In Re VM

816 N.E.2d 776, 352 Ill. App. 3d 391, 287 Ill. Dec. 809
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 13, 2004
Docket1-01-3434
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 816 N.E.2d 776 (In Re VM) 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 VM, 816 N.E.2d 776, 352 Ill. App. 3d 391, 287 Ill. Dec. 809 (Ill. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

816 N.E.2d 776 (2004)
352 Ill. App.3d 391
287 Ill.Dec. 809

In re V.M. and M.M., Minors, Respondents-Appellees (The People of the State of Illinois, Petitioner-Appellee,
v.
L.C., Respondent-Appellant).

No. 1-01-3434.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, First Division.

September 13, 2004.

Randy Crumpton, of counsel, Chicago, for Appellant.

*777 Richard A. Devine, State's Attorney, County of Cook, Chicago (Renee Goldfarb, Nancy Kasicicki, of counsel), for Appellees.

Justice O'MALLEY delivered the opinion of the court:

Respondent-appellant, L.C., is the biological mother of minors V.M. (male child born in April 1995) and M.M. (female child born May 1996). The juvenile court entered an order transferring guardianship to the paternal grandparents of the minors and closing the case. L.C. seeks review of whether the trial court's permanency goals and final order were against the manifest weight of the evidence. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

On October 4, 1996, the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) filed petitions for adjudication of wardship on behalf of the minors alleging that on or about September 3, 1996, V.M. suffered brain damage or a skull fracture and bruises on his legs as a result of a direct action of the parent or other persons responsible for the child's welfare.

During a hearing on October 7, 1996, the stipulated facts provided that V.M. sustained a skull fracture and bruises to his legs. Further, when asked how the child received the injuries, L.C. provided the DCFS worker and hospital staff three different accounts. L.C. told hospital staff that she attempted suicide on or about August 22, 1996. If called to testify, L.C. would state that she gave a consistent account of how the injury to V.M. was sustained. The father of V.M. and M.M. was not the custodial parent at the time of the incident.

On February 25, 1997, an adjudication hearing was held for V.M. and M.M. and the court found that pursuant to section 2-3 of the Juvenile Court Act of 1987 (Juvenile Act) (705 ILCS 405/2-3 (West 1996)), the minors were abused or neglected due to physical abuse and an injurious environment while in the L.C.'s care.

On July 29, 1997, a dispositional hearing was held and both parents were found unable for some reason other than financial circumstances alone to care for, protect, train or discipline the minors. The court also found that reasonable efforts had been made to prevent or eliminate the need for the removal of the minors from the home and appropriate services aimed at family preservation and family reunification were unsuccessful. Therefore, the court held that it was in the best interest of the minors to take them from the custody of the parents. The minors were placed in the guardianship of DCFS, with the right to place the minor.

On April 14, 1998, L.C. was granted unsupervised overnight visits up to two nights per week. In May 1999 and November 1999, the visitation was suspended due to DCFS hotline allegations of abuse. In December 1999, L.C. filed a motion for unsupervised overnight visitation.

At the hearing on L.C.'s motion, on January 7, 2000, DCFS caseworker and child welfare specialist Robert Brown testified that he was assigned to this case for approximately two years, until another caseworker took over the case. He stated that DCFS recommended that unsupervised visits be reinstated because the recent investigation was unfounded, the family therapist recommended that visits be unsupervised, a DCFS caseworker found the visits between the mother and children appropriate based on her observation, and the mother had cooperated with services and was likely to continue to do so. He also recommended individual counseling for L.C. with a therapist other than the family therapist, resources for anger-management *778 and behavior modification therapy, family therapy sessions with another agency, and conflict resolution with the paternal grandfather. Brown believed it was in the best interests of the children to reinstate unsupervised visits.

On January 31, 2000, family therapist Grecia Bautista, Robert Brown and L.C.'s psychiatrist, Carlos Espaillat, testified at the hearing on L.C.'s motion for unsupervised overnight visitation. DCFS worker Brown testified that he would recommend two-hour, unsupervised day visits initially and then eight-hour visits. Psychiatrist Espaillat testified that he observed a positive relationship between the children and L.C. Therapist Bautista testified that she observed L.C. change "[a] little bit" in her ability to manage her anger. She also noted that L.C. was "still interested in continuing working for her children and wishe[d] to make some changes in her life." Bautista said that despite the fact that L.C. had poor coping skills and impulse control, she believed that L.C. had the capacity to know what her situation was and knew how to collect herself, cope with the situation and take control of it. From her meetings with L.C., she had not observed anything that would give her the impression that L.C. was going to abuse the children. She noted that L.C. had demonstrated the ability to discipline the children without using verbal or physical force. Bautista recommended two hours of unsupervised visitation.

At the close of evidence at the January 31, 2000, hearing, the court stated that it had reservations about granting unsupervised visits and noted that L.C. had "anger control issues," albeit not directed toward her children. The court observed that from time to time, L.C. had made some progress while at other times, she had not. The court denied the motion to reinstate the unsupervised overnight visits.

A permanency hearing was held on June 6, 2000. Testimony from the January hearings was incorporated with testimony from L.C. and Tim McCray. McCray works for Life Link and became involved in the case in April 2000. He stated that L.C. did not miss any of her weekly visits with her children and all of the random "urine drops" came out "clean." All of the visits were appropriate. It was his recommendation that the foster parent have guardianship of the minors due to the amount of time the minors have been in the system and the need for permanency.

L.C. testified at the June 2000 permanency hearing that she attended individual counseling until November 1999, when she and the counselor agreed that no more progress could be made. She also indicated that despite the difficulty in securing a new counselor, she was willing to participate in individual counseling. L.C. recalled that her unsupervised visitation was suspended as a result of a new report being filed against her by the caseworker based on the foster parent's assertion that a bruise was found on V.M. after a visit with L.C. The allegation was unfounded and visitation was resumed in November 1999. Then, in August 1999, another investigation was initiated based on her son's allegation that she kicked him. The allegation was unfounded, but the unsupervised visitation had not be resumed by the time of the hearing. However, she had participated in one-hour, supervised visits with her children whenever a caseworker could pick her up. L.C. testified that she loves her children, wants them back and would like unsupervised visits reinstated.

Following that June 2000 hearing, the court found that L.C. had not made "real" progress in the three years that counseling was available to her and held that the goal was private guardianship.

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Bluebook (online)
816 N.E.2d 776, 352 Ill. App. 3d 391, 287 Ill. Dec. 809, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-vm-illappct-2004.