State v. J.I.D.

144 S.W.3d 856, 2004 Mo. App. LEXIS 1249
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 31, 2004
DocketNo. 25920
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 144 S.W.3d 856 (State v. J.I.D.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. J.I.D., 144 S.W.3d 856, 2004 Mo. App. LEXIS 1249 (Mo. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

PHILLIP R. GARRISON, Presiding Judge.

Appellant, J.I.D. (“Mother”), the biological mother of Q.D.D., appeals the termination of her parental rights pursuant to a petition filed by the Greene County, Missouri, Juvenile Office (“Respondent”).1 Mother contends on this appeal that the juvenile court’s judgment was against the weight of the evidence. We affirm the judgment.

In reviewing a termination of parental rights case, the record should be viewed in the light most favorable to the judgment. In Interest of B.L.B., 834 S.W.2d 795, 799 (Mo.App. E.D.1992). In this case, Mother has had a long relationship with the Division of Family Services (“DFS”), now known as the Division of Children’s Services of the Department of Social Services (“the Division”). In 1995, Mother was the subject of an abuse and neglect hotline report when she left Q.D.D., then six months old, alone in an apartment. Q.D.D. was temporarily removed from her custody and a family centered service case was opened. DFS required that Mother attend a substance abuse treatment program, CSTAR, and take medication for a panic disorder. Mother failed to attend CSTAR and took the medication only “for a while” compelling the Division to close the family centered service case, citing Mother’s failure to cooperate.

Between 1995 and 2001, Mother and Q.D.D. lived in a household characterized by domestic violence. In 1997, Mother was involved in a domestic violence hotline incident in which her husband threw a boot through a window, raining shattered glass down on Q.D.D’s infant sibling. Mother testified that Husband was abusive to her for periods of time before the glass-breaking incident and that he used to hit her a lot in the presence of the children.2 The police were called again in 1998 when [858]*858Husband threatened Mother’s life in front of Q.D.D. and his sibling. According to Mother’s testimony, Husband “put a knife to my throat and told the kids to ‘[g]o in the bedroom. I’m going to kill your mother.’ And so [sibling] and [Q.D.D.] ran in the bedroom and he [Husband] ... called the police. He locked us up in the bedroom.” Mother said that Husband told the police he was “going to blow her head off.”

On December 11, 2001, the Springfield Police Department responded to a hotline report of abandonment. According to the police report, Mother put the children outside in the cold and stated in front of a witness that “I want to kill them and myself. I don’t want them.” After investigation, DFS coded the hotline report “AA,” abandonment, and, because of Mother’s threats against the children, issued a protective order and took custody. Mother was given one-hour supervised visitation bi-weekly with Q.D.D. and a younger sibling, and weekly visits with an infant sibling. In May 2002, the visits were changed to four-hour unsupervised visits. In September of 2002, visitation once again became supervised because Mother picked up the children late from school several times, failed to bring a car seat for Q.D.D.’s infant sibling, and failed to complete anger management classes. In addition, Q.D.D. reported that Mother would stay inside the house and nap while the children played outside unsupervised and that “Mom and Grandma would yell a lot” during the visits.

Bobbie Jo Maifeld (“Maifeld”), Mother’s DFS case worker, testified that in February or March 2003 she discovered, through police reports, that during the time the children were in custody, Mother had been involved in domestic violence with three men. In fact, under cross-examination during trial, Mother admitted that there had been violent confrontations with five men, including her estranged husband, and also with a female friend of Mother. In May 2002, Mother got into an argument with a male friend, during which each broke out the tail lights of the other’s car with hammers. During that same summer, Mother was raped by an acquaintance. In November 2002, Mother was charged with tampering when she broke her estranged husband’s door and scratched the word “bitch” into the trunk of his girlfriend’s car with a key. This incident occurred while Mother was in anger management class. Although Mother pled guilty to the tampering charge in July 2003, she denied her guilt at the trial of this case. In addition, according to police reports, Mother was assaulted by a boyfriend, Ronnie Crockett (“Crockett”), on December 26, 2002 and again on January 16, 2003. She also testified that during their three-month relationship Crockett abused her, threatened her and her family with violence and death, and that she knew that he had been in prison. Mother had a verbal altercation with a fourth man, which resulted in a police report in April 2003.

Mother also threatened her friend Courtney Eden (“Courtney”) on October 2, 2002. According to the police report, Mother told Courtney, “I’m going to break your neck. I’ll kill you. I know where you live and ... where you go to school and I know what you drive.” The report indicated that the reason Mother threatened Courtney was because Mother thought Courtney was responsible for having the children taken away the previous December.

Mother never reported any of these incidents to DFS or to her counselor. Mother testified that she was afraid that if she told Maifeld about the incidents, they would not return her children. This, indeed, happened when Maifeld learned of the po[859]*859lice reports. Maifeld changed Mother’s case goal from one of reunification to termination of parental rights in March 2003. In addition to the threats of violence, Mai-feld was concerned about Mother’s unstable employment history and had evidence that Mother was not actually living at the apartment she had rented.

Maifeld testified that as part of DFS’s treatment plan, Mother was required to “cooperate and maintain contact with DFS, and that cooperation was to include keeping the social worker [informed of] changes in address, employment or household composition within [forty-eight] hours of the change.” Mother was not consistently honest about her employment status. Maifeld testified that several times she called to verify employment information given her by Mother and discovered that Mother was no longer working there. Mother was employed most of the time the children were in custody, however she kept changing jobs, working in as many as twelve or thirteen places between March 2002 and the time of trial. Although employed, Mother failed to provide any financial support for Q.D.D. while he was in the custody of DFS.

DFS was also concerned about Mother’s housing situation because it appeared that Mother was not actually living in the apartment she rented. Mother’s landlord informed Maifeld that she did not believe that Mother was living in the apartment. Upon inspection, the landlord found no food in the refrigerator or clothing in the closets. When Maifeld tried several times to make unannounced visits, no one was home.

On April 10, 2003, sixteen months after Q.D.D. was taken into protective custody, Respondent filed a petition to terminate the parental rights of Mother and Q.D.D.’s supposed biological father. The petition was heard on September 10, 2003, and the juvenile court found, by clear, cogent and convincing evidence, that Mother’s and unknown biological father’s parental rights should be terminated. In deciding to terminate Mother’s parental rights, the juvenile court considered statutory factors in compliance with Section 211.447.3 First, the juvenile court found that Q.D.D.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
144 S.W.3d 856, 2004 Mo. App. LEXIS 1249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jid-moctapp-2004.