Weatherspoon v. Arkansas Department of Human Services

426 S.W.3d 520, 2013 Ark. App. 104, 2013 WL 623099, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 118
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 20, 2013
DocketNo. CA 12-862
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 426 S.W.3d 520 (Weatherspoon v. Arkansas Department of Human Services) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weatherspoon v. Arkansas Department of Human Services, 426 S.W.3d 520, 2013 Ark. App. 104, 2013 WL 623099, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 118 (Ark. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

ROBERT J. GLADWIN, Chief Judge.

11Appellant Mary Weatherspoon seeks reversal of the July 19, 2012 order of the Pulaski County Circuit Court terminating her parental rights to her two minor children, T.N.l and T.N.2.1 She argues that there was insufficient evidence to support the circuit court’s finding that termination was in the best interest of the children.

We find no error and affirm the circuit court’s order.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) became involved when T.N.2 reported to her school’s employees that her brother, T.N.l, had sexually abused her on January 14, 2011. After an investigation, DHS exercised a seventy-two-hour hold on T.N.2 on February 28, 2011. An order for emergency custody was granted by the circuit court on |2March 2, 2011. The circuit court subsequently adjudicated T.N.2 dependent-neglected as a result of appellant’s unfitness, neglect, and instability, and found it in T.N.2’s best interest to remain in the care of DHS on June 3, 2011. When adjudicating T.N.2, the circuit court took judicial notice of two prior dependency-neglect cases concerning T.N.2’s siblings, appellant’s five older children, D.W., J.W., T.N.l, R.S.l, and R.S.2. Appellant appealed the adjudication of T.N.2 as dependent-neglected to this court, see Weatherspoon v. Ark. Dep’t of Human Servs., 2012 Ark. App. 34, 2012 WL 76165; however, this court deferred to the circuit court’s superi- or opportunity to observe, witness, and evaluate the credibility of the parties and affirmed the decision of the circuit court.

Appellant participated in the DHS case plan and claims to have complied with most aspects of the case plan and relevant court orders. She was ordered to maintain stable housing and employment, remain drug and alcohol free, complete parenting classes, submit to a psychological evaluation, and follow any recommendations. She has had no positive drug screens. Appellant completed parenting classes and her psychological evaluation. She maintained significant contact with T.N.l and T.N.2 until her visitation was removed.

Five months after the review hearing, however, T.N.l was removed from appellant’s custody. A second dependency-neglect case began before the circuit court based on allegations that appellant was impeding reunification services in the case concerning T.N.2, and that T.N.l was attending school dirty, without appropriate clothing, and hungry. T.N.l was subsequently adjudicated dependent-neglected based on appellant’s conduct, including her history with DHS. The circuit court found that appellant had subjected her children to ^aggravated circumstances and that there was little likelihood that services to the family would result in reunification with the family based on the “full array of services” appellant had been offered in 2005 and in the case involving T.N.2. The goal of T.N.2’s case was set as termination of parental rights. On the same day T.N.l was adjudicated dependent-neglected, the circuit court held a permanency-planning hearing in T.N.2’s dependency-neglect case. The circuit court changed the goal in T.N.2’s case from reunification to termination of parental rights.

Three months later, a termination-of-parental-rights hearing was held. The first witness to testify was appellant’s current therapist, Letha Richardson. The therapist stated that appellant made only “slight progress” and still had issues that she needed to address. Richardson was not aware that appellant had previous therapy, and Richardson acknowledged never having spoken with that therapist, relying only on information that appellant supplied. Richardson was also unaware of the incident where appellant rammed her vehicle into another vehicle, and Richardson agreed that such information would be important relating to appellant’s treatment. Richardson opined that appellant needed to work on her depression issues and her inability to manage her emotions and deal with unforeseen circumstances, but she was unable to say how much longer appellant would need to be in therapy. Additionally, Richardson could not say if T.N.l and T.N.2 would be in danger if returned to appellant.

The next witness was appellant’s previous therapist, Sylvia Jones. She began seeing appellant on April 18, 2011, and discharged appellant on November 30, 2011, because | ^appellant completed the program. Jones worked with appellant on her anger and communication issues. Jones testified that appellant showed progress in anger management and learned techniques to deal with her anger. However, Jones was unaware of the assault charge that occurred prior to appellant’s discharge from therapy. Jones was not aware that appellant was arrested for “ramming her car into someone else and getting a tire iron and chasing them.” She conceded that she would not have discharged appellant from therapy had she known about this “major incident.” Jones stated that completion of counseling does not necessarily mean the person benefitted from the counseling. She also testified that there is nothing additional that could be offered to a person who has completed the program.

The DHS caseworker, Tammy Blount, testified that she did not see improvement in appellant’s communication with DHS. She explained that she did not think any additional services would make a difference. Despite all the services offered to appellant, Blount unequivocally stated that she did not believe the children would be safe with appellant.

The children’s father and appellant’s husband, Terrell Nichols, also testified. He stated that appellant, in the month prior to the termination, had -threatened and harassed him. As a result, he pressed charges and obtained a no-contact order.

Dr. Karen Boyd-Worley, who was qualified as an expert, also testified at the termination hearing. Dr. Worley is a psychologist and director of the Family Treatment Program, which is a clinic that provides mental-health treatment for sexually abused children and their families. Dr. Worley testified about the family’s participation in therapy for the sexual abuse between T.N.l and T.N.2. She explained that there was a family session with JjjT.N.l where he admitted he touched T.N.2 inappropriately, and that appellant was proud of T.N.l during that session. In a subsequent session, however, when T.N.l was apologizing to T.N.2, appellant was not engaged despite T.N.l’s request that she participate. Dr. Worley said appellant “kind-of turned her back to the children” and had stated to Dr. Worley that she was “really, really angry to think her child would be removed for such a silly thing, that it was not serious, and that he really hadn’t done it.” As a result, T.N.2 had a very difficult time with the session. After multiple instances where appellant did not seem engaged in the therapeutic process, Dr. Worley determined that it was not appropriate to have appellant in the sessions with T.N.l and T.N.2. Dr. Worley testified that appellant’s actions made it impossible to address the sexual-abuse issues with T.N.l and T.N.2, the joint sessions with appellant were destructive to the children, and they had “hit a stalemate.” She stated that appellant did not make progress and there was no additional therapy that could have been provided to help her. Dr. Worley agreed that appellant sabotaged the efforts to address the sexual-abuse issues and that appellant’s anger issues were a barrier. Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
426 S.W.3d 520, 2013 Ark. App. 104, 2013 WL 623099, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weatherspoon-v-arkansas-department-of-human-services-arkctapp-2013.