Opinion ID: 2555358
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Brown Moves To Connecticut

Text: On June 11, 2008, Brown left Delaware and moved to Connecticut to address the pending Connecticut criminal charges. Upon arriving in Connecticut, Brown was immediately incarcerated, from June 11 to July 23, 2008. After her release, Brown rented a room in Bridgeport, Connecticut. At an August 8, 2008 Family Court Review Hearing, Brown testified that despite her and NBN's efforts, she was unable to secure any housing in Delaware. Brown also testified that she had better emotional and financial support in Connecticut, and that she was participating in a mental health treatment program at the Greater Bridgeport Community Mental Health (GBCMH) facility in Bridgeport. On October 9, 2008, Brown was again incarcerated in Connecticut. She was released on November 10, 2008, but again was incarcerated from November 18, 2008 to December 31, 2008. While in prison, Brown completed a group anger management and substance abuse program. Upon learning these facts, Diffendall contacted the Connecticut prison in an effort to monitor Brown's activities and learn more about the program. Diffendall determined that the Connecticut prison's program did not satisfy Brown's case plan, because that program was not as rigorous as the one recommended by SODAT, which required individual therapy and random drug screens. Diffendall also inquired of GBCMH whether they could provide Brown a substance abuse program that would satisfy Brown's case plan. GBCMH told Diffendall that Brown would need to initiate the program voluntarily. Although Diffendall sent Brown a letter explaining what was required, and gave Brown a phone number to begin the process with GBCMH, Brown never entered into a substance abuse program in Connecticut.
Before she moved to Connecticut, Brown had maintained regular visitation with Daniel on a weekly basis. After she left in June 2008, however, Brown only attended two office visits with Daniel, in August 2008 and in November 2008. Her relocation was a major barrier to reunification. Indeed, Brown herself testified that it was unlikely that her Connecticut housing arrangement would be approved by Connecticut's Interstate Compact on Placement of Children (ICPC) office. [6] Having already ruled out Klein as a placement option, DFS began investigating whether Daniel could be placed with any other of Brown's relatives. [7] Brown identified Susan Knowles, a relative living in Connecticut, as a potential placement option. Diffendall attempted to contact Knowles, but Knowles never responded. [8] Brown later informed DFS that Knowles was no longer a placement option. DFS also tried to determine whether Brown's mother, who lived in Connecticut and was caring for Brown's oldest son, was a placement option. When Diffendall attempted to contact Brown and her mother to explain the ICPC housing assessment process, both Brown and her mother became hostile and refused to give Diffendall the needed information. Diffendall followed up with a letter requesting more information, but neither Brown nor her mother responded. In addition, DFS explored placing Daniel with Vanessa Childs, Brown's friend who lived in Connecticut. Because Childs was not a relative, an ICPC study would not have been approved; therefore, DFS did not further pursue this placement option. Finally, DFS also searched for Daniel's unknown father. [9] Although Brown mentioned Kevin Buckley as a potential father, she had no contact information for him. DFS's attempts to reach Buckley via publication were unsuccessful, and no one claiming to be Daniel's father ever contacted DFS.
During the winter of 2008, Diffendall attempted to secure temporary housing for Brown in Delaware. In January 2009, Brown gave birth to a daughter, Lisa, who was taken into state custody by the Connecticut Family Services (CFS). CFS took custody because Brown was living in a rooming house that did not allow children, admitted that she had not been taking her bipolar medication since November 2008, and was agitated while hospitalized. CFS assigned Brian Morris as Brown's social worker. Morris created a case plan for Brown that resembled her Delaware case plan, except that the Connecticut plan did not identify substance abuse as a problem. At the time, Morris did not suspect that Brown was using any drugs. CFS also provided Brown reunification services through the Reconnecting Families agency. Brown visited a psychologist, Dr. Brian Houst, for individual psychotherapy sessions related to anger management, impulse control, and substance abuse relapse prevention. Because CFS did not suspect that Brown was using drugs, Brown was not subjected to a substance abuse program or random drug screening. In March 2009, the Delaware Family Court held a permanency hearing regarding Daniel. The court approved the two goals of termination of parental rights and reunification, with termination of parental rights being the primary goal. The Family Court found that housing, substance abuse, and lack of a parent-child relationship remained major issues. One month later, DFS assigned Lauren Wilson, an adoption worker, to Daniel's case. Diffendall also remained involved, and continued to monitor Brown's compliance with her Connecticut case plan though Morris, other CFS supervisors and lawyers, Brown's doctors, and Reconnecting Families. In May 2009, DFS requested that CFS conduct an ICPC review of Brown's new residence. After conducting that assessment, CFS denied the placement request, finding Brown's Connecticut home unsuitable. Over the next few months, Brown made progress with her Connecticut case plan and obtained subsidized housing for $67 per month. She also received approximately $1,400 a month in disability benefits. In August 2009, Brown regained custody of Lisa. After learning that, DFS initiated a second ICPC review. That request was approved in November 2009, because Brown had regained custody of Lisa and was complying with her mental health treatment. At a subsequent teleconference on December 14, 2009, the Delaware Family Court ordered an extended holiday visit for Brown and Daniel, and scheduled the termination of parental rights hearing for January 10, 2010. DFS paid for the holiday visit, which occurred from December 28 through December 31, 2009. By the end of that year, Brown had visited Daniel only four times in 2009 three office visits and the holiday visit. [10] On December 22, 2009, Brown moved to stay the termination of parental rights hearing, arguing that: (a) she had substantially complied with her case plan, (b) she had no pending criminal charges, and (c) the Connecticut authorities had approved an ICPC placement with her in Connecticut. But, by early January 2010, Brown was again using drugs (PCP and marijuana), and was no longer taking her mental health treatment medications. On January 11, Brown was involuntarily committed to St. Vincent's Behavioral Health Hospital, and CFS placed Lisa with a foster home. As a result of Brown's commitment to the psychiatric facility, the Delaware Family Court rescheduled the termination of parental rights hearing to March 31, 2010. After a thirteen-day stay, Brown was released from St. Vincent's. Upon her release, CFS modified her case plan to require more intensive substance abuse and mental health treatment. According to Morris, Brown was to meet with him and her mental health providers in March 2010 to discuss the modified case plan, but that meeting never occurred because Brown refused to cooperate and walked out. Brown also had inconsistent and sporadic visits with Lisa following her stay at St. Vincent's. Brown chose to cancel or cut short most of the scheduled visits.
On March 31, April 1, and April 6, 2010, the Delaware Family Court held the termination of parental rights hearing. Several witnesses testified, including: Brown, Diffendall, Wilson (DFS adoption worker), Brown's NBN parent-aide coordinator, Evans (from SODAT), representatives from GBCMH who had worked with Brown, Dr. Houst, and Morris (from CFS). The Family Court concluded that the statutory basis for terminating Brown's parental rights under 13 Del. C. § 1103(a)(5) had been established because: (1) Daniel had been in DFS's custody for over one year, and (2) despite her best efforts, Brown had failed to adequately plan for Daniel's physical needs, emotional health, or development. The bases for that latter conclusion were Brown's long-standing mental health and substance abuse issues, her noncompliance with treatment programs, her limited contact with Daniel due to her outstanding legal issues in Connecticut, and her inability to secure housing. [11] The Family Court also determined that even though DFS had used reasonable efforts to reunify Brown and Daniel, Brown had failed to comply with the reunification case plan in either Delaware or Connecticut. [12] Finally, after weighing the eight factors prescribed by 13 Del. C. § 722(a), the court concluded that terminating Brown's parental rights was in Daniel's best interests. [13] The Family Court entered a separate order and opinion terminating Brown's parental rights in Daniel, [14] from which this appeal was taken.