In the Interest of: L.B., Appeal of: J.B.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided May 5, 2023·No. 1351 WDA 2022·Unpublished

Opinion

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

IN THE INTEREST OF: L.B., A MINOR : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA

:

APPEAL OF: J.B., MOTHER :

:

:

:

:

: No. 1351 WDA 2022

Appeal from the Order Entered October 19, 2022 In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County Orphans' Court at No(s): CP-02-AP-0000148-2021

BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., BOWES, J., and SULLIVAN, J. MEMORANDUM BY SULLIVAN, J.: FILED: May 5, 2023 J.B (“Mother”) appeals the order that involuntarily terminated her parental rights to L.B. (“Child”), her daughter born in April 2018.1 After careful review, we affirm.

We glean the relevant factual and procedural history of this matter from the certified record. The Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth, and Families (“CYF”) first became involved with this family five days after Child’s birth when Mother admitted to substance abuse during her pregnancy. See N.T., 9/12/22, at 99-100. CYF did not seek to remove Child from the home at that time. Mother and Child’s putative father, C.S. (“Father”), were undergoing treatment for their substance abuse problems. See id. at 100.

1 The Orphans’ Court’s October 19, 2022 order also involuntarily terminated the parental rights of C.S. (“Father”) and any “unknown” father. Father did not file a notice of appeal and he has not participated in this matter.

In August 2019, CYF received a referral regarding allegations of intimate partner violence (“IPV”) by Father against Mother. See id. at 101-02. CYF accepted the family for service, referred Mother to an IPV specialist to assist her in seeking a protection from abuse (“PFA”) order,2 and interviewed members of Mother’s and Father’s extended families. See id. at 102-03.

In September 2019, Mother contacted CYF and reported that Father held her against her will in their shared home until she was able to flee to a nearby police station. See id. at 103-04. On the day of Mother’s report, CYF obtained an emergency custody authorization placing Child in the physical care of maternal grandmother (“Grandmother”), where she remained almost three years later. See id. at 104-07. In October 2019, Child was adjudicated dependent and ordered that she remain in kinship care with Grandmother. See id. at 107-08. In the same order, the court directed Mother, inter alia, to address her ongoing mental health issues and to receive drug screenings. See id. at 108.

CYF set goals that Mother obtain independent employment and housing, continue both IPV counseling and substance abuse treatment, participate in visitations with Child, and address her mental health problems and provide signed medical information releases to CYF. See id. at 117, 121. Mother successfully obtained housing in January 2020, and claimed to have found

2 Mother ultimately did so, albeit reluctantly. See N.T., 9/12/22, at 132.

employment as an in-home care provider. See id. at 118-19. Mother completed IPV counseling in September 2020 and continued treatment for substance abuse. See id. During this initial time period, the court granted Mother “liberal, unsupervised” visits with Child. See id. at 106, 118-19.

Despite multiple attempts, CYF was unable to confirm Mother’s employment and she lost her housing when Pennsylvania’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (“ERAP”) expired in 2022. Id. at 119-22, 185; see also N.T., 10/17/22, at 8. Mother experienced relapses in substance abuse in June 2020 and August 2021. See N.T., 9/12/22, at 124-27. In June 2020, Mother rescinded the releases she had previously signed permitting CYF to obtain records of her drug treatment; after signing new releases, she rescinded those releases in April 2022, preventing CYF from assessing her compliance with drug and alcohol counseling. See id. at 42-43, 86, 123-24, 191. Despite Mother’s expressed continued fear of violence from Father and her assertion that he violated the existing PFA in the case, Mother declined to proceed against Father. See id. at 131-32.

Mother’s mental health increasingly became a concern for CYF and the court. In 2019, she received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”), persecutory delusion disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (“ADHD”), opioid use disorder, and cannabis use disorder. See id. at 48, 52, 110. Mother took several medications in connection with these diagnoses. See id. at 12-13,

25. Mother unilaterally ceased participating in medical or psychological treatment after May 2022. See id. at 12-13, 25.

In August 2021, Mother stated that Child, then three years old, could make her own medical and dental decisions, which resulted in the court appointing Grandmother as Child’s medical decisionmaker. See id. at 57-59, 114, 207-08. From March 2022 onward, Mother’s mental health decline continued to accelerate: she insisted that her case file was fabricated and her case should be closed, sent rambling, unpunctuated texts to CYF, and evinced a lack of mental stability. See id. at 194-96, 200, 202. Also in March 2021, CYF determined that Mother had made no progress toward her mental health goals and adopted concurrent goals of reunification and adoption. See id. at 148, 180. In April 2022, CYF visited Mother’s apartment and found that she placed her bed in her living room. Mother explained that the living room was the best place to be if someone broke into her apartment. See N.T., 9/12/22, at 183. At that meeting, Mother exhibited paranoia, claimed that her mail was being stolen and the Freemasons were acting against her, and had great difficulty focusing. See id. at 53-56, 193; see also N.T., 10/17/22, at 34- 35. Mother had continued to visit Child even after the court’s May 2020 order that their meetings be supervised after she threatened to abscond with Child. See id. at 109. However, after April 2022, Mother made only one or two visits to Child claiming that she had work responsibilities, which CYF was unable to corroborate. See id. at 111, 151-52, 204-06.

The Orphans’ Court issued an order in June 2022 stating that Mother “continues to have moderate to severe behaviors that are a manifestation of her mental health because she has refused to engage in meaningful mental health treatments, the primary and substantial barrier keeping her from reunification with [Child],” and stated that Mother had made no progress toward alleviating the circumstances that led to the initial placement. See id. at 147, 176-77, 199-200.

Since May 2022, Mother has repeatedly stated that she does not need mental health treatment, does not have mental health issues, and that CYF forced treatment upon her. See id. at 140-44, 147. Mother has also stated that CYF is trafficking and making money off of Child. See id. at 144.

Mother’s CYF caseworkers testified that termination of Mother’s parental rights was in Child’s best interest because neither Mother nor Father had made progress in resolving the reasons that led to the initial placement and Grandmother, with whom Child had a strong bond and who wants to adopt Child, expressed willingness to maintain Child’s relationship with Mother and paternal grandparents. See N.T, 9/12/22, at 165-66.3 One of Mother’s CYF caseworkers testified that termination of Mother’s parental rights would not

3 CYF caseworkers have observed that Child and Grandmother have a great relationship, and that Grandmother meets all of Child’s physical, medical, educational, and developmental needs, and has shielded Child from the worst of Mother’s behavior. See N.T., 9/12/22, at 208-14. The trial court clarified with CYF that if it were to terminate Mother’s parental rights, the permanency plan would be for Grandmother to adopt Child. See N.T., 10/17/22, at 46.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

In the Interest of: L.B., Appeal of: J.B., (Pa. Ct. App. 2023).

In the Interest of: L.B., Appeal of: J.B. (In the Interest of: L.B., Appeal of: J.B.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Rosselli v. Rosselli
750 A.2d 355 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2000)
Smith v. Smith
637 A.2d 622 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1993)
In Re B.,N.M.
856 A.2d 847 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2004)
In Re Adoption of Sabrina
472 A.2d 624 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1984)
In Re: B.J.Z. Appeal of: J.Z.
207 A.3d 914 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2019)
In re I.J.
972 A.2d 5 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2009)
In re T.S.M.
71 A.3d 251 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2013)
In re D.A.T.
91 A.3d 197 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2014)
In Re: Adopt of: A.H., Appeal of: C.W.
2021 Pa. Super. 33 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2021)