Case ID: so2d_673/html/0148-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "HARRIS, Judge. W. SHARP, Judge,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Nichole BRANTLEY, Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, Appellee.
    No. 95-1543.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
    May 10, 1996.
    Jane E. Carey, Orlando, for Appellant.
    Patricia A. Savitz, Orlando, for Appellee, Department of HRS.'
   HARRIS, Judge.

Nichole Brantley appeals the termination of her parental rights. She contends that the record does not show sufficient evidence of abuse, abandonment or neglect to justify termination and, even if it does, termination should have been denied because HRS failed to make reasonable efforts to reunify the family.

We disagree and affirm the termination of parental rights in this case. The evidence is convincing that the child was being raised in an environment of violence and that the mother failed to cooperate at any stage in these proceedings in order to make reunification a reasonable option.

AFFIRMED.

THOMPSON, J., concurs.

W. SHARP, J., concurs specially, with opinion.

W. SHARP, Judge,

concurring specially.

I agree that this appeal should be affirmed, although I have sympathy for the appellant/mother because she was the victim of domestic violence, not her child. Not infrequently it is very difficult for victims to escape from such relationships, and the loss of a child seems an additional hardship to impose on such victims. However, the trial judge also found that appellant neglected and abandoned her child, and the record supports these findings with sufficient competent evidence. Thus, I concur specially.