In re Dependency of X.W.

In the Matter of the Dependency of: X.S.

In the Matter of the Dependency of: X.W.

No. 36948-0-III

c/w No. 36949-8-III

COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON DIVISION THREE

April 16, 2020

UNPUBLISHED OPINION

FEARING, J. — John Smith appeals from the termination of his parental rights to his two daughters. We affirm.

FACTS

We take the facts from trial testimony and exhibits admitted during the termination trial. John Smith and Connie Williams are the biological parents of two young girls, Carrie, born April 10, 2016, and Jane, born October 16, 2017. All four names are pseudonyms. Carrie tested positive for opiates at birth due to Williams's heroin use throughout her pregnancy. On April 12, 2016, the Department of Social and Health Services, now the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), filed a dependency petition for Carrie.

In late April 2016, Connie Williams burglarized John Smith's home after a domestic violence incident between the two. Thereafter a court entered an order prohibiting contact between Williams and Smith. In May 2016, DCYF placed Carrie with Connie Williams at Isabella House, where Williams received inpatient chemical dependency treatment and mental health, parenting, and domestic violence services.

Pursuant to the dependency in Carrie's case, mental health therapist Steven Erickson provided counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy for John Smith from April 2016 until Erickson's retirement in December 2016. Erickson, in part, addressed Smith's history of trauma and anxiety. Erickson sought to help Smith establish boundaries, improve his ability to employ impulse control, and establish trust in interpersonal relationships.

Amanda Clemons provided John Smith family therapy from April 2016 to May 2018. Clemons counseled Smith on the need for boundaries with Connie Williams and the importance of Smith protecting his children. According to Clemons, Smith repeatedly denied the truth of adverse information. When confronted with increasingly definitive and contradictory information, Smith admitted the truth, but blamed others for his faults. Smith blamed others when confronted with the presence of Williams in hishome, improperly using a car seat, and administering corporal punishment on his daughters. Smith continually identified himself as a victim of Williams's behavior.

On November 21, 2016, after Connie Williams successfully completed a chemical dependency treatment program, the court dismissed Carrie's dependency case.

On December 7, 2016, an Attorney General's office employee saw Connie Williams at a grocery store with one of John Smith's older children, John Jr., who was in Smith's care. On December 8, an unidentified individual saw Williams's black Honda at Smith's residence. When confronted with this information, Smith denied any contact with Williams. He later admitted that Williams resided at his house despite her continued substance abuse and the no contact order.

On Christmas Day 2016, law enforcement responded to John Smith's home based on a report of domestic violence. Smith and Connie Williams each accused, in the hearing of officers, the other of using drugs.

On December 30, 2016, DCYF filed a second dependency petition as to Carrie following allegations of drug use, domestic violence between Connie Williams and John Smith, and the parents' failure to maintain boundaries with each other. On January 13, 2017, the dependency court held a shelter care hearing and ordered Carrie placed in foster care. The court found that illicit drugs were present in the homes of both Williams andSmith and that neither parent had been honest with the court. The court also found that Smith's lack of impulse control and poor judgment contributed to domestic violence. Thereafter, DCYF referred Smith for family therapy and mental health counseling. DCYF also ordered Smith to submit to random urinalysis and blood alcohol testing. The court entered another injunction against contact between Smith and Williams.

Mental health and chemical dependency counselor Carla Paullin counseled John Smith after Steven Erickson's retirement in December 2016. At DCYF's request, Paullin focused on Smith's violent behavior. Paullin and Smith worked on Smith's emotional regulation, manipulation of others, control of others, codependency, and boundary setting in relationships. The counselor and patient discussed Smith's self-centered nature and unstable personality features.

In a March 16, 2017 order, the dependency court recognized the ultimate goal of reunification between John Smith and daughter Carrie. The court ordered the following services for Smith: a parenting and attachment assessment, intensified individual mental health sessions, and urinalysis only on reasonable suspicion.

In a March 2017 report, counselor Carla Paullin noted she could not trust John Smith to be honest and to make good decisions. In an April 2017 report, Paullin also wrote that Smith was being controlling and manipulative in regard to his relationship withConnie Williams. Paullin tried to assist Smith to understand that he does not have the power to control Williams's behaviors.

John Smith completed a domestic violence evaluation in March 2017 by Tapio Counseling. During the evaluation, Smith admitted to driving dangerously with Connie Williams in the car, swearing at her, refusing to talk to her, issuing commands to her, spying on her, and giving her money only after she begged. The evaluator recommended that Smith participate in one year of domestic violence perpetrator treatment.

John Smith initiated a domestic violence perpetrator treatment program with counselor Elizabeth Rief. According to Rief, Smith often failed to appear for treatment in part because of time spent with Connie Williams. Smith soon ceased treatment.

Mental health counselor Linda Wirtz performed a parenting assessment of John Smith with Carrie in April 2017. Wirtz evaluated Smith as possessing good parenting skills and observed a bonded relationship between Carrie and Smith. Carrie felt secure and happy with her father. Smith responded to Carrie's cues for a bottle, a diaper change, and a nap.

On May 30, 2017, John Smith moved the court for an order to place Carrie in his care. In an order denying the motion, the court commissioner found that Smith withheld the truth and impulsively made false statements only to attempt to correct them later. Thecommissioner also found that Connie Williams and Smith violated court orders by seeing each other. The court, nonetheless, recognized that Smith possessed the capacity to parent and render sound decisions about discipline. Smith also could provide food and clothing for Carrie. The court ordered monitored in-home visits.

By September 2017, counselor Carla Paullin supported transitioning Carrie to John Smith's care, because Smith never missed an appointment, he always showed care for his children, and he consistently asked what more could he do.

On October 16, 2017, Connie Williams gave birth to Jane. Although the dependency court had ordered Williams and John Smith to refrain from contact with one another, the paternity results deemed Smith to be Jane's father. After Jane's birth, counselor Carla Paullin grew concerned that Smith could not distance himself from the chaos and drama that his relationship with Williams caused.

On November 3, 2017, DCYF filed a dependency petition as to Jane because Connie Williams admitted to heroin use during the pregnancy and Jane showed signs of withdrawal from the drug. Jane required medical care for thirty days, and health care providers administered Jane morphine while she weaned off heroin. The dependency petition alleged that John Smith placed Jane at risk of harm because of his history of domestic violence with Williams and his lack of transparency with DCYF.

After a November 20, 2017, contested shelter care hearing, the dependency court released Jane to John Smith so long as he provided a negative full-panel urinalysis and complied with all service requirements and conditions of previous court orders in his dependency cases for Carrie and two older children. The shelter care hearing order enjoined John Smith from any contact with Connie Williams, either directly or through third parties. Thereafter, DCYF developed a plan with Smith, which listed steps he should take if Williams tried to contact him.

In January 2018, a visitation supervisor from Love My Child conducted an in-home visit of John Smith and Jane. The supervisor saw female hygiene products and clothing in Smith's residence. When confronted with this information, Smith denied any contact with Connie Williams and claimed the female items belonged to his oldest child.

On January 27, 2018, family therapist Amanda Clemons and Jane's guardian ad litem Crystal Ruiz entered, without earlier warning, John Smith's home. The two found Connie Williams hiding under a pile of laundry. Because of the parents' contact, DCYF removed Jane from Smith's care and placed the infant in shelter care.

On January 31, 2018, Laura Signorino, the DCYF social worker for both dependency cases, asked John Smith to submit a hair follicle test. Smith's hair was too short to produce an adequate sample.

At a February 2, 2018, permanency planning hearing for Carrie, the dependency court changed Carrie's primary placement plan to adoption. The court based this change on John Smith's lack of progress and transparency with DCYF. The court found that Smith failed to set boundaries with Connie Williams and failed to keep his children safe. The court emphasized Williams's continued drug use, the toxic relationship between Smith and Williams, and the couple's continued contact that violated court orders.

On March 23, 2018, the dependency court entered an agreed order of dependency and order of disposition for Jane. The disposition and subsequent review orders required Smith to submit to a hair follicle test, submit to random urinalysis, obtain a mental...