S.C. v. State (In re C.R.C.)

450 P.3d 1169

STATE of Utah, IN the INTEREST OF C.R.C., a person under eighteen years of age.

S.C. and D.C., Appellants,

v.State of Utah, Appellee.

Nos. 20190233-CA

20190234-CA

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Filed September 19, 2019

Emily Adams and Jeffry K. Ross, Attorneys for Appellant S.C.

A. Erin Bradley, Attorney for Appellant D.C.

Sean D. Reyes, Carol L.C. Verdoia, and John M. Peterson, Salt Lake City, Attorneys for Appellee

Martha Pierce, Salt Lake City, Guardian ad Litem

Judge Kate Appleby authored this Opinion, in which Judges Ryan M. Harris and Diana Hagen concurred.

Opinion

APPLEBY, Judge:

¶1 S.C. (Mother) and D.C. (Father) (collectively, Parents) appeal the juvenile court's termination of their parental rights as to C.R.C. (Child).¹ Mother argues that insufficient evidence supported the juvenile court's determination that grounds existed to terminate her rights. Parents also argue that terminating their rights is not in Child's best interest. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶2 In early 2017, police discovered that Father had downloaded hundreds of photographs and videos of child pornography. Many of the images involved children as young as newborns and toddlers. Father admitted to downloading the images and was arrested. He has been incarcerated since. Police informed Mother of the allegations against Father and warned her that Child, who was born shortly after Father's arrest, was not safe around him. Mother was advised to seek a protective order for Child against Father, but she never sought one. Police eventually obtained an ex parte protective order on Child's behalf. The protective order prohibited Father from having contact with Child unless the visit was supervised by the Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS). Despite this court order, Mother took Child to the prison to see Father. This incident was reported to DCFS and Mother was reminded not to allow contact between Child and Father.

¶3 In March 2017, Father was temporarily released from jail to obtain a psychosexual evaluation. Mother asked if Father could see Child during his release, but DCFS again instructed her not to allow contact between them. Mother ignored these instructions and allowed Father to spend "unfettered and unsupervised" time with Child. Mother told DCFS she permitted the contact because Father was not a risk to Child. After this incident came to light, DCFS removed Child from Mother's custody and Child was placed in foster care.

¶4 While Child was in foster care, Mother was required to complete a reunification plan (Plan), which included, among other things, (1) establishing safe and stable housing for herself and Child, (2) maintaining contact with her caseworker so she could have parent time with Child, (3) completing a parental fitness evaluation, (4) completing a parenting class and working with a "peer parent," and (5) complying with the no-contact order by preventing Father from contacting Child.

¶5 In accordance with the Plan, Mother sought a parental fitness evaluation. But the juvenile court concluded that she was unable to complete it because she "could not understand many of the questions, even when they were read to her" and that the "evaluation raised many concerns regarding Mother's ability to adequately parent" Child. The evaluation report concluded that Mother has an intelligence quotient "in the extremely low range of intellectual classification" and that Mother has an overall intellectual capacity of a ten- or eleven-year-old child. But the court noted that Mother improved her housework and parenting skills after attending behavioral therapy. Overall, the court concluded that Mother could not be a successful parent without "maintaining firm boundaries and obtaining a support system."

¶6 Mother attempted to obtain an adequate support system. First, she identified her own mother (Grandmother) as a potential supervisor. Grandmother participated in a parental fitness evaluation, but this demonstrated that she, too, suffered from serious intellectual deficiencies. The court found that Grandmother and Mother frequently undermined each other and that Grandmother had a boyfriend who could not pass a background check. The court concluded that Grandmother was an inappropriate supervisor for Mother and Child. Next, Mother identified her father (Grandfather) as a potential supervisor. Grandfather resided in Colorado and therefore was not an option as a long-term supervisor. Finally, Mother identified a friend (Friend) as a potential supervisor. Friend agreed to supervise Mother's parent-time with Child and Friend was found to be an adequate supervisor. Friend testified that the get-togethers went well. Friend began attending family team meetings with Mother and provided her support "in many ways."

