Opinion ID: 2455274
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Goal Of Adoption To Eventual Termination (December 2009 To September 2010)

Text: In December 2009, Christina left a message for McDaniel asking if McDaniel could bring Gideon to Venetie the next time she visited. There is some ambiguity as to whether McDaniel received this message, but the record is clear that McDaniel never took Gideon to visit Christina in Venetie. McDaniel often had difficulty communicating with Damian and Christina when they were in Venetie because they had no functioning telephone. Christina had no visits with Gideon from November 2009 until January 2010. Christina had earlier expressed interest in attending Old Minto Recovery Camp with Damian. McDaniel testified that OMRC may have been appropriate for Damian, but it was not one of the recommended service providers for Christina because it did not provide the level of treatment Christina needed and because it would not allow Christina to separate from Damian and work on herself as an individual. Nevertheless, in January 2010, Christina called McDaniel and asked for plane tickets so that she and Damian could fly to OMRC the following day. McDaniel, who testified that she did not know before this time that Christina was planning to attend OMRC, told Christina that this was insufficient notice to provide the tickets and reiterated that OMRC was not a recommended placement. She later learned from the staff at OMRC that Christina and Damian would not have been eligible to attend the program even if they had been given tickets to get there because neither had completed the required medical intake paperwork. McDaniel arranged to fly Christina and Damian from Venetie to Fairbanks to visit Gideon in January and February 2010. The couple returned to Fairbanks in February 2010 and Christina moved back in with Karen. On March 2, 2010, McDaniel filed a Petition for Termination of Parental Rights. Also in March, Christina was remanded to NorthStar Center, a halfway house, to serve the remainder of her September 2009 alcohol-related charges. McDaniel arranged for supervised visits with Gideon during Christina's time at NorthStar Center. Christina also completed an updated substance abuse evaluation with Shades of Growth while at NorthStar. She told the assessor she had not consumed alcohol since October 2009. As in the July 2009 assessment, she stated that she did not believe her drinking was a problem. The assessor indicated that Christina displayed high defensiveness, which usually indicates a person is concealing information or minimizing their problems. The assessor cited other signs that Christina could be attempting to minimize the extent of her alcohol problem: Christina said in this assessment that she started drinking at age 15 (rather than 13 as she had stated in the July 2009 assessment or 12 as she ultimately testified at trial) and she reported drinking smaller quantities than she had acknowledged previously. The assessor again concluded that Christina was in the pre-contemplation stage and recommended residential treatment, domestic violence education, and parenting classes. She also recommended a psychiatric evaluation. After her release in late March, Christina told McDaniel she was living with Karen. McDaniel again set up random UAs for Christina, who called in inconsistently and missed multiple UAs during April 2010. [9] Christina also began the Changing Patterns domestic violence program but attended for only three or four weeks of the nine-month program; she testified that she thought it'd be better if she attended after she got out of treatment, but she did not discuss this decision with McDaniel. Christina stated this was partly due to the difficulty she had contacting McDaniel. In Spring 2010 Christina asked McDaniel for a letter that would move her up the waiting list for subsidized housing. McDaniel refused to write the letter because, as she later explained, the letter states that the parents are at the point of reunification with the child and need[ ] the housing to accommodate that. McDaniel believed that Christina was not seeking substance abuse treatment and was not yet at the point of reunification with Gideon. Christina took two UAs in May 2010; one was negative, but the other came back positive for cocaine. McDaniel did not discuss this result with Christina, who had fallen out of contact and stopped calling in for UAs during the month of June. At some point after the positive UA result, Damian called to schedule a visit with Gideon. McDaniel testified that she believed he was calling on behalf of the couple. Because Gideon had chicken pox, his parents were not allowed visitation with him at that time. Christina was arrested for minor consuming alcohol on June 24. She pled no contest and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, with 60 days suspended and the option of completing the treatment program at the Ralph Perdue Center in lieu of serving jail time. Christina entered the Ralph Perdue Center in Fairbanks on June 28. She testified that she entered the program because she wanted to get her son back, and that she had already made the decision to go there before she was arrested. The Ralph Perdue program was not long enough or intensive enough to qualify as a Level III.3 residential treatment program as recommended, but it is unclear whether McDaniel was aware that Ralph Perdue did not meet these requirements or whether she discussed the issue with Christina when she provided applications to the program. On the day she checked in, Christina reestablished contact with OCS and arranged for visitation with Gideon. According to Christina, she had difficulty reaching McDaniel and had to contact McDaniel's supervisors at OCS to set up visitation. Christina completed the program at Ralph Perdue on July 26 but at trial she testified she was not familiar with the program's after-care plan. The termination trial took place beginning on July 21, 2010. Damian appeared telephonically and agreed to relinquish his parental rights at the outset of the trial. The court heard extensive testimony from Christina, McDaniel, and Markkanen. Joyce Copeland and Lisa Haywho had conducted Christina's substance abuse assessments and behavioral assessmentalso testified, qualifying without objection as expert witnesses on substance abuse and domestic violence, respectively. Copeland testified regarding the effects parents' alcohol abuse may have on young children, including deprivation of basic needs, trust and emotional issues, higher likelihood of legal problems in later life, and poor academic performance. She also noted the link between domestic violence and alcohol abuse. Hay also testified to this link and described the emotional and psychological problems experienced by children exposed to domestic violence. Hay stated that children between birth and age three are especially vulnerable to developing social and behavioral problems as a result of such exposure. On September 16, 2010, the superior court issued a 58-page decision terminating Christina's parental rights. The court concluded that: (1) Gideon was a child in need of aid under AS 47.10.011(6), (8), (9), and (10); (2) Christina failed, within a reasonable time, to remedy the conduct that placed Gideon at substantial risk of injury; (3) OCS made active efforts to prevent the breakup of the family; (4) Christina's continued custody of Gideon was likely to result in serious emotional or physical damage to him; and (5) termination of Christina's parental rights was in Gideon's best interest. The superior court took judicial notice that on August 3, 2010, six days after closing arguments in the trial, Christina was again arrested for minor consuming alcohol. According to the reply brief Christina filed on appeal, that charge was later dismissed.