Opinion ID: 1944258
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence: Parental Unfitness

Text: [¶ 17] In this case there was more than sufficient evidence by which the court could find, by the clear and convincing evidence standard, 22 M.R.S.A. § 4055(1)(B)(2) (1992), that the grounds for termination of parental rights had been proven with respect to all five children. The District Court found that: (a) the mother had a mental condition that was continuing to deteriorate; (b) this had caused her to relocate the children and maintain their living in the conditions of filth and squalor that DHS had found; (c) subsequent to DHS intervention, the mother had failed to actively participate in rehabilitative services; (d) the mother had focused primarily on her needs and concerns, real and imagined, and had tried to manipulate the system to that end; and (e) there was nothing that indicated that her situation was improving or would improve sufficiently to allow her to become a safe and responsible parent and regain custody of the children at any time before the children became adults. All of these findings are more than adequately supported by the evidence. With these findings, pursuant to 22 M.R.S.A. § 4055(1)(B)(2)(b)(i) & (ii) (1992), parental unfitness was properly determined. [¶ 18] The mother, challenging this evidence, points to her testimony and to the testimony of one social worker and argues that this testimony should be given great weight to avoid the termination finding. However, the court repeatedly emphasized that it did not find the mother's testimony credible, pointing to several instances where the mother had testified contrary to facts about which there could be no dispute. For example, she denied that she had been convicted of a crime when she was serving probation for that crime, and she claimed that she was a good housekeeper in the face of photographs which could not rationally be said to reflect good housekeeping practices. Likewise, the court determined that the social worker's opinions were unreliable because they were too heavily based on false information given to her by the mother. Such credibility and weight of the evidence determinations are uniquely for the trial court to decide. See In re Chesley B., 499 A.2d 137, 138-139 (Me.1985).