¶7 But in early 2018, Friend discovered that Mother had been dishonest with DCFS regarding her contact with Father and became concerned about Child's safety. At trial, Friend's daughter testified that she was driving with Mother one day and asked Mother whether she had any overnights planned with Child. Mother responded, "[N]o, I think [DCFS personnel] know if I had overnights then I would call [Grandfather] to come get us and I would leave with them." Mother added that she "couldn't wait until she had her family back together" and she wanted to have "more kids" with Father. After this, Friend stopped providing support to Mother. The court concluded that Mother was never able to establish the long-term support system she needed to be reunited with Child.

¶8 Mother's parental fitness evaluation report also noted Mother struggled to maintain firm boundaries and observed that this made her "an easy target to be taken advantage of due to her [intellectual] difficulties." Friend reported to DCFS that Mother had "significant secret contact with Father in prison." DCFS asked Mother about this and Mother "adamantly denied any contact" and expressed her desire to divorce Father because any contact would be harmful to Child. Nevertheless, Mother continued to contact Father. In September 2017, a caseworker again asked Mother if she had spoken with Father, and Mother said she had not. But in the two months following this conversation, Mother spoke with Father on the telephone for 443 minutes and deposited $632 in his prison account. After this, Mother met with a caseworker and again denied having any contact with Father. That same day, Mother had a 27-minute phone call with him. At a family team meeting several months later, Mother stated she had no contact with Father even though she made four separate phone calls to Father that day for a total of 58 minutes. From the first time Mother told her caseworker she had no contact with Father until the family team meeting, Mother had 428 phone calls with Father and deposited $2,358 in his prison account. At another family team meeting, Mother was again warned not to have any contact with Father. Between that time and the permanency placement hearing one month later, Mother spoke to Father on the telephone 32 times for a total of 307 minutes. Over the next several months, Mother had 16 in-person prison visits with Father, had approximately 650 phone conversations with him, and deposited $1,135 in his prison account.

¶9 The court found Mother's continual contact with Father "very concerning" on many levels because "Father [was] a danger to [Child] and Mother was made aware of this." It stated, "Mother has demonstrated that she is committed to Father and does not believe he is a risk to [Child]" and has "demonstrated that she will be deceitful with DCFS and the Court in an attempt to continue the relationship." Mother and Father were also "aware that ongoing contact between the two of them undermined Mother's potential for success." Based on the court's many concerns, it concluded that Mother would not be able to protect Child from Father or other potential abusers. It also found that Mother was "an easy target to be taken advantage of" and that Child was an "easy target[ ] for abuse and neglect if Mother is the sole caretaker." The parental fitness evaluation report also described Mother as "unwilling" to stay away from Father and stated that she "made the conscious decision to continue contact with [him] knowing it would be detrimental to her success."

¶10 At the termination trial, the court concluded that Mother made significant progress on the Plan by keeping in contact with her caseworker and seeing Child on a regular basis, obtaining a parental fitness evaluation, completing the parenting class, complying with the peer-parenting program, and establishing housing. But it concluded that she "was never able to complete the goals of the Plan by providing an appropriate home for [Child] where [Child] would be safe from abuse and neglect." In point of fact, the court was concerned with Mother's continual contact with Father, her belief that he was not a threat to Child, and her lack of a support system.

¶11 The juvenile court found that several grounds supported terminating Parents' parental rights. First, it concluded that they were "unwilling or unable to avoid their parental incompetence" and neglect. It found that Father was incarcerated as a result of multiple felony convictions and that the sentence was long enough that Child would be deprived of a normal home for more than one year. Further, the fact that Father was convicted for possessing child pornography indicated his unfitness to provide adequate care to Child. It also found that Mother suffered "from an emotional illness, mental illness, or mental deficiency" that rendered "her unable to care for the immediate and continuing physical or emotional needs of [Child] for extended periods of time." While Mother "may be able to complete up to ninety percent of the parenting required to take care of [Child]," "[Child] is not safe with [Mother] on a long-term basis without ongoing support from a third party" and "[n]o ongoing third party support was ever...