In the Interest of R. B.

710 S.E.2d 611, 309 Ga. App. 407, 2011 Fulton County D. Rep. 1353, 2011 Ga. App. LEXIS 350
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedApril 22, 2011
DocketA11A0233
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 710 S.E.2d 611 (In the Interest of R. B.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia 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 R. B., 710 S.E.2d 611, 309 Ga. App. 407, 2011 Fulton County D. Rep. 1353, 2011 Ga. App. LEXIS 350 (Ga. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

Ellington, Chief Judge.

The mother of 15-month-old R. B. appeals from an order of the Juvenile Court of Cobb County that found R. B. to be deprived and that approved a request from the Department of Family and Children Services (“DFCS”) to establish a nonreunification case plan. On appeal, the mother contends that there was insufficient clear and convincing evidence presented during the adjudication hearing to prove that R. B. was a deprived child and that she was the cause of such deprivation. She also contends that the evidence was insufficient to prove that Cobb County was the proper venue for bringing the deprivation action. Finding these contentions to be without merit, we affirm.

1. In contending that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding that, at the time of the June 2010 adjudication hearing, R. B. was a deprived child, the mother asserts that the juvenile court improperly relied solely upon evidence that her parental rights to her four older children had been terminated in 2008. As explained below, however, the record shows that, while the court took into consideration the previous termination of her parental rights in determining whether R. B. was deprived, the court also heard substantial evidence showing that the mother’s mental, emotional and financial conditions had not changed significantly since 2008 and that, despite the assistance of DFCS and the loss of her four children, the mother still lacked the necessary skills, judgment and resources to properly care for R. B.

OCGA § 15-11-2 (8) (A) defines a “deprived child” as, inter alia, “a child who ... [i]s without proper parental care or control, subsistence, education as required by law, or other care or control necessary for the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health or [408]*408morals[.]” “The deprivation must be shown to have resulted from unfitness on the part of the parent, that is, either intentional or unintentional misconduct resulting in the abuse or neglect of the child or by what is tantamount to physical or mental incapability to care for the child.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) In the Interest of R. M., 276 Ga. App. 707, 715 (624 SE2d 182) (2005). See also In the Interest of A. R., 287 Ga. App. 334, 335-336 (651 SE2d 467) (2007) (accord). In determining whether a parent is unfit, “[a] juvenile court may consider a [parent’s] inability to properly care for one child as evidence that she will not be able to care for her other children.” (Citation omitted.) In the Interest of A. R., 287 Ga. App. at 336. See also OCGA § 15-11-94 (b) (4) (B) (v) (“In determining whether the child is without proper parental care and control, the [juvenile] court shall consider, without being limited to, [evidence of] . . . [p]hysical, mental, or emotional neglect of the child or evidence of past physical, mental, or emotional neglect of the child or of another child by the parent[.]”).

When a child has been removed from parental custody, as in this case, DFCS “may prove current deprivation by showing that, if the [child was] returned to the parent [ ] at the time of the hearing, [he] would be deprived.” (Citation, punctuation and footnote omitted; emphasis supplied.) In the Interest of T. V., 302 Ga. App. 124, 127 (1) (690 SE2d 457) (2010). See also In the Interest of C. H., 305 Ga. App. 549, 559 (2) (b) (700 SE2d 203) (2010) (“the question is whether, if returned to the parent as of the date of the hearing, the child would return to a state of deprivation because of the parent’s lack of proper parental care or control”) (citation and punctuation omitted; emphasis in original). Thus, when it is established that a parent has previously deprived, neglected, or abused one or more of his or her children and that the detrimental conditions existing at that time have not significantly changed, a juvenile court is under no obligation to return a child to the parent and wait until the child is harmed in order to find that there is evidence of that child’s current deprivation. In the Interest of A. R., 287 Ga. App. at 336; see OCGA § 15-11-94 (b) (4) (B) (v); In the Interest of Z. H. T., 302 Ga. App. 424, 429 (1) (a) (691 SE2d 292) (2010) (Current deprivation “may be established by showing that the conditions upon which an earlier finding of deprivation was based still exist[.]”).

Ultimately, when this Court reviews a juvenile court’s finding that a child is deprived,

we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the juvenile court’s judgment to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found by clear and convincing evidence that the child was deprived. This Court neither [409]*409weighs evidence nor determines the credibility of witnesses; rather, we defer to the trial court’s fact-finding and affirm unless the appellate standard is not met.

(Citation and punctuation omitted.) In the Interest of R. M., 276 Ga. App. at 707-708. So viewed, the record shows the following facts.

At the time of the adjudication hearing at issue in this case, the mother was 30 years old and had never been married. She had a ninth grade education, had an IQ that indicated “borderline intellectual functioning,” had only worked at low-wage, unskilled jobs for short terms a few times over several years, and had been receiving monthly disability payments and food stamps for several years. Between 1999 and 2007, she gave birth to four children as a result of relationships with three men, none of whom legitimated or financially supported their children. Beginning in 2004, the children were repeatedly removed from the mother’s custody based upon evidence that the mother and/or other adults present in her home physically abused and neglected the children and that the conditions of the family’s home presented health and safety hazards to the children. This evidence showed, among other things, that the mother had hit one of her children in the face with a knife, cutting her; that the mother slapped, punched and violently grabbed two of the children; that the mother neglected the children’s hygiene; that the mother improperly shook one of the children when he was two days old; that the mother had wrapped the same infant in a manner that could have interrupted his breathing; and that the mother had used illegal drugs. This evidence of physical abuse and neglect, combined with evidence that the mother failed to make any significant progress on court-ordered reunification plans and that, as the only legal parent of the children, she lacked the necessary skills, judgment, and resources to provide proper parental care to the children, convinced the Juvenile Court of Cobb County to terminate her parental rights to the children in August 2008.1

At some point in 2009, the mother began cohabitating with a man (hereinafter, the “putative father”), and, on December 24, 2009, she gave birth to a boy, R. B., the child at issue in this case. DFCS filed an emergency petition for temporary custody of R. B. based upon the facts recounted above, and the court granted the petition on December 28, 2009.

On June 3, 2010, the juvenile court conducted an adjudication hearing on the deprivation and nonreunification petition filed by DFCS.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
710 S.E.2d 611, 309 Ga. App. 407, 2011 Fulton County D. Rep. 1353, 2011 Ga. App. LEXIS 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-interest-of-r-b-gactapp-2011.