In the Matter of: K.Y. (Minor Child) Child in Need of Services and M.Y. (Mother) v. The Indiana Department of Child Services (mem. dec.)

CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 14, 2020
Docket19A-JC-2582
StatusPublished

This text of In the Matter of: K.Y. (Minor Child) Child in Need of Services and M.Y. (Mother) v. The Indiana Department of Child Services (mem. dec.) (In the Matter of: K.Y. (Minor Child) Child in Need of Services and M.Y. (Mother) v. The 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.

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In the Matter of: K.Y. (Minor Child) Child in Need of Services and M.Y. (Mother) v. The Indiana Department of Child Services (mem. dec.), (Ind. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), FILED this Memorandum Decision shall not be regarded as precedent or cited before any Apr 14 2020, 8:43 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 Steven J. Halbert Curtis T. Hill, Jr. Indianapolis, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana Robert J. Henke David E. Corey Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

In the Matter of: April 14, 2020

K.Y. (Minor Child) Court of Appeals Case No. Child in Need of Services 19A-JC-2582 Appeal from the Marion Superior and Court M.Y. (Mother), The Honorable Marilyn Moores, Appellant-Respondent, Judge The Honorable Marcia J. Ferree, v. Magistrate

The Indiana Department of Trial Court Cause No. 49D09-1904-JC-995 Child Services, Appellee-Petitioner,

Robb, Judge.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-JC-2582 | April 14, 2020 Page 1 of 18 Case Summary and Issues [1] M.Y. (“Mother”) appeals the juvenile court’s adjudication of her six-year-old

daughter, K.Y. (“Child”), as a child in need of services (“CHINS”).1 Mother

raises two issues for our review, which we reorder and restate as: 1) whether

Indiana Code section 31-34-12-4 is unconstitutional on its face and as applied to

Mother; and 2) whether the evidence raised a presumption under Indiana Code

section 31-34-12-4 that Child is a CHINS and if so, whether Mother’s evidence

rebutted the presumption. Concluding the statute is not unconstitutional, the

evidence was sufficient to raise the presumption, and Mother’s evidence did not

rebut the presumption, we affirm the CHINS adjudication.

Facts and Procedural History [2] On April 8, 2019, the Marion County office of the Indiana Department of Child

Services (“DCS”) received a report regarding possible physical abuse of Child.

DCS assessment worker Lorien Wilkins met with Child at her elementary

school on April 10 and observed bruising on her ear, a mark “like a line going

down her face[,]” and bruises and marks on her right arm from shoulder to

wrist. Transcript of Evidence, Volume II at 24. Wilkins took pictures of

Child’s injuries. Wilkins also met with Mother on April 10 (a Wednesday).

1 Although Mother and Child’s father share a last name, they do not appear to be married and do not live together. When these proceedings began, Child’s father’s whereabouts were unknown to the Department of Child Services. He was eventually notified and participated in the disposition hearing but does not participate in this appeal. We have limited our recitation of the facts to those pertinent to Mother.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-JC-2582 | April 14, 2020 Page 2 of 18 Mother “stated that she had whooped the child the Saturday before. She stated

that the child had . . . an attitude with her and that’s what caused her to get a

whooping.” Id. Mother admitted striking Child four or five times with a belt

over Child’s clothes. Mother said Child was “moving around a lot” during the

whooping. Id. However, Mother claimed that Child has eczema, a skin

condition that causes her to scratch herself, and also claimed that Child bruises

easily. Mother posited that the marks were either from Child scratching herself

or from running into a table while on a hoverboard the day before and not from

the “whooping” over the weekend. DCS requested documentation of Child’s

skin condition but Mother never provided it. DCS removed Child on an

emergency basis at the end of her school day and placed her in foster care.

[3] On April 11, DCS requested and received permission to file a CHINS petition

and to continue Child in DCS custody, and an initial hearing/detention hearing

was held on April 12. DCS’s primary concern was “inappropriate . . .

discipline that left marks and bruises on the child.” Id. at 25. The juvenile

court found there was sufficient evidence to support Wilkins’ preliminary

inquiry and affidavit of probable cause that Child was a CHINS and that

removal and continued detention were necessary to protect her. The juvenile

court ordered supervised parenting time between Mother and Child and

authorized DCS to provide Mother with any services in which she voluntarily

wished to participate. Child was eventually placed in relative care.

[4] Visits between Mother and Child went “pretty well.” Id. at 31. The supervised

visit facilitator observed at least twelve visits and noted that Child enjoys the

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-JC-2582 | April 14, 2020 Page 3 of 18 visits and Mother and Child interact well. She did observe one concerning

incident when Mother raised her hand up and said, “I’m going to pop you[.]”

Id. at 32. Although Mother may have been joking—“it’s not necessarily

meaning that she’s actually going to do it”— the facilitator noted that Child

“flinch[ed] away” and she was concerned about Mother modeling violence in

her interactions with Child. Id. at 33, 35. The facilitator noted that she would

offer Mother a parenting curriculum “to work on ways to not use physical

violence as a disciplinary measure.” Id. at 35.

[5] At the fact-finding hearing in June, Mother admitted that she hit Child with a

belt four or five times on her butt several days before DCS became involved,

with “[c]lothes on and without using force,” id. at 6, but denied that the marks

on Child were from that incident. Specifically, Mother noted that Child has

skin issues, is clumsy and bruises easily, and also noted that she would never hit

Child in the face, so “what they’re saying I did is not from a belt.” Id. at 7.

Mother described using a spectrum of discipline from merely talking through

the issue to revoking privileges such as electronics, and stated that depending on

what Child does, she thought hitting Child with a belt was an appropriate form

of discipline, but “it takes a long time for me to discipline a child physically.”

Id. at 13. DCS introduced three photographs that Wilkins had taken of Child

on April 10; Mother described Exhibit 1 as showing “bruising on [Child’s] ear

from when she ran into the table and on the hover board[,]” id. at 16, Exhibit 2

as showing “two scratches [on Child’s face] and then some dry skin[,]” id. at 17,

and Exhibit 3 as showing marks on Child’s arms because Child “has eczema

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 19A-JC-2582 | April 14, 2020 Page 4 of 18 really bad and it leaves patches like this[,]” id.2 Mother believed from training

she received for her job as a youth specialist that “it’s okay to discipline your

child, but just don’t leave bruises.” Id. at 18. She did not feel she needed

parenting education because she takes classes to stay in compliance with her

foster parent license and for her job, where she works with kids.

[6] Marlee Dahn, the family case manager as of the time of the fact-finding

hearing, testified that DCS could not recommend that Child be returned to

Mother “until we have enough evidence that mom will be able to appropriately

discipline her child.” Id. at 42. She also noted that DCS recommended

parenting education and home-based therapy to Mother. Mother was initially

unwilling to do any services; she eventually relented as to parenting education

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In the Matter of: K.Y. (Minor Child) Child in Need of Services and M.Y. (Mother) v. The Indiana Department of Child Services (mem. dec.), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-matter-of-ky-minor-child-child-in-need-of-services-and-my-indctapp-2020.