L.C. v. Jefferson Cnty. Dep't of Human Res.

330 So.3d 849

L.C.

v.JEFFERSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES

2190836, 2190837 and 2190838

Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama.

January 15, 2021

Pooja Chawla, Birmingham, for appellant.

Steve Marshall, att'y gen., and Felicia M. Brooks, chief legal counsel, and Elizabeth L. Hendrix, asst. att'y gen., Department of Human Resources, for appellee.

THOMPSON, Presiding Judge.

L.C. ("the mother") separately appeals from three judgments entered by the Jefferson Juvenile Court ("the juvenile court"), each one involving one of her three children, G.F. (appeal no. 2190836), J.F. (appeal no. 2190837), and N.C. (appeal no. 2190838). In separate judgments, the juvenile court terminated the mother's parental rights to the older children, J.F. and G.F. ("the older children"). The juvenile court also entered a judgment in which it found N.C., the youngest child ("the youngest child"), to be dependent and placed the youngest child in the custody of J.C. ("the maternal aunt").¹ The three actions were tried together.

The record and the evidence presented at the trial indicate the following. The older children were, respectively, five years old and four years old at the time the judgments were entered. The youngest child was a year old at that time. The Jefferson County Department of Human Resources ("DHR") first became involved with the family in July 2016, after police were called to the parking lot of a Walmart store on the morning of July 28, 2016, regarding a child who had been left unattended in a vehicle. The mother testified that she had stopped the Walmart store to purchase one item she had been unable to buy at an earlier stop. She said that G.F., who was one year old at the time, was the only child with her. The mother said that because G.F. was asleep and she had believed that it would not take her long to purchase just one item, she had left G.F. in the vehicle with the windows partially down. When she came out of the Walmart store, the mother said, the police and paramedics had already removed G.F. from the vehicle. Video recordings indicated that the mother had been inside the store for 18 minutes. The mother conceded that G.F. was "filthy" when she was removed from the vehicle and treated by the paramedics.

The mother also acknowledged that, at first, she had provided police with an incorrect name and had neglected to tell them that she had another child. The record is not fully developed regarding this point, but the older children were taken into protective custody. Tijuana Nevel, the third DHR social worker to work with the mother after the July 2016 incident at the Walmart store, testified that she was first assigned to the mother's case in March 2018. Nevel said that she attempted to contact the mother but was unable to reach her for a number of months. Nevel said that she also had contacted family members of the mother but that they had not known where the mother was living. Nevel said that the mother eventually contacted her in November 2018.

The mother testified that she had been evicted from her house and had stopped communicating with DHR in May 2018. She also stated that she had not visited the older children from March 2018 through November 2018. The mother said that, in September 2018, she had been "feeling [her] moods and stuff change" and had been having suicidal thoughts, so she checked herself into the psychiatric ward at the University of Alabama at Birmingham ("UAB") Hospital. She remained at the hospital for seven days, then was discharged and given a prescription for Zoloft, an anti-depressant, to take as needed and was advised to seek counseling. In October 2018, the mother became a resident at Mary's Shelter, a place for homeless women and children, in Baldwin County. She was pregnant with the youngest child at that time. Mary's Shelter required the mother to undergo a psychological assessment through AltaPointe Health in March 2019. The mother testified that that assessment indicated that no additional counseling or mental-health treatment was needed.

Nevel said that the mother contacted her from Mary's Shelter in November 2018. In December 2018, DHR filed petitions seeking to terminate the mother's parental rights to the older children. Those petitions were based on allegations that the older children had been in DHR's custody since July 2016 and that the mother had made "little progress towards reunification" with those children. The petitions also alleged, among other things, that the mother had made no effort to visit the older children in eight months. Whether the mother had abandoned the older children was not an issue in the trial court.

