Opinion ID: 2011173
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The physical, mental and emotional health of all concerned.

Text: Section 16-2353(b)(2) provides that in making the critical best interests determination, the judge must consider the physical, mental and emotional health of all individuals involved to the degree that such affects the welfare of the child, the decisive considerations being the physical, mental and emotional needs of the child. The father has not challenged the mental or emotional health of the foster mother or of anyone in her household, and the judge's evidentiary findings in that regard are uniformly favorable to her. By contrast, the judge's findings regarding the father's history of emotional disturbance, his criminal record, and his threatening and antisocial behavior establish, at the very least, that the father's emotional health has long been significantly impaired. This unfortunate truth is also borne out by the undisputed testimony of the two court-appointed experts, Dr. Moldauer and Dr. Galler, each of whom testified in some detail regarding the father's antisocial personality disorder. M.D., Sr., after all, has been convicted of taking indecent liberties with a seven-year-old girl. We are compelled to conclude that the judge's ultimate finding that there is no significant disorder of [the father's] personality is clearly erroneous in light of the judge's own evidentiary findings. [O]n the entire evidence [in that regard, we are] left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Murphy, supra, 650 A.2d at 210 (quoting United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 541, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948)).