N.T. v. State

928 P.2d 393, 304 Utah Adv. Rep. 36, 1996 Utah App. LEXIS 119
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedNovember 29, 1996
DocketNo. 950289-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 928 P.2d 393 (N.T. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
N.T. v. State, 928 P.2d 393, 304 Utah Adv. Rep. 36, 1996 Utah App. LEXIS 119 (Utah Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

WILKINS, Judge:

N.T. and T.T. appeal the juvemle court’s order terminating their parental rights to their four chüdren. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

N.T. (father) and T.T. (mother) are the natural parents of four chüdren: C.T., M.T., H.T., and S.T. The chüdren are now nine, eight, seven, and six years old.

The Division of Child and Faimly Services (DCFS) initiaUy became involved with appellants and their chüdren in June 1989, when a DCFS worker visited appeüants’ home to investigate a chüd abuse/neglect referral. [395]*395C.T., M.T., and H.T. were two and one-half years, one year, and one month old, respectively. S.T. had not yet been born. The worker found the house dirty and cluttered. The floor was covered with food and soiled diapers, and dirty dishes, with aged,, crusted food, were piled in the kitchen. The worker reported the children, especially the baby, were so thin they appeared malnourished.

DCFS offered to provide family preservation services, which included counseling to help appellants organize and properly care for their children, visits from a homemaker, and family aid. Appellants declined the services, but on several occasions met with a counselor from the preservation unit, and accepted a vacuum cleaner and cleaning supplies. Appellants were also offered the services of the Family Support Center (Center), a twenty-four-hour crisis nursery designed to provide care for children at risk of abuse or neglect, and to provide services for families in need. DCFS encouraged appellants to use the Center, in part, so they could monitor the children’s condition. DCFS directed the workers and volunteers to vigilantly record their observations and to report anything, however minor, that suggested abuse or neglect.

Appellants frequently left the children at the Center.1 Although the Center requires parents to provide clean clothes, diapers, and bottles for the children, reports detail that the children often arrived with bottles containing sour milk and nipples with old, crusty formula. The children’s clothing was often wet and dirty; sometimes the children had dried food caked in their hair and soiled bottoms. Severe diaper rashes and sores were also a constant problem. Various workers documented that the children often arrived sick with a bad cough, cold, or fever, and in some instances, head lice. The children had dark circles under their eyes and appeared extremely thin. Several' reports noted bruises, burns, cuts, and bumps on the children’s bodies. Some reports even noted black eyes. The children almost always arrived hungry. Because sometimes after eating, one of them would vomit or complain of a stomach ache, the Center’s volunteers closely monitored the children to make sure they did not eat too much at one time.

Volunteers reported the children also exhibited significant emotional problems. At times they had bouts of uncontrollable, incessant crying, or exhibited anger towards anyone they came in contact with. The children generally seemed starved for attention, sometimes demanding to be held and other times acting withdrawn. Reports also indicated the children appeared developmentally delayed. For instance, at two years and eight months, C.T. only spoke two or three words; at fourteen months, M.T. could not stand by herself.

After receiving two more referrals in August 1989, the DCFS worker revisited appellants’ home. The state of the home had not changed. The baby, H.T., appeared lethargic and very thin. The worker instructed appellants to clean the home and take H.T. to a doctor. The worker made repeat visits to the home throughout August and September. While the living conditions improved slightly, appellants never obtained medical care for H.T. After several failed promises, the DCFS worker made an appointment and transported H.T. to the doctor. The doctor found that H.T., then four months old, had only gained three pounds since birth. Because H.T.’s birth weight was average, she had since become underweight. The doctor diagnosed H.T. with “failure to thrive.”

C.T. and M.T. were also evaluated by a pediatrician. C.T., at two years and nine months, was malnourished, anemic, and twenty-five to thirty percent underweight. The pediatrician noted that it is unusual to see children with inadequate nutrition because many commonly available foods are fortified. C.T. had not had any of the eleven immunizations required for children his age. In addition, C.T. also had significant developmental delays in all areas, including an eight-[396]*396month delay in social-skills, a twelve-month delay in motor- skills, and an eighteen-month delay in expressive language skills. An average two-and-one-half year old has a vocabulary of fifty plus words; C.T. only knew two.

M.T., who was sixteen months old, was also malnourished, anemic, and significantly -underweight, in addition to lacking the required immunizations. M.T. also showed severe delays in the same areas, having a four-month delay in motor skills, an eight-month delay in language, and an eight-month delay in social skills.

On November 6, 1989, appellants admitted to the State’s first petition alleging neglect. DCFS took custody of the children and placed them in foster care. Appellants began their first treatment plan, which required them to- secure adequate housing, maintain a clean home, participate in parenting classes, attain a psychological evaluation, and participate in weekly counseling. Father was also required to find meaningful employment.

Appellants, however, did not begin working on the treatment plan until March 1990. Even then, appellants never consistently attended counseling or parenting classes, and on several occasions were resistant to homemaking services. Appellants did meet with a family counselor in April 1990, who diagnosed both mother and father with depression. In addition, father’s aptitude test resulted in a score within the range of borderline intellectual functioning; on the same test, mother scored in the ranges of average and high average.

The children resided with a foster family from November 1989 to October 1990. While appellants made little progress with the treatment plan, the children made marked developmental improvements with the foster family. After eight months of ■ attention, stimulation, and diligent effort by the foster mother, C.T. spoke in five to six-word sentences, recognized basic shapes and colors, sang songs, rode a bicycle, held himself on a swing, and interacted well with siblings and other foster children. M.T. started talking and learned to walk and run. H.T. gained nineteen ounces the first twenty days, and after eight months, gained nine pounds, thirteen ounces.

Appellants’ fourth child, S.T., was born on June 12, 1990. DCFS did not remove the child from the home. Instead, DCFS created a second treatment plan and, despite appellants’ sporadic attendance at parenting and counseling classes, returned C.T., M.T., and H.T. to appellants’ care in November 1990.

In March 1991, DCFS investigated another referral. The worker reported a burn on M.T.’s palm which precisely and clearly spelled “IF”. Appellants claimed M.T. was burned on the stove while a babysitter was with the children; the babysitter knew nothing of the burn. The worker also reported that the children, dressed only in diapers and underpants, had an offensive odor about them. The apartment was unsanitary and had an offensive smell. Appellants reasoned that it was due to their pet messing and urinating on the floor.

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Bluebook (online)
928 P.2d 393, 304 Utah Adv. Rep. 36, 1996 Utah App. LEXIS 119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nt-v-state-utahctapp-1996.