In Re The Dependency Of S.i.l.

CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedJune 27, 2022
Docket83171-2
StatusUnpublished

This text of In Re The Dependency Of S.i.l. (In Re The Dependency Of S.i.l.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re The Dependency Of S.i.l., (Wash. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE STATE OF WASHINGTON

In the Matter of the Dependency of: No. 83171-2-I

S.I.L., DIVISION ONE

A Minor Child. UNPUBLISHED OPINION

ANDRUS, C.J. — K.P., the father of 14-year-old S.I.L., appeals the trial

court’s finding that S.I.L. is dependent under RCW 13.34.030(6)(c). He contends

insufficient evidence supports the trial court’s factual findings. The father also

argues the trial court abused its discretion by ordering him to submit to a

psychosexual evaluation without expressly excluding polygraph and penile

plethysmograph (PPG) tests, and that ordering such tests violates his substantive

due process rights.

We conclude there is sufficient evidence to support the challenged findings,

and those findings support the conclusion that S.I.L. is dependent under RCW

13.34.030(6)(c). We decline to reach the issue of whether the trial court abused

its discretion in ordering K.P. to undergo a polygraph or PPG test or violated K.P.’s

due process rights in ordering him to do so because the trial court did not actually

order K.P. to undergo either test. We affirm.

Citations and pin cites are based on the Westlaw online version of the cited material. No. 83171-2-I/2

FACTS

In January 2021, the Department of Children, Youth and Families (the

Department) received three separate intake reports regarding then 13-year-old

S.I.L., who resided with her mother, A.L. Leanne King, the Child Protective

Services (CPS) social worker who investigated the reports, discovered that A.L.

was experiencing a serious mental health episode involving delusional thoughts

and hallucinations. A.L. believed someone was after her and had gotten inside

her mattress; A.L. began to beat and slash the mattress to find the person hiding

inside and asked S.I.L. to help her. A.L. fled the house with SIL, and, while driving

away, A.L. began driving erratically because she believed that the intruder was

now on top of the car’s roof and she needed to knock the person off. Eventually,

A.L. drove herself and her daughter to the home of A.L.’s father. A.L. was

transported to St. Joseph Hospital for treatment and involuntarily detained for 120

hours.

When King learned of A.L.’s 2021 mental health detention, she contacted

the grandfather and learned S.I.L. was at his home, where S.I.L. remained while

CPS attempted to engage A.L. in services. A.L. continued to exhibit delusional

thoughts after being discharged from the hospital and, after the effort to engage

A.L. in services proved unsuccessful, King determined she needed to remove

S.I.L. from A.L.’s care. When King contacted S.I.L.’s father, K.P., he informed King

that he was not in a position to parent S.I.L., that he had lost his job and was

looking for employment, and that he believed S.I.L. was safe in the care of her

maternal grandfather. K.P. told King that he had not seen S.I.L. in years and had

stopped trying to see her because he did not want to deal with A.L. Because the -2- No. 83171-2-I/3

father did not want to parent S.I.L., CPS began to prepare the paperwork to file a

dependency petition and to obtain court approval for placement with her

grandfather.

The Department filed the dependency petition on February 11, 2021. It

obtained an order authorizing the Department to take S.I.L. into its custody that

same day. The parents did not contest shelter care and agreed that, at that point,

S.I.L. had no parent available to provide supervision and care for the child. They

also stipulated to placement with the maternal grandfather. The court authorized

the parents to have a minimum of two hours of supervised visitation with S.I.L., two

times each week and also approved “liberal phone visits between mother/father

and child” subject to the “child’s willingness to participate.” The court appointed a

guardian ad litem (GAL) for S.I.L., and, at the teen’s request, also appointed

counsel to represent her.

On March 30, 2021, the father answered the petition, asserting he was

capable of adequately caring for S.I.L. The trial court scheduled a fact-finding

hearing on the issue of dependency as to the father, which it conducted on July

27, 28, 29, and August 3, 2021. The mother did not participate in this hearing,

although her attorney appeared via Zoom.

At this hearing, the trial court heard testimony that the mother had a long

history of mental illness. In 2012, A.L. had reported, without evidence, that her

and K.P.’s son, then in his early teens, had raped S.I.L. A.L. began verbally

abusing the boy. This incident led the Department to remove him from A.L.’s care

and to initiate a dependency petition for the protection of A.L.’s son, who was

-3- No. 83171-2-I/4

suicidal as a result of his mother’s belief that he had raped his younger sister and

his mother’s refusal to allow him to remain in her home.

At that point, CPS contacted K.P. to tell him that the Department had

removed the son from A.L.’s custody due to A.L.’s mental state. The Department

supported K.P. in filing a parenting plan for the son. The son lived with K.P. for a

few months and then went to live with his maternal grandfather, with K.P.’s

consent. He remained in his grandfather’s care until he reached the age of 18.

When the son went to live with his grandfather, the Department dismissed its

dependency petition.

K.P. has had an ongoing awareness of A.L.’s mental health issues, both

because of the Department advising him of her condition and his involvement in

their fifteen-year, on-again-off-again relationship. He reported that while they

never married or lived together, up until 2010, he was often at her home after work

to help her with the two children. For the first three years of S.I.L.’s life, K.P.

testified that he took an active role in helping to raise his daughter. He stopped

interacting with A.L., however, because she became violent with him, threw things

at him, and began to demand that he pay money to see his children. When he

refused, K.P. testified that A.L. took S.I.L. and his son to live in a different county.

For approximately a decade, K.P. had no contact with S.I.L., with the exception of

a single visit when she was ten years old. S.I.L. told King that she would not

recognize her father if she passed him on the street.

The Department also learned that K.P. had a fairly extensive criminal

history. In 1995, he was convicted of negligent driving. In 1998, he was convicted

of fourth degree assault and first degree negligent driving. In 2001, he pleaded -4- No. 83171-2-I/5

guilty to indecent exposure and residential burglary. K.P. testified that the 2001

convictions arose out of an incident involving A.L. when he entered A.L.’s

apartment without her knowledge in an attempt to have sexual relations with her.

The court, as a part of this conviction, entered a domestic violence protection order

for the protection of A.L. K.P. was sentenced to nine months in jail for indecent

exposure and 75 days in jail for the burglary conviction.

In 2008, K.P. was convicted of criminal trespass, and in 2010 he was

convicted again of fourth degree assault and second degree unlawful possession

of a firearm.

In 2014, K.P., who was then married, was convicted of domestic violence

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