Opinion ID: 2520536
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Rick's Rights over Dylan Were Properly Terminated.

Text: The superior court found by clear and convincing evidence that Dylan was a child in need of aid based on its finding that Rick was responsible for mentally injuring Dylan under AS 47.10.011(8). We think this was not erroneous. Alaska Statute 47.10.011(8) says that a child is in need of aid where, among other things, conduct by or conditions created by the parent ... have (A) resulted in mental injury to the child. Rick seems to concede that Dylan has suffered the requisite mental injury, manifested by Dylan's aggressive, sexually inappropriate behavior. Instead, Rick's argument is that OCS failed to prove the cause of these injuries. Specifically, Rick argues that the cause could have been the stepfather's early sexual abuse of Dylan, rather than anything that Rick did while he had custody. As proof, Rick notes that Dylan continued to behave badly during Dylan's first placement in a foster home, before he was returned to Rick's care. Rick also cites testimony by Dr. Bock that childhood sexual abuse would usually leave permanent scars. On this basis, Rick argues that the state failed to carry its burden of proving that he caused the mental injury by clear and convincing evidence. We reject this argument, which is essentially an argument that the superior court's factual findings were clearly erroneous. Judge Brown based his mental injury finding on the testimony of Dr. Turner and Dr. Bock, two clinical psychologists who worked with Dylan and Rick over the years. Although Dr. Bock agreed on cross-examination that any victim of sex abuse may well need periodic counseling, she and Dr. Turner were quite clear that they thought Rick was, at a minimum, a major factor in Dylan's emotional problems. Dr. Bock testified: Any child, I think, that's involved in [Rick's] home will run into problems with using aggression and violence as a means of problem-solving, they will lack appropriate social skills, they will lack a stable home and safety, they'll lack consistent parenting by a set of parents, they will develop difficulties or continue difficulties with trust, autonomy and security, thus possible atypical attachment patterns. They are likely to have poor physical and sexual boundaries. They are very unlikely to have appropriate adult role models, either male or female, and they will also be exposed to illegal behavior. They will be exposed, likely, to adult sexuality which is age-inappropriate. They will not have an opportunity to learn appropriate, age-appropriate, social skills, sexual behavior. Thus, their long-term relationships in terms of intimacy and generativity will be impaired. Similarly, Dr. Turner said it was extremely important for Dylan to live in a family free from violence and with a stable set of caregivers. He also said that a whole lot of Dylan's emotional disturbance was attributable to the instability and violence in Rick's households: He wasn't supervised. He was exhibiting behaviors that you see with children who have multiple caregivers. They tend to get real chaotic in their behavior and a little unpredictable. That he had  he has a negative view of women and relationships with women, in part because  because of his father's modeling. I felt that some of his opposition behavior  I felt a whole lot of his oppositional behavior and the behaviors that were being seen with aggression and sexual activity were what had been modeled for him and there wasn't parenting specific to those specific problems. And I had concerns about [Rick's] ability to do so. On the basis of this testimony, the superior court found that Dylan's sexual and aggressive behaviors were believed to be the result of poor role modeling in the home. The superior court also found that Dylan's problems would increase with poor supervision and monitoring, neglect, changing caregivers, conflict, and change in residence  these being the central problems with Rick's custody of Dylan. These are findings of fact, and the evidence above shows that they are not clearly erroneous. The superior court also found that Dylan was a child in need of aid based on other subsections of AS 47.10.011 (such as physical injury), but our determination that the mental injury finding was not erroneous makes it unnecessary to consider Rick's challenges to these other findings.
Judge Brown found that Rick failed to remedy the conduct placing Dylan at substantial risk of harm. This finding was based on the continued chaos in [Rick's] relationships, repetitive assaultive and sexually inappropriate behaviors, and chronic neglect of the child. Rick's first challenge to this finding is that he attended various counseling sessions, and that this constitutes a remedy of his conduct. But this argument does not speak to whether he had succeeded at controlling his anger, which was the root cause of all the violence and chaos that produced Dylan's mental injuries. The superior court finding cited above shows Judge Brown's view that Rick had not succeeded at controlling his anger. There was sufficient evidence to support this, including Rick's assault of his girlfriend Stella in 2003 after several years of counseling. We believe this behavior is a legally adequate basis to conclude that he had not remedied the conduct that led to Dylan's mental injuries. Rick's second argument is that things were not so bad for Dylan while he lived with Rick. Specifically, he argues that Dylan was not present during any physical assaults of Rick's spouses, and that he and Dylan lived mainly with only two of Rick's girlfriends. But the discussion in the preceding section establishes that things were bad indeed  i.e., the conditions were sufficient to make Dylan a child in need of aid. Rick's attempt to minimize the conduct that led to the adjudication is not an independent argument about whether he ever remedied that conduct. We therefore conclude that the superior court did not err in its finding that Rick failed to remedy the conduct that led to Dylan's mental injuries.