them. The integrated assessment also stated

that respondent had been charged three times and convicted once for “dangerous drugs,” with her

most recent arrest for possession of a controlled substance occurring in November 2015.

¶7 DCFS took temporary custody of K.J. and Z.H. in August 2020. In September 2021, a

juvenile court adjudicated K.J. and Z.H. abused and neglected due to an injurious environment and

a substantial risk of physical injury. In November 2021, the juvenile court entered a disposition

order finding that respondent was unable to care for K.J. and Z.H. and granting custody to the

DCFS guardianship administrator with the right to place the children. The State moved the

adjudication and disposition orders in K.J. and Z.H.’s case into evidence at S.P.’s adjudication

hearing.

-3- No. 1-23-0004

¶8 Maggie Beckett testified that she was a caseworker employed by Lydia Home Association

assigned K.J. and Z.H.’s case, and then to S.P.’s case when she was born. In the siblings’ case,

Beckett referred respondent for a parenting class, a substance abuse class, random drug testing,

domestic violence services, a psychiatric assessment, and individual therapy. Respondent

completed a substance abuse assessment in December 2020, and all her drug tests were negative.

She also completed parenting classes in April 2021 and continued with parenting coaching through

S.P.’s birth in March 2022. Respondent was unsuccessfully discharged from individual therapy in

December 2021, but restarted it in March 2022 and completed a psychiatric evaluation the day

before S.P. was born. As of S.P.’s birth, Beckett had not received the results of the psychiatric

evaluation. Those results would determine whether respondent should be on psychotropic

medication, which would factor into a planned parenting capacity assessment. Respondent had not

completed domestic violence services at the time of S.P.’s birth. Respondent was having weekly

supervised visits with K.J. and Z.H. but had not progressed to unsupervised visitation. Beckett

recommended protective custody for S.P. due to respondent’s outstanding services, particularly

the psychiatric evaluation and parenting capacity assessment, as well as “a few concerns during

visits that [she] would be overwhelmed or would not discipline the children.”

¶9 The State sought an adjudication of neglect based on an injurious environment and abuse

based on a substantial risk of physical harm. The State argued that S.P.’s siblings had already been

adjudicated abused and neglected and, at the time of S.P.’s birth, respondent had not completed

the services for which she was referred in the siblings’ case, nor had she progressed to

unsupervised visitation with S.P.’s older siblings. Respondent argued that there was no evidence

that she could not care for S.P. specifically. Rather, she contended that the State’s evidence

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Bluebook (online)
2023 IL App (1st) 230004-U, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-sp-illappct-2023.