In the Interest Of: J. K., a Child (Mother)

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: November 13, 2013
• Docket: A13A1310
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,__________________ November 13, 2013

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A13A1310. IN THE INTEREST OF J. K., a child.

The mother of J. K., a minor child born on August 3, 2006, appeals from the Juvenile Court’s order entered on February 28, 2012, granting a motion filed by the Fulton County Department of Family and Children Services (the Department) to extend the Department’s custody of the child on the basis that the conditions of child deprivation previously found by the Court had not been alleviated and that the child remained deprived. The mother contends that the Court’s finding of deprivation must be reversed because the evidence was insufficient to show that the child remained deprived at that time. The Court’s February 28, 2012 order states that it will expire on December 1, 2012, unless sooner terminated by order of the Court. Accordingly, the order appealed from expired by its own terms before this appeal was docketed on March 4, 2013. The record reflects that the child was removed from the custody of the mother and putative father by the Juvenile Court’s shelter care order entered in January 2007. The child was placed in shelter care after being diagnosed with “shaken baby syndrome” and hospitalized in intensive care with seizures, subdural hematoma, and bleeding behind the eyes. As a result of these injuries, the child has undergone at least two surgeries (including placement of a shunt in the child’s head), and the child is blind in one eye, myopic in the other, and considered legally blind. Based on allegations that they physically abused the child, both the mother and the father were indicted in Fulton County Superior Court in May 2011 and re-indicted in May 2012 on two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree (by inflicting cruel and excessive physical pain by causing “extreme trauma to the child’s head” and by failing to provide medical treatment); two counts of aggravated battery (by causing malicious bodily harm by trauma to the head depriving the child of “normal cerebral activity” and “normal vision”); and one count of aggravated assault (by causing extreme trauma to the child’s head by using their hands on the child in a manner likely to cause serious bodily injury to the infant child). The record does not show any disposition of the criminal charges. The record shows the child has remained in the Department’s custody in foster care since being removed from the custody of the mother and father. Prior to the indictments, the mother and father left Georgia and moved to South Carolina. In numerous deprivation orders entered since the child was placed in the Department’s custody (including the order at issue), the Juvenile Court found that the allegations of physical abuse of the child remain unresolved, and that the child’s mother failed to complete case plans for reunification and failed to support or visit consistently with the child. On November 22, 2011, the Department filed a petition for termination of parental rights. Although the record does not show any disposition on the termination petition, the record does show that, since entering the February 28, 2012 order temporarily extending the Department’s custody of the deprived child until December 1, 2012, the Juvenile Court has entered three continuance orders ruling that the child shall remain in the Department’s custody pending adjudication of the petition. We find that the appealed February 28, 2012 order has expired, and that the issue of whether the expired order was supported by evidence showing the child was deprived at that time is moot. Because on this record we find no applicable exception requiring that the moot order be addressed, the appeal is DISMISSED. In the Interest of T. H., 319 Ga. App. 216 (735 SE2d 287) (2012).

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 11/13/2013 Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,__________________ I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.