Opinion ID: 2520536
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Rick failed to remedy the conduct placing Dylan at substantial risk of harm.

Text: Judge Brown found that Rick failed to remedy the conduct placing Dylan at substantial risk of harm. This finding was based on the continued chaos in [Rick's] relationships, repetitive assaultive and sexually inappropriate behaviors, and chronic neglect of the child. Rick's first challenge to this finding is that he attended various counseling sessions, and that this constitutes a remedy of his conduct. But this argument does not speak to whether he had succeeded at controlling his anger, which was the root cause of all the violence and chaos that produced Dylan's mental injuries. The superior court finding cited above shows Judge Brown's view that Rick had not succeeded at controlling his anger. There was sufficient evidence to support this, including Rick's assault of his girlfriend Stella in 2003 after several years of counseling. We believe this behavior is a legally adequate basis to conclude that he had not remedied the conduct that led to Dylan's mental injuries. Rick's second argument is that things were not so bad for Dylan while he lived with Rick. Specifically, he argues that Dylan was not present during any physical assaults of Rick's spouses, and that he and Dylan lived mainly with only two of Rick's girlfriends. But the discussion in the preceding section establishes that things were bad indeed  i.e., the conditions were sufficient to make Dylan a child in need of aid. Rick's attempt to minimize the conduct that led to the adjudication is not an independent argument about whether he ever remedied that conduct. We therefore conclude that the superior court did not err in its finding that Rick failed to remedy the conduct that led to Dylan's mental injuries.