Court Opinion

ID: 9916834
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-01-10 18:05:48.544337+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:02.027277
License: Public Domain

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA

                                     No. 23-1695
                               Filed January 10, 2024

IN THE INTEREST OF A.D. and M.T.,
Minor Children,

A.D., Mother,
       Appellant.
________________________________________________________________

       Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Lucas County, Eric I. Howe, District

Associate Judge.

       A mother appeals the termination of her parental rights. AFFIRMED.

       Aaron H. Ginkens of Ginkens Law Firm, P.L.C., West Des Moines, for

appellant mother.

       Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Tamara Knight, Assistant Attorney

General, for appellee State.

       Shireen L. Carter, Norwalk, attorney and guardian ad litem for minor

children.

       Considered by Greer, P.J., and Ahlers and Buller, JJ.
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AHLERS, Judge.

       The juvenile court terminated the parental rights of a mother to her two

children, born in 2011 and 2012. The mother appeals.           She challenges the

statutory grounds authorizing termination, including whether the Iowa Department

of Health and Human Services made reasonable efforts toward reunification;

argues termination is not in the children’s best interests; requests application of a

permissive exception to preclude termination; and argues both her and the

children’s constitutional rights were violated.

       We review orders terminating parental rights de novo. In re Z.K., 973

N.W.2d 27, 32 (Iowa 2022). We give weight to the juvenile court’s findings of fact,

especially regarding witness credibility, but we are not bound by them. Id. Our

review follows a three-step process that involves determining if a statutory ground

for termination has been established, whether termination is in the children’s best

interests, and whether any permissive exceptions should be applied to preclude

termination. In re A.B., 957 N.W.2d 280, 294 (Iowa 2021). Then we address any

additional claims raised by the parent.           In re K.B., No. 22-1343, 2022

WL 17481399, at *1 (Iowa Ct. App. Dec. 7, 2022).

       As to the statutory grounds, the juvenile court terminated the mother’s

parental rights under Iowa Code section 232.116(1)(e) and (f) (2023). As the

mother’s rights were terminated on multiple grounds, we affirm if either of the

grounds is supported by the record. See In re A.B., 815 N.W.2d 764, 774 (Iowa

2012) (“When the juvenile court terminates parental rights on more than one

statutory ground, we may affirm the juvenile court’s order on any ground we find

supported by the record.”). We choose to focus on section 232.116(1)(f), which
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permits termination upon sufficient proof that (1) the child is four years of age or

older; (2) the child has been adjudicated a child in need of assistance; (3) the child

has been removed from the physical custody of the parents for at least twelve of

the last eighteen months; and (4) the child cannot be returned to the custody of the

parent. The mother only challenges the fourth element, whether the children could

be safely returned to her custody at the time of the termination hearing. See Iowa

Code § 232.116(1)(f)(4) (“There is clear and convincing evidence that at the

present time the child cannot be returned to the custody of the child’s parents as

provided in section 232.102.”); In re A.M., 843 N.W.2d 100, 112 (Iowa 2014)

(holding that “at the present time” means at the time of the termination hearing).

Following our de novo review of the record, we agree with the juvenile court that

the children could not safely return to the mother’s custody.

       The department became involved with this family after following up on a

hotline report claiming the mother was leaving the children alone for extended

periods of time. Further investigation revealed that the mother had been arrested

for possession of methamphetamine. The juvenile court adjudicated the children

as in need of assistance in March 2022 and placed them in the custody of a family

friend, under the supervision of the department. A few months later, the family

friend had a medical emergency, which the mother used as an opportunity to pick

the children up from school and take them to her home without department

authorization. When department staff figured out where the children were, a case

worker went to pick the children up from the mother’s home. The mother argued

with the worker and claimed the children had not been removed from her care

despite the adjudicatory order confirming their removal. Due to the family friend’s
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medical issues, the juvenile court changed custody of the children from the family

friend to the department. The children were placed in family foster care as a result.

       Shortly after the juvenile court placed the children in the department’s

custody following the above-described episode, the mother disengaged with

services. Since then, she has not re-engaged in mental-health treatment, and she

never successfully completed substance-abuse treatment. The mother explained

to a case worker she would not reengage with services because she felt that she

did not need services.

       At Thanksgiving time, things took another concerning turn. The department

and the children’s guardian ad litem had given approval for the children to travel to

the Kansas City area to spend the holiday with their maternal grandmother. But

the children did not turn up at the meeting place to return them to the foster family.

It became necessary to involve multiple law enforcement agencies to locate the

children. The children were found a few days later in a town by the Lake of the

Ozarks. Law enforcement ultimately located the children by pinging the mother’s

phone to that location. The officer who located the children believed the mother to

be with them because both the mother’s paramour and own mother were there,

although the officer did not actually see the mother. The children confirmed the

officer’s suspicions when they reported their mother was with them while they were

missing. One of the children explained to the social worker that there had been

plans for them to travel further south and change their names—presumably to

abscond from supervision by the department.            This incident prompted the

department to suspend the mother’s visits with the children.
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       Since then, the department permitted about ten virtual visits between the

mother and the children. The mother claims she is on an upward trajectory. She

testified she is buying a house in Missouri and works as an independent contractor

making enough money to support the children and herself. She claimed to have

recently completed three substance-abuse evaluations and none of those

evaluations recommended any treatment.          However, she has not signed any

releases so that the department can independently verify her claims. At the time

of the termination hearing, the mother had yet to comply with drug testing requests

beyond an initial test, which was positive for methamphetamine.

       From the record evidence, it is apparent that the mother does not appreciate

the barriers to reunification, nor has she meaningfully addressed her substance-

abuse issues. Instead of working to resolve safety concerns, the mother has

focