Opinion ID: 2339540
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: OCS Involvement With The Doe Family

Text: From 1993-2002, OCS substantiated eight reports of neglect in the Doe home. [5] On October 12, 2002, Jane was arrested while intoxicated in a hotel room and placed in jail. John was apparently not available to care for the children and OCS was called to find a place for Trevor and Mathilda to sleep. The next morning, Jane was released, but she did not attempt to find her children. Instead, she returned to a bar to continue drinking. A relative later helped OCS reunite Jane with the children and OCS closed its inquiry after learning that Jane had a full-time job and did not drink daily. OCS received two additional reports that Jane was neglecting her children in late 2003 and early 2004; John may have been incarcerated at the time. [6] The children were temporarily placed in the home of a sober relative on each of these occasions. In July 2004, Jane became highly intoxicated while she was taking care of Trevor. Jane was arrested and Trevor was placed in temporary care for the night. In September 2004, OCS received a report that Jane went on a drinking binge and left her children unsupervised for days. John may have been incarcerated or engaged in criminal proceedings when the July and September 2004 incidents occurred. In June 2006, a medical worker reported to OCS that Nin was being neglected by John and Jane. Later in 2006, OCS received the report of John's physical and sexual abuse of Nellie. An OCS worker subsequently visited the Doe home and spoke with Jane. The worker and Jane developed a safety plan under which John would not be allowed to return to the home and Jane would not have alcohol in the home. John briefly returned to the home in January 2007, assaulted Jane, and was arrested. After Jane became intoxicated on consecutive nights that month, the children were temporarily taken to stay with relatives. Jane participated with OCS to update its safety plan after the January 2007 incidents, promising to refrain from drinking in the home and agreeing to undergo substance abuse and mental health assessments. In February 2007, OCS was informed that Jane and two men were intoxicated in the Doe home. OCS removed the children; later that night, Jane was sexually assaulted by one of the men in her home. After the Doe children were removed from Jane's care, OCS workers created a case plan to provide for the safety of the children and the reunification of the Doe family. OCS discussed the plan with both John and Jane, and revised the plan twice between 2007 and 2008. John's case plan required him to request parenting classes through the legal system, successfully complete alcohol treatment, and successfully complete sex offender treatment. John signed the case plan, indicating that he had read and understood it, and an OCS social worker met with him in jail to explain the plan and what it required him to do. John later testified that OCS workers largely neglected to explain the case plan after 2007, but one worker testified that OCS had again explained the case plan to John in a 2009 telephone call. OCS facilitated in-person contact between Jane and the children on multiple occasions. OCS workers also helped Jane access multiple substance abuse treatment programs, mental health treatment, and parenting classes. One worker tried to help Jane procure stable housing. OCS communicated with John by telephone during this period and John met with an OCS worker in person on one occasion. During 2007 and 2008, OCS enabled John to have roughly weekly telephone conversations with his children. John encouraged the children to read the Bible when he spoke to them. He also wrote them letters. After John was transferred to a new prison in late 2008, his telephone conversations with his children occurred less frequently, although OCS continued to facilitate these contacts. It appears that telephone conversations sometimes did not take place because an OCS worker was sick or leaving town. In other instances, the prison prevented John from making calls. During this period, the Doe children were transferred among many different living arrangements. Preston moved between placements 14 times from February 2007 to March 2009; Adam was in nine different placements during the same period. OCS found relatives to take custody of some of the children at times, but these relative placements were short-lived. The relatives who took temporary custody of some the children included John's parents, John's cousin, Jane's sister, and other relatives of Jane. Some of the children severely misbehaved, and the relatives were uniformly unable or unwilling to assume custody for any extended period. OCS workers investigated other potential placements with John's relatives. An OCS worker contacted John's sister, but she declined to care for any of the children. John's daughter from another marriage was suggested as a potential placement, but an OCS worker did not have her contact information. [7] Other relatives failed background checks and were deemed unsuitable placements. As of the termination trial in November 2010, the Doe children were housed in the following placements: (1) Preston was living in a foster placement in Napakiak; (2) Adam was living in the Pathway Boys Group Home in Anchorage; (3) Trevor had been recently removed from a long-term foster home and was living in a new foster placement; (4) Mathilda was living in a non-relative foster home where she had been housed since early 2009; and (5) Nin was living in a non-relative foster home where she had been housed since 2007. Sometime after John was incarcerated for sexually abusing Nellie, Jane entered into a relationship with Olaf, a convicted sex offender. Later, the couple had a child. At the time of trial, Jane and Olaf lived together with their child, but Olaf did not want any of Jane's other children to live with them.