in the Interest Of: R.R. and J v. Children

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 6, 2015
Docket05-14-00773-CV
StatusPublished

This text of in the Interest Of: R.R. and J v. Children (in the Interest Of: R.R. and J v. Children) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas 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.R. and J v. Children, (Tex. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Affirmed and Opinion Filed October 6, 2015

S In The Court of Appeals Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-14-00773-CV

IN THE INTEREST OF R.R. AND J.V., CHILDREN

On Appeal from the 254th Judicial District Court Dallas County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. DF11-02361-R

MEMORANDUM OPINION Before Justices Bridges, Francis, and Myers Opinion by Justice Francis Rogelio Villa a/k/a Jose Lopez (Father) appeals the trial court’s order in this suit affecting

the parent-child relationship. In two issues, Father contends the trial court abused its discretion

by naming the children’s mother, Bertha Ramirez, sole managing conservator of the children and

by finding he was voluntarily underemployed and basing his child support obligation on a

finding that he was a diesel mechanic. We affirm.

Father and Mother began living together in 1996 and had two children during their

thirteen-year relationship: a son, R.R., born in 2000, and a daughter, J.V., born in 2002.

According to Mother, Father was emotionally and physically abusive. She described incidents

between 2004 and 2007 in which Father hit her, knocked holes in the wall, and pulled a gun on

her and the children. The incidents were witnessed by the children. Mother was treated at

hospitals in 2004 and 2006 after Father injured her; in neither instance, however, did she report

the abuse to hospital personnel. In the 2006 incident, Mother acknowledged that she was arrested by the police for Class C misdemeanor assault–family violence. The police report

indicated the argument began because Father was cheating on Mother, and Mother scratched

Father on the arm. Mother pleaded guilty and completed deferred adjudication probation.

Father left Mother in March 2009 and did not return. After that, she said the children did

not hear from or see their Father for a year. Mother filed this suit in February 2011. Initially,

she said Father had unsupervised visitation, but the children cried and screamed and did not want

to see him. The trial court ultimately suspended visitation and then ordered supervised visits,

first at Family Living Place and then at Hannah’s House - facilities that monitor supervised

visitations between parents and children. Neither place was successful in reunifying the children

with Father, and the court ordered family therapy, which Mother said also did not “work out.”

Mother testified she tried to get the children to cooperate in counseling, but acknowledged she

had been sanctioned for missing appointments. Finally, she told the court she wanted her

children to have a healthy, safe relationship with Father but was “scared.”

Father testified he never abused Mother or the children. He believed Mother had

poisoned the children against him because she was jealous after he married another woman. To

support this claim, he went through a series of photographs, taken during visits with him in late

2010, in which the children were smiling and appeared to be happy. He was not “proud” that

that he went through a period of “several months” where he did not see his children. But, he

testified he attended every scheduled visitation at FLP and Hannah’s House as well as every

family counseling session in attempt to reunify with his children. He said he loves his children

and was not going to “give up.”

In addition to Mother and Father, several family services providers also testified on the

issue of the children’s relationship with Father. Sharyl D. Terhall, a social worker, conducted a

–2– court-ordered emergency interview of the children and a social study, and filed reports with the

court several months before trial.

Terhall interviewed the children in June 2011. At the time, they were nine and ten years

old. From the beginning, they referred to Father as “the guy” and “the man.” When Terhall

asked why they referred to him that way, they said he was “mean” and they had seen him “hurt”

Mother. The children told Terhall they had seen Father physically abuse Mother more than once

when they were all living together, including beating her head against the wall and a concrete

floor, wielding a knife at her, and threatening to “kill them all” with a gun. Terhall said the

children were “very emotional” and shredded tissues as they recounted the stories. Terhall said

their demeanor seemed “genuine” and uncoached. Both children told Terhall they did not want

to see Father, even under supervised conditions, because they were afraid of him. Although she

said she said she did not know whether Mother or Father was telling the truth, she believed the

children, believed they were “scared,” and said that their fears needed to be addressed. Terhall

said the children could sustain “significant harm” if forced to have unsupervised visitation with

Father before they had a chance to work through their fears in counseling.

About six months after Terhall’s interview, FLP began providing supervised visitation

services to the family. According to Christina Coultas, FLP program director, the children told

staff workers they were afraid of Father and refused to visit him. FLP tried to make the children

feel “safe” and Mother also tried to encourage them, but after three unsuccessful attempts, FLP

terminated the parties’ participation in the program.

After the failure at FLP, the court ordered supervised visitation at Hannah’s House. The

facility’s director, Betty Stone, testified staff workers supervised ten visits between Father and

the children, but the children were “scared to death.” According to Stone, children usually sit in

a large room with the visiting party and play games or watch a movie while two supervisors stay

–3– in the room and monitor the interaction. With R.R. and J.V., however, each visit was a “chore”

just to get them to the visitation room. Stone said when the children arrived, they were “so

overcome with fear” that they would cling to Mother and could barely walk in the building.

After Mother left, the children would bury their faces in their hands. Although staff tried to

determine why they were so upset and angry, the children would not talk to them. Once in the

visitation room, Stone said the children would become upset when Father entered the back of the

room and tried to talk to them. Nevertheless, Stone said, Father would stay the entire time of the

scheduled visits and did whatever was necessary to reunite with the children.

According to Stone, Mother did not bring the children to four scheduled visits. At one

point, Mother’s original counsel wrote a letter to Hannah’s House, which accused workers of

“being mean” to the children and warned that they “had no business ever touching them.” Stone

acknowledged it was possible that staff told the children that Mother could go to jail if they did

not visit with Father.

After the lack of success at Hannah’s House, the court ordered the children to begin

counseling with a family therapist. During this same time, the children began individual

counseling with Leslie Kuerbitz, who provided play therapy in ten or eleven one-hour sessions.

At the time, R.R. was eleven years old and J.V. was ten. Kuerbitz testified R.R. was “very

angry” and J.V. was “very fearful.” She said the children’s emotions were appropriate to the

issues discussed and she did not believe they were “parroting” someone else.

The children told her Father had pulled a gun and threatened to kill them and Mother, but

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