In the Matter of: E.P. and C.P. (Minor Children), And A.A. (Mother) v. Indiana Department of Child Services (mem. dec.)

CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 24, 2020
Docket19A-JC-2450
StatusPublished

This text of In the Matter of: E.P. and C.P. (Minor Children), And A.A. (Mother) v. Indiana Department of Child Services (mem. dec.) (In the Matter of: E.P. and C.P. (Minor Children), And A.A. (Mother) v. Indiana Department of Child Services (mem. dec.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana 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 Matter of: E.P. and C.P. (Minor Children), And A.A. (Mother) v. Indiana Department of Child Services (mem. dec.), (Ind. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision shall not be FILED regarded as precedent or cited before any Mar 24 2020, 10:19 am

court except for the purpose of establishing CLERK Indiana Supreme Court the defense of res judicata, collateral Court of Appeals and Tax Court estoppel, or the law of the case.

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE Zachary J. Stock Curtis T. Hill, Jr. Indianapolis, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana David E. Corey Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

In the Matter of: March 24, 2020

E.P. and C.P. (Minor Children), Court of Appeals Case No. 19A-JC-2450 And Appeal from the Hendricks A.A. (Mother), Superior Court Appellant-Respondent, The Honorable Karen M. Love, Judge v. Trial Court Cause No. 32D03-1904-JC-28 & Indiana Department of Child 32D03-1904-JC-29 Services, Appellee-Petitioner.

Riley, Judge.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-JC-2450 | March 24, 2020 Page 1 of 18 STATEMENT OF THE CASE [1] Appellant-Respondent, A.A. (Mother), appeals the trial court’s Order

adjudicating her minor children, E.P. and C.P. (collectively, the Children), to

be children in need of services (CHINS).

[2] We affirm.

ISSUE [3] Mother presents the court with one issue on appeal, which we restate as:

Whether sufficient evidence supported the trial court’s determination that its

coercive intervention was necessary to protect the Children.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY [4] Mother and L.P. (Father) 1 were married in 2005. The couple had two

daughters while married, E.P., born October 22, 2005, and C.P., born January

30, 2008. Mother and Father divorced in 2009. They remarried in 2011 but

divorced for a second time in 2013. Mother was awarded custody of the

Children after each divorce. Father did not pay child support or exercise

parenting time between the marriages or after the second divorce. Mother and

the Children lived in Brownsburg, Indiana.

1 Father is not a party to this appeal.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-JC-2450 | March 24, 2020 Page 2 of 18 [5] The Children developed behavioral issues such as stealing, hoarding food,

disrespectful behavior, and physical aggression. In the one and one-half years

they were in the Brownsburg school system, E.P. received twenty behavioral

reports for possessing items that did not belong to her, acting out, and physical

aggression. C.P. had thirteen behavior reports, all of which were for physical

aggression.

[6] On February 12, 2018, E.P. admitted that she had obtained the Brownsburg

School Corporation’s credit card information and used it to make an

unauthorized purchase of snacks, an act that would have been fraud if

committed by an adult. E.P. was adjudicated to be a delinquent child and was

placed in school-based therapy and life skills training. In August 2018, Mother

became convinced that E.P. had tried to poison her with a tainted piece of

watermelon. The Children later reported that Mother became irate and that

Mother had choked and beaten them. After this incident, Mother took E.P. for

a brain examination. E.P. violated her probation once by stealing snacks,

which caused her probation to be extended to April 7, 2019. E.P. successfully

completed her probation, and her therapy and life skills training were

discontinued. Mother did not prepare for the discontinuation of E.P.’s services

by arranging for her to receive treatment elsewhere.

[7] On April 12, 2019, Officer Elizabeth Danai (Officer Danai) of the Brownsburg

Police Department was dispatched to Mother’s home on a report that E.P. had

run away. Officer Danai had been told to be on the lookout for a female with

no shirt on, and, on the way to Mother’s home, she spotted E.P., who had no

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-JC-2450 | March 24, 2020 Page 3 of 18 shirt or shoes on and was clad only in a bra and shorts. When Officer Danai

told E.P. that she would be returned to Mother’s home, E.P. began to cry

uncontrollably. E.P. asked Officer Danai repeatedly not to take her home

because she was scared. E.P. reported that Mother had hit her forty to forty-

five times with a belt. E.P. had raw patches and severe bruising on her

buttocks, a welt on the side of her face, and a cut on her lip.

[8] Mother was arrested and taken into custody. The Department of Child Services

(DCS) was alerted, and the Children were placed in kinship care. During an

interview with a DCS worker, Mother admitted that she had struck E.P. with a

belt and that she had caused the injuries to E.P.’s buttocks. Mother denied that

she had caused any other injury to E.P. and claimed that E.P.’s other injuries

were self-inflicted.

[9] On April 15, 2019, DCS filed a petition seeking to have the Children declared

to be CHINS. DCS alleged neglect, abuse, and that the rebuttable statutory

presumption in favor of a CHINS finding would arise based on the April 12,

2019, incident. Also on April 15, 2019, the State filed an Information, charging

Mother with Level 6 felony battery on a person less than fourteen years old.

On April 25, 2019, after the Children were interviewed and reported Mother’s

reaction to the August 2018 watermelon incident, the State filed a separate

Information, charging Mother with Level 6 felony strangulation, two Counts of

Level 6 felony battery on a child less than fourteen years old, and two Counts of

Level 6 felony criminal confinement. No-contact orders were issued in both the

criminal cases.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-JC-2450 | March 24, 2020 Page 4 of 18 [10] DCS did not initially place the Children with Father because Mother reported

that, as a juvenile, Father had sexually abused his sister. DCS investigated

Mother’s report, including contacting Father’s sister, who denied any abuse

took place. DCS found Mother’s report to be unsubstantiated. Father moved

the trial court to have the Children placed with him. On May 15, 2019, and

June 19, 2019, the trial court held hearings on Father’s motion. Father testified

that he had not exercised visitation or paid child support because Mother had

not responded to his attempts at contact and had prevented him from seeing the

Children. Father also felt that Mother had lied to the Children and told them

that Father did not love them or want them in his life. Mother testified that

Father was mentally unstable and that he had attempted suicide in 2006. The

trial court ordered that the Children would be placed with Father and that

Mother, who had been successful at having the no-contact orders lifted in her

criminal cases, would exercise therapeutic supervised parenting time.

[11] On July 16, 2019, the trial court held a fact-finding hearing on DCS’ CHINS

petition. When asked whether she had beaten E.P. on April 12, 2019, or had

ever beaten the Children, Mother invoked her Fifth Amendment right and did

not answer. The trial court granted DCS’ request to draw a negative inference

from Mother’s invocation of her right to remain silent. Mother accused Father

of domestic violence against her and testified that she felt it was in the

Children’s best interests not to have Father in their lives. Mother denied that

the Children had any abnormal behavioral issues apart from the watermelon

incident.

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In the Matter of: E.P. and C.P. (Minor Children), And A.A. (Mother) v. Indiana Department of Child Services (mem. dec.), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-matter-of-ep-and-cp-minor-children-and-aa-mother-v-indctapp-2020.