Opinion ID: 2011173
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Applicability of Parental Preference.

Text: The trial judge concluded that M.D., Sr. was entitled to a parental preference because he was a fit parent who had grasped his opportunity interest. See Lehr v. Robertson, 463 U.S. 248, 262, 103 S.Ct. 2985, 2993, 77 L.Ed.2d 614 (1983). M.D., Jr. and L.L. challenge this finding, both as to the father's fitness and as to the sufficiency of his exercise of his parental rights, [26] and contend that, contrary to the judge's ruling, they proved by clear and convincing evidence that termination of the father's parental rights and adoption by L.L. were both in M.D., Jr.'s best interest. Given the judge's evidentiary findings and the uncontradicted expert testimony, her ultimate finding that M.D., Sr. is a fit parent for M.D., Jr., or that he is likely to become fit in the near future, would be difficult to sustain even under the deferential clearly erroneous standard. A convicted child molester with a criminal background, homicidal ideation, and a record of threatening conduct is not fit in the ordinary everyday sense of that word. But even if we assume, solely for the sake of argument, that M.D., Sr. has not been shown to be unfit, we conclude as a matter of law that the judge's evidentiary findings cannot be reconciled with her implicit conclusion that eventual reunification with the father would be in M.D., Jr.'s best interest. Unfortunately, in our society, conduct vis-a-vis children which in the past might have been viewed as unspeakable has almost become commonplace and unremarkable. As a result of his mother's ingestion of crack cocaine during her pregnancy, M.D., Jr. was brought into this world with that addictive substance already in his system. Predictably, he cried and cried. As if parental transmission of a potential cocaine dependency to a helpless newborn child were not enough, M.D., Sr. acknowledged in open court that he committed a sexual offense against a seven-year-old girl, one who was his own stepdaughter. This is not all. The parents are married to one another, and may contemplate that their son would live with both of them. [27] He would thus be placed at the tender mercy of a father who, according to the testimony of court-appointed experts, suffers from a severe personality disorder which has led him to threaten people, attempt suicide, commit numerous criminal acts, and blame virtually everyone except himself for his troubles. M.D., Jr. would potentially find himself in the care of a mother who has been indifferent to him, who has prostituted herself (presumably for dope), and who has for some time lived the lifestyle of a cocaine addict. [28] Nothing in life is certain. It is conceivable, of course, that the experts were wrong, that the trial judge was right, and that notwithstanding the father's indecent liberties conviction, criminal background, and past emotional disturbance, he no longer represents a significant danger to his son's emotional and physical well-being. On this remarkable record, however, it is far more probable that the experts were right, that the past will repeat itself, and that the father's antisocial personality disorder will come to the fore under the pressures of looking after a four-year-old boy (and, possibly, a cocaine-addicted wife). The question is therefore whether the law permits a court to take the kind of risk with M.D., Jr.'s future that reunification with his father would present. We hold that the court's first duty is to protect M.D., Jr. from any unwarranted danger of harm. As we recently noted in a similar (but less extreme) factual context, the court, acting as parens patriae in L.W.'s behalf, would surely be loath to take the kind of risk with this child's future which the biological father is asking us to take. L.W., supra, 613 A.2d at 354-55. Courts will not gamble with a child's future. In re Interest of P.M.C., 231 Neb. 701, 437 N.W.2d 786, 792 (1989). On this record, the return of M.D., Jr. to his father would, at the very least, serious[ly] threat[en] ... the future welfare of the child. Fritts v. Krugh, 354 Mich. 97, 92 N.W.2d 604, 614 (1958); see also In re Sprite, 155 Mich.App. 531, 400 N.W.2d 320, 323 (1986). Indeed, the possibility that the father would change his past conduct is entirely speculative, especially in light of the testimony of Dr. Moldauer. [29] Where, as here, the child has been successfully integrated into a stable home from which he would now have to be removed if the father were awarded custody, the risk inherent in such an outcome is unacceptable as a matter of law.