In the Interest of J.M.W.

360 S.W.3d 887, 2012 WL 195392, 2012 Mo. App. LEXIS 81
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 24, 2012
DocketNo. ED 97077
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 360 S.W.3d 887 (In the Interest of J.M.W.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In the Interest of J.M.W., 360 S.W.3d 887, 2012 WL 195392, 2012 Mo. App. LEXIS 81 (Mo. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

KENNETH M. ROMINES, J.

Introduction

J.W. (“Father”) appeals the judgment of the trial court terminating his parental rights to J.M.W. We find that the trial court did not err in its determination and affirm its judgment terminating Father’s parental rights.1

Background

Appellant J.W. (“Father”) is the natural father of minor child J.M.W. (“J.M.W.”), a daughter born on 3 September 2008. Following a hearing in June 2009, the trial court placed J.M.W. in protective custody because she was without proper care and custody from either parent. Father did not attend the hearing because he was incarcerated for a drug trafficking conviction. On 6 July 2009, the juvenile officer filed an amended petition alleging that J.M.W.’s mother could not keep the child because she was homeless. Father was ineligible because of his incarceration. The trial court determined that the allegations in the petition were true, issued a permanency plan for reunification, and placed J.M.W. in the legal custody of the Children’s Division (“Division”) for placement in foster care. Following a paternity test, Father was granted arranged, supervised visitation.

The trial court held a hearing in October 2009 and issued a permanency plan for termination of parental rights and adoption or guardianship by a fit relative. Father was granted visitation rights as arranged by the Division. A similar hearing and determination was held by the trial court in January 2010.

On 21 February 2010, Father signed a written services agreement with the Division. The agreement required that he call his social services worker collect once a month to obtain information about J.M.W.; write a letter to J.M.W. once a month and send a card on birthday and Easter; write his social worker monthly with information on the programs and treatment he was receiving in prison; inform his worker within five days if he is moved to another prison; cooperate with the recommendation of a psychologist for job training and counseling; sign a release form granting his worker access to information about programs in which he participated in prison.

On 9 September 2010, the Division filed a petition to terminate Mother and Father’s parental rights. On 4 November 2010, the trial court held a hearing and ordered Father to complete a substance abuse evaluation. On 8 March 2011, Father was released from prison into a halfway house. The trial court held a TPR hearing on 11 March 2011.

At trial, the evidence showed that a social services worker first wrote Father that they had custody of J.M.W. in May or June of 2009. At this time, Father was incarcerated in the Bowling Green Correctional Facility. Father called the social services worker to inquire about the child. From June 2009 until May 2010, Father wrote letters to his child and social services worker but he wrote no more letters after May 2010. Father testified that he was aware that he was required to write J.M.W. once a month, and eventually testified that he “probably could” have afforded to buy one stamp a month.

Evidence also showed that Father did not inform his social worker when he was moved from the Tipton facility to the Al-goa Correctional Facility. In April 2010, the Division sent him a letter seeking doc[890]*890umentation about programs in which he was participating in prison. Father did not respond. In May 2010, his worker called Algoa and learned that he had not participated in any program, and had not yet completed substance abuse treatment. Father’s worker sent letters in January and February 2011 seeking information about any program he was participating in and still received no response. Father also did not sign a release as required by the services agreement. In short, due to Father’s lack of communication, the Division received little to no information about Father’s programs while he was in prison.2

On 3 May 2011, the trial court entered its judgment finding by clear, cogent, and convincing evidence that statutory grounds for termination existed under several subsections of Section 211.447.5. The trial court also found that termination was in the best interest of the child pursuant to Section 211.447.7. In connection with each of the statutory grounds for termination it found to exist, the lower court analyzed all statutorily-prescribed considerations, made findings with respect to each, and entered its termination judgment accordingly.

Father appeals, challenging the sufficiency of evidence presented below and the juvenile court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Standard of Review

We will affirm the juvenile court’s judgment terminating a parent’s parental rights unless no substantial evidence supports it, it is contrary to the weight of the evidence, or it erroneously declares or applies the law. Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30, 32 (Mo. banc 1976). We will not set aside a termination decree as “against the weight of the evidence” unless our review on appeal leaves us with “a firm belief that the decree or judgment is wrong.” Id. And the reviewing court defers to the juvenile court’s findings of fact and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from those facts in the light most favorable to the juvenile court’s judgment. In re P.L.O., 131 S.W.3d 782, 789 (Mo. banc 2004). We will affirm the trial court’s termination judgment if termination was supported by substantial evidence of any statutory ground that the court found to exist under Section 211.447.5. In re K.A.W., 133 S.W.3d 1, 16 (Mo. banc 2004).

Discussion

In Father’s first four points on appeal, he claims the juvenile court erred in terminating his parental rights because there was insufficient evidence to support finding that any statutory grounds for termination existed.

a. Findings Regarding Termination Pursuant to Section %11.⅛⅛7.5(3).

Father argues in his third point on appeal that there was insufficient clear, cogent and convincing evidence to support the juvenile court’s findings pursuant to Section 211.447.5(3).

Section 211.447.5(3) (2006) provides that a juvenile court may consider terminating parental rights to any child:

[who] has been under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court for a period of one year, and the court finds that the conditions which led to the assumption of jurisdiction still persist, or conditions of a potentially harmful nature continue to exist, that there is little likelihood that those conditions will be remedied at an early date so that the child can be returned to the parent in the near future, or the continuation of the parent-child relationship greatly diminishes the [891]*891child’s prospects for early integration into a stable and permanent home.

To permit termination, the statute requires the court to make findings on

(a) The terms of a social service plan entered into by the parent and the division and the extent to which the parties have made progress in complying with those terms;

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Related

In the Matter of: M.N.V.
Missouri Court of Appeals, 2021
Juvenile Officer of St. Louis County v. M.W.
394 S.W.3d 457 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
360 S.W.3d 887, 2012 WL 195392, 2012 Mo. App. LEXIS 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-interest-of-jmw-moctapp-2012.