S.K. v. State Dept. of Human Resources

993 So. 2d 15, 2008 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 261, 2008 WL 1991448
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedMay 9, 2008
Docket2060936
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 993 So. 2d 15 (S.K. v. State Dept. of Human Resources) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
S.K. v. State Dept. of Human Resources, 993 So. 2d 15, 2008 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 261, 2008 WL 1991448 (Ala. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

S.K. ("the mother") and J.K. ("the father") appeal from judgments entered by the Jackson Juvenile Court on July 3, 2007, terminating their parental rights to M.K. and A.K. ("the children").1 We reverse and remand.

The Facts
The mother gave birth to M.K. on January 13, 2004, and to A.K. on November 17, 2004. In the interim, the Jackson County Department of Human Resources ("DHR") initiated protective-services proceedings regarding the family for reasons unstated in the record. On January 18, 2005, Yvonne Woods, the DHR caseworker assigned to the family, informed the parents that they needed to start parenting classes and counseling. Woods also instructed the parents that the father needed to find a steady job. The mother stated that she could not attend the classes until she dealt with some health problems.

Less than two weeks later, DHR received a report indicating that the father had committed an act of domestic violence against the mother. Woods thereafter recommended that the parents undergo domestic-violence counseling and that they receive the assistance of a case aide in the home. The mother originally agreed to domestic-violence counseling, but on February 1 and 2, 2005, the mother telephoned Woods to notify DHR that she had dropped her domestic-violence complaint against the father. According to Woods, the mother requested that DHR cease its involvement with the family and the mother also refused to allow the case aide to enter the home.

On February 2, 2005, DHR filed a petition for shelter-care custody of the children. The juvenile court awarded shelter-care custody of the children to DHR, and Woods took the children into custody later that same afternoon. According to the children's maternal great-grandmother, DHR transferred custody of the children to S.W. ("the foster mother") that night.

By April 2005, the parents seemed to be cooperating better with DHR. The parents had initially visited with the children for only one hour per week under the supervision of DHR and/or the foster mother, but, on March 22, they began unsupervised visits for up to four hours. The parents commenced domestic-violence counseling with Janet Sage.2 The parents also started family counseling with Lisa Rorex Fountain on March 13, 2005, to improve their parenting, communication, and discipline skills; they were compliant with the program and seemed to be progressing after three sessions. The father obtained a job at "Shaw," and the mother told Woods she had started working at "Ruby Tuesday's."

However, on April 8, 2005, the mother reported that the father had committed another act of domestic violence against her. About 10 days later, the parents moved into a new home in Bridgeport. After moving, the parents requested, and DHR agreed to, assistance with paying their electric bill and meeting their gas needs. At that point, they stopped attending *Page 18 counseling and did not contact Fountain or Sage further. Both Fountain and Sage testified that the parents had not completed counseling and that the parents had not been referred to alternative counseling. Fountain estimated that her counseling would not have ended for 8 months, while Sage testified that her domestic-violence counseling was intended to last 16 weeks.

On May 3, 2005, DHR ended the four-hour visits. On May 19, 2005, M.K. under-went surgery to have tubes placed in his ears. Woods testified that the mother had told her at that time that she intended to leave the father and that she intended to ask Sage for help to get situated after they separated. Woods testified that, following M.K.'s surgery, the parents lost contact with DHR. The mother testified that she and the father had left their new house. The mother then moved into a domestic-violence shelter where she stayed from June 30, 2005, to July 21, 2005. The father stated that he had left the Bridgeport house because he had a new job hauling granite for "Graystone" that required him to travel. The father contacted Woods on July 18, 2005, to tell her that he was out of town and that he planned on divorcing the mother.

On or around July 21, 2005, the mother moved into the home of N.B., a man she had met through a friend one week earlier. N.B. was a long-haul truck driver. From July 21 until late November 2005, N.B. provided for the mother while the mother stayed home and took care of his two children. The mother eventually indicated her intent to marry N.B. and discussed with DHR the possibility of the children moving in with her and N.B.

However, over the Thanksgiving holiday, the mother reconciled with the father during a shared visitation. The mother moved out of N.B.'s house and moved into a trailer in Flat Rock. The mother asked DHR to halt any efforts to conduct a home study on N.B. in light of her move. The mother testified that she and the father had subsequently moved in together into an apartment in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, in December 2005. Woods testified that DHR did not learn that the parents had reconciled until later.

The mother reentered a domestic-violence shelter on January 5, 2006, once again to escape the father. The mother testified that the father had kicked her in the abdomen while he was lying on the couch with his feet resting in her lap. The father had kicked the mother after the mother informed the father that she was pregnant and while the two were discussing the paternity of the child. An employee of the domestic-violence shelter reported that the mother had telephoned a hotline and had reported that the father had threatened to throw her out of a moving vehicle after she informed him that she was pregnant with N.B.'s child. The mother stayed in the shelter for three days before moving to another shelter in north Georgia after a man fitting the father's description showed up at the shelter seeking the mother.

On January 12, 2006, the mother informed Woods that she was living in a domestic-violence shelter. The mother indicated at that time that she wanted the foster mother to adopt the children. The mother then discussed with the foster mother and Woods about obtaining public housing. The mother telephoned Woods on January 24, 2006, to inform DHR that she had once again changed domestic-violence shelters in order to elude the father. The mother signed papers consenting to the termination of her parental rights on February 1, 2006, so that the foster mother could proceed with adopting the children. *Page 19

The mother testified that she had moved into the New Life Maternity Home ("the Home") in Cleveland, Tennessee, around this time. The Home incorporated strict rules for its residents, including a requirement that the residents attend Bible school from 8:30 a.m. to noon and that victims of domestic violence attend a support-group meeting on Monday nights. The mother complied with those restrictions. The mother testified that, during her stay at the Home, she had experienced a spiritual reawakening. The mother testified that she had "learned what God has done for us" and that she had "built a relationship with [God]"; since that time, she said, everything that she does is "based on" God. Marti Dayton, the housemother at the Home, testified that she believed the mother was sincere in the pursuit of her biblical study at the Home. On March 6, 2006, the mother revoked her prior consent to termination of her parental rights because she believed God did not want her to lose the children. The juvenile court authorized the revocation.

While the mother was in the Home, the father spent time in the Marion County and Jackson County jails.

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Related

B.M. v. Jefferson County Department of Human Resources
187 So. 3d 697 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 2015)
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Bluebook (online)
993 So. 2d 15, 2008 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 261, 2008 WL 1991448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sk-v-state-dept-of-human-resources-alacivapp-2008.