John v. John

536 P.3d 1138

Lucas Allen JOHN, Appellee,

v.Cassandra Kathleen JOHN, Appellant.

No. 20210506-CA

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Filed September 14, 2023

Benjamin K. Lusty, Salt Lake City, Attorney for Appellant

Mary Deiss Brown, Attorney for Appellee

Judge John D. Luthy authored this Opinion, in which Judges Gregory K. Orme and Ryan D. Tenney concurred.

Opinion

LUTHY, Judge:

¶1 In Lucas Allen and Cassandra Kathleen John's divorce decree, the district court gave Lucas¹ sole legal and physical custody of the parties’ daughter, Child. The decree gave Cassandra once-a-week virtual parent-time and in-person parent-time as often "as the parties agree, or as recommended by the reunification therapist." The court ordered that Cassandra's virtual parent-time "not be ... monitored" but that her in-person parent-time be "subject to line-of-sight supervision." The court then outlined a "reunification" plan, with the goal of Cassandra's eventual transition to unsupervised parent-time with Child.

¶2 Cassandra contends that the district court erred by ordering supervised in-person parent-time without making the statutorily required finding of "evidence that [Child] would be subject to physical or emotional harm or child abuse ... from [Cassandra] if left unsupervised with [her]." Utah Code § 30-3-34.5(1).² Cassandra also forwards multiple arguments in support of the assertion that the court erred by failing to provide, as required by statute, "specific goals and expectations" for her to meet "before unsupervised parent-time may be granted." Id. § 30-3-34.5(5). We conclude that the district court made an adequate finding of evidence that Child would be subject to physical or emotional harm from Cassandra if left unsupervised with her, and we conclude that each of Cassandra's arguments regarding specific goals and expectations is either mistaken or unpreserved. We therefore affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶3 Lucas and Cassandra married in March 2014. Child was born in September of that year. Cassandra had "engaged in drug use over the years," and "even though [Cassandra] was a stay-at-home mom," Lucas "hired a baby-sitter to take care of [Child] ... because of [Cassandra's] drug use" and because "he feared for [Child's] safety."

¶4 Soon after Child was born, Cassandra became pregnant with the parties’ second child. When the second child was born, the baby "had substances in her system," "indicat[ing] that [Cassandra had been] engaging in activities that were potentially harmful to the ... child." This child died shortly after her birth.³

¶5 The parties separated around May 2016, and Cassandra moved in with her boyfriend later that year. In August 2016, Lucas petitioned for divorce. The next month, he moved for temporary orders to grant him sole legal and physical custody of Child. He also requested that Cassandra's visitation time with Child be supervised and that Cassandra be ordered to submit to drug testing.

¶6 Around this time, Lucas and Cassandra were together "at a local restaurant" when Cassandra "took [Child], put her in the front seat of [a] truck without any car seat or any appropriate child restraints and then drove off," hitting Lucas with the truck in the process. A temporary protective order was entered against Cassandra because she had attempted to run Lucas over with her truck and abscond with Child. A hearing on the protective order was held in October 2016, at which the commissioner recommended dismissal of the protective order,⁴ entry of a mutual restraining order, and the granting to Cassandra of "unsupervised parent time ... with no overnights."

¶7 On December 8, 2016, a hearing was held on Lucas's Motion for Temporary Orders. Following the hearing, the court entered mutual restraining and no-contact orders against the parties, awarded Lucas temporary sole legal and physical custody of Child, and directed Cassandra to "submit to a hair follicle [drug] test before 5:00 p.m." that day. The court gave Cassandra parent-time "with ... no overnights" and provisionally ordered that it be "facilitated" by a particular family friend. The court further instructed that if Cassandra's drug test came back positive, Lucas's attorney was to "call the court to schedule a telephone conference to determine the status moving forward."

¶8 Cassandra's hair follicle drug test came back positive for both cocaine and marijuana, and another hearing was held on December 20, 2016. Following that hearing, the court ordered that Cassandra's parent-time be subject to line-of-sight supervision and that Cassandra complete another drug test by January 9, 2017.

¶9 On January 9, 2017, Cassandra submitted an "unofficial" drug test showing negative results for a collection taken that day. At a review hearing on January 30, 2017, however, the commissioner was "concern[ed]" because the results of the January 9 unofficial test were "drastically different" than the results of the test on December 8, 2016. The commissioner therefore directed Cassandra to complete another drug test that day. The commissioner also ordered "continue[d] ... supervised parent time, status quo," and set a review hearing for February 13, 2017.

¶10 Cassandra's drug test on January 30, 2017, came back positive for marijuana, and following the February 13 review hearing, the court ordered "expanded supervised parent-time" with "no overnight visits." It also ordered Cassandra to submit to a urinalysis by March 8, 2017, and it set another review hearing for March 13, 2017.

¶11 Cassandra took the required test before the March 13 review hearing, but she failed to submit the results. Her counsel (Counsel) nevertheless proffered at the hearing that the test had come back "positive for THC." The court ordered that Cassandra's parent-time remain subject to "direct line-of-sight" supervision "with no overnight visits."

¶12 "At some point"—likely during April 2017—Cassandra "moved to Idaho for several months." After a "stint in Louisiana," she then moved to Iowa and lived there with a boyfriend. Once she had left Utah, Cassandra did not request any review hearings or make any attempt to exercise in-person parent-time with Child. As a result, she was "around [Child] physically on [only] three occasions" between January 2017 and June 2021.

¶13 Eventually, in March 2021, after compromise negotiations proved only minimally successful, the court held a bench trial on the parties’ outstanding issues. At the time of trial, Child was six years old.

¶14 Following trial, the court held a hearing to orally announce its rulings. To Cassandra's credit, the court found that she was "trying to make some changes in her life," including engaging in "therapy to resolve anger, trauma, and substance abuse" issues, and that she "appear[ed] to be improving." But the court found that Cassandra still "lack[ed] ... maturity in her decision-making processes," "consider[ed] her own needs first and primary over [Child]’s," and might not be "completely emotionally stable." The court also found that Cassandra had engaged in "instances of violence" in the past (including the one that led to the temporary protective order noted above). And it found that Cassandra's failures to "give[ ] first priority to [Child]’s welfare" were due to her "history with drug abuse." Based on the foregoing findings, the court awarded Lucas sole legal and physical custody of Child.

¶15 The court then granted Cassandra supervised in-person parent-time at a frequency to be determined by a therapist and unsupervised virtual parent-time at least once per week. The court said that it thought there ought to be "some sort of ramping up" of supervised in-person visits and that a therapist should "come up with a schedule" for those visits after talking with Child, Cassandra, and Lucas to "see what's appropriate." The court further explained, "I expect that the therapist will come up with so many overnights so that [Cassandra] can practice with all of those things, and then once she's completed the therapist's plan, then I would say that the standard relocation statute would then become effective." Counsel then asked whether "at that point"—i.e., when Cassandra had completed the therapist's plan—"supervision would no longer be required." The court responded, "I don't know, Counsel," "because there's ... some ongoing drug issues ... and we don't have any evidence ... that she would have clean tests."

¶16 Counsel then asked if the court was going to make findings as to whether Child "would be in danger if she were with [Cassandra unsupervised]." In response, the court said:

[G]iven that [Cassandra]’s not complied with the Court orders, it's not clear to me whether or not she's a danger to [Child] still. She hasn't completed the drug tests, et cetera, so given her noncompliance with the Court's prior temporary orders, she potentially could still be a danger; but given also that she hasn't been around [Child] physically except for three times, I just think that's problematic.^{[5 ]}

¶17 Counsel then said, "So ... [a]fter two things occur, if I understand correctly, then [Cassandra]’s parent time will be according to [section] 30-3-37 and unsupervised." He listed "one, the completion of the ramp up period as recommended by the therapist; and two, ... submitting to the Court a clean drug test." He asked, "Is that accurate?" The court responded that it could not "say that [Cassandra]’s going to go immediately to unsupervised [visitation] after the ramp up" because the court might "need some more information at that point."

¶18 Counsel then informed the court, "My understanding, your Honor, is that the Court needs to provide specific criteria that [Cassandra] needs to meet ... in order to have supervision dismissed." The court replied, "I ... don't know what the therapist is going to say, Counsel. So I think it's a little bit speculative. ... What I'm going to have to see is what the therapist recommends, and then I can give you some further instructions at that point." It added, "But yes, we...