Opinion ID: 2011173
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The father's indecent liberties conviction.

Text: In 1989, the year before M.D., Jr. was born, the father was charged with raping his seven-year-old stepdaughter, who was M.D., Jr.'s half-sister. The case was resolved by the father's plea to indecent liberties with a minor. He was sentenced to imprisonment for one year and served approximately ten months. In her findings, the judge acknowledged the conviction, but evidently attached little significance to it. She noted in passing, as we have seen, that the father even explains the molestation charge, one which he denies. [12] On the basis of the transcript, the conclusion is inescapable that the judge treated the indecent liberties conviction as an unresolved charge, and a not so very important one at that. [13] To adapt In re Shillaire, 549 A.2d 336 (D.C.1988), a guilty plea represents both a conviction of a crime and an admission by the accused of the underlying facts.... Thus, in pleading guilty to [indecent liberties], [the father] conceded that the government's proffer of the circumstances surrounding the offense was true. Id. at 343 (quoting In re Wolff, 490 A.2d 1118, 1119 (D.C.1985), adopted en banc, 511 A.2d 1047 (D.C.1986)); accord, In re Colson, 412 A.2d 1160, 1164 (D.C.1979) (en banc); see also Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 242, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 1711, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969). [14] M.D., Sr. thus claimed to be a fit father for M.D., Jr., notwithstanding his own solemn admission in a court of law that he had sexually molested M.D., Jr.'s seven-year-old half-sister. A recent criminal conviction of indecent liberties with a minor surely has important legal consequences in a proceeding which must focus upon the safety and best interests of a child. Parental unfitness is a personal characteristic which, ordinarily, does not vanish overnight.... New Jersey Div. of Youth & Family Serv. v. Wunnenburg, 167 N.J.Super. 578, 408 A.2d 1345, 1348 (1979). We have stated in the related context of wife-beating that a [husband's] past conduct is important evidenceperhaps the most importantin predicting his probable future conduct. Cruz-Foster v. Foster, 597 A.2d 927, 930 (D.C.1991). Similarly, in cases of child neglect and abuse, we have relied on studies suggesting that child abuse does not ordinarily consist of a single isolated act of molestation, and that substantial numbers of child abusers have harmed several siblings in the same family. This kind of information is, of course, relevant to a determination whether the ... younger children in this case were in imminent danger of abuse or neglect. S.G., supra, 581 A.2d at 778 n. 11 (citation omitted). [15] In other words, when a man has sexually molested one child, that child's siblings are often in danger. Under these circumstances, the father's indecent liberties conviction should have been treated as an important factor in determining whether reunification with the father was a plausible goal. A parent's propensity to abuse other children, when shown to be beyond reasonable hope of modification, may constitute too great a risk to any remaining child to permit a continued parental relationship. Palmer v. Dep't of Health & Rehab. Serv., 547 So.2d 981, 983 (Fla.App. 5th Dist.1989); see also In re Sarah T., 629 A.2d 53, 54-55 (Me.1993) (upholding statutory presumption that a parent who has been convicted of sexually abusing a child is unwilling or unable to protect children from jeopardy).