The youngest child was born in Baldwin County on January 2, 2019. The Baldwin County Department of Human Resources ("the Baldwin County DHR") filed a dependency petition regarding the youngest child on January 7, 2019. Nevel testified that she first met the mother at the shelter-care hearing for the youngest child in Baldwin County on January 7, 2019, after which the Baldwin County DHR was awarded custody of the youngest child. On February 15, 2019, the matter regarding the youngest child was transferred from Baldwin Juvenile Court to the Jefferson Juvenile Court. After a hearing on April 17, 2019, the juvenile court awarded custody of the youngest child to the maternal aunt. That same day, the juvenile court continued the termination-of-parental-rights trials regarding the older children on DHR's motion. DHR explained that, at that time, the mother was making substantial progress.

On May 21, 2019, Dr. Jack Carney, a licensed psychologist, administered a battery of psychological tests to the mother. Much of the trial regarding the termination of the mother's parental rights focused on Dr. Carney's descriptions of the tests, the results of those tests, and how they reflected the mother's psychological state. Based on his evaluation of the mother, Dr. Carney diagnosed her with a "borderline" IQ, narcissistic personality disorder, major depressive disorder, and attention-deficit disorder. Dr. Carney testified that the test results revealed a probability that the mother would in all likelihood respond in certain ways to different situations. For example, based on her scores on one test, Dr. Carney said, the mother was likely to be inattentive, she may "zone out," she may not always appreciate dangerous situations the children may be in, and she may make "unnecessary mistakes."

On another test, the mother scored high on "self-deception." People with similar scores, Dr. Carney said, were likely to be "rigid" and to fail to take ownership of problems. Other test results indicated to Dr. Carney that the mother was likely to become easily frustrated with a child. The conditions diagnosed cause the mother to place her needs ahead of the needs of others, Dr. Carney said. He recommended parenting classes, anger-management classes, medication, and counseling for the mother.

In addition to administering the psychological tests to the mother, Dr. Carney observed the mother with the older children over the course of several hours. He testified that the mother had ignored the younger of those two children and that although she had been slightly more responsive to the oldest child, overall, he found her to be "cold" and indifferent to the older children and their needs, and he did not believe she had the capacity to care for or protect the children. During the visitations he had observed, Dr. Carney said, the older children went to their foster mother, with whom they had lived for only three months, for reassurance and, he noted, they were already more attached to or bonded with the foster mother than with the mother. Such conduct was consistent with the results of his psychological assessment of the mother, Dr. Carney said. As a result of the testing and his observations of the mother, Dr. Carney testified, he believed that it was unlikely that the mother would be able to improve sufficiently in the foreseeable future such that she could parent the children. He therefore recommended the termination of the mother's parental rights to the older children.

Nevel testified that DHR had made referrals for the mother to obtain in-home services in 2017 and again in 2019. She said that DHR had been unable to contact the mother in 2017, so the mother did not receive services at that time. In 2019, the mother was at Mary's Shelter, and she could not receive the in-home services there. Upon leaving Mary's Shelter, the mother obtained employment and a stable residence. Nevel testified that DHR did not have concerns with the mother in those areas. At a July 31, 2019, individualized service plan ("ISP") meeting with the mother, Nevel said, the mother was advised that she was required to receive and complete therapy for narcissistic personality disorder. However, Nevel said, the mother never obtained the recommended counseling services, telling Nevel that she did not need those services. The mother referred to the results of the assessment through AltaPointe as the basis for her refusal. The mother testified that she recalled taking part in the July 31, 2019, ISP meeting but that she did not recall being asked to attend therapy. She also denied receiving any letters from Nevel regarding the need for her to undergo therapy. Nevel testified that she had mailed four letters to the mother regarding her need for therapy. The mother testified that she had told Nevel that she did not need the therapy or treatment recommended by Dr. Carney. She also testified that she did not need the counseling the doctors at UAB Hospital had recommended. The mother's mental health remained a concern for DHR, Nevel testified.

The mother testified that she had not visited the children from May 2018 through November 2018 because of her depression. In January 2019, the mother began regular visitation with the children. Before her psychological assessment by Dr. Carney in May 2019, the mother had unsupervised...