Opinion ID: 2056781
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mother's Mental Health Issues

Text: [¶ 36] The mother's mental health issues were disclosed and addressed throughout the child protective proceeding, including the termination hearing. Nothing in the record suggested that the mother was incompetent to participate in those proceedings. In those proceedings the mother argued that she was addressing her mental health issues, that she was and would be a competent parent, and that she was, with assistance of counsel, competently participating in the proceedings. The mother did not change her position about her mental health issues or attempt to recant her testimony about abuse until more than a year after the final judgment when her appeal had been denied. Then, the new spin on her condition, incompetence, became convenient to support the effort to collaterally attack the termination judgment. [7] [¶ 37] The record reflects that the mother was beset by conflicting emotions and, sometimes, acted in ways contrary to her own and her child's best interests. Although subject to physical and mental abuse over a long period of time, and although her child was subject to physical and mental abuse by the father, the mother: (1) continued to expose her child to domestic violence; (2) regularly allowed the perpetrator access to the child despite court orders prohibiting such access; (3) continues to have contact with her abuser; and now, (4) in concert with her abuser, seeks to recant her prior testimony and statements that the father is an abuser, claiming that these statements were fabricated as a result of her mental illness. [¶ 38] This is a tragic pattern often seen in domestic violence cases. [8] It shows that the mother, the victim of domestic violence, faced emotional conflicts in her relationship with her abuser. But, contrary to the position argued by the mother and the father, the trial court could find that these conflicts did not render the mother mentally incompetent to participate in the proceedings and testify about the abuse. These conflicts did not require that the trial court accept the mother's efforts to recant her prior statements detailing the abuse of her and her son. The trial court properly rejected the mother's and the father's efforts to paint her as an incompetent in order to overturn the termination order.