Opinion ID: 1819502
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: facts

Text: Father was born in 1960, one of five children. At the time of father's birth and during his early youth, the family had severe financial problems. When father was seven years of age, his father was sent to the state penitentiary after being convicted of grand larceny. The financial conditions of the family stabilized somewhat when father's father was released from confinement and began a career as a truck driver. However, this profession took the father out of the home for the most part, and the mother was left with the responsibility of raising the family. Father's parents were no doubt well-intended people who apparently brought neither a well-developed value system nor a meaningful degree of parenting skills to their marriage. During his first teenage year, father was arrested for breaking and entering and was placed on probation. This began a thirteen year history of minor and major criminal offenses including: joyriding, trespassing, driving with an expired driver's license, criminal mischief, shoplifting, vandalism, arson, tampering with a motor vehicle, felony possession of a firearm, and aiding and abetting third-degree burglary. Father also has a long history of violating probation. In 1981 he left the state of Nebraska while on probation and was extradited from Colorado as a fugitive. Since his thirteenth birthday, his history also includes: placement in foster homes, a group home for adolescents, juvenile detention center, jail, and three prison confinements following convictions on felonies. He has never had long period of steady employment. His lifestyle has been a consistent pattern of moving in with women and being supported by them for those periods of time in which he has not been incarcerated. In July 1984, father met mother. The couple lived together without the benefit of marriage for approximately seven months. On March 11, 1985, father was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in the South Dakota State Penitentiary for aiding and abetting in third-degree burglary. A.D. was born on September 17, 1985, while father was incarcerated. A.D. was conceived and born at a time when mother was legally married to a man other than father. Consequently, for a period of time there existed some uncertainty as to whom the actual father of A.D. was. After blood tests, it was fairly well determined that father was A.D.'s father. A.D.'s mother suffered many personal problems and voluntarily had her parental rights to A.D. terminated on May 5, 1986. On May 26, 1986, father admitted to a petition of dependency and neglect regarding A.D. A dispositional hearing was held on July 9, 1986, in connection with this petition. While in the state penitentiary father contacted the Department of Social Services by phone on approximately eleven occasions expressing concern about A.D.'s mother and, in five or six of those calls, concern about A.D. Since A.D.'s birth, father has seen her on only two occasions when she was brought for visitations at the state penitentiary. During the contacts with Social Services and at the dispositional hearing, father expressed a desire to retain custody of his child upon his release from the state penitentiary. He indicated to Social Services that he would be willing to take any necessary parental training to acquire custody of A.D. No training was provided since father was incarcerated and the Department of Social Services had concluded they would recommend termination of his parental rights because this was in the best interest of A.D. After a dispositional hearing, the trial court filed an order terminating father's parental rights to A.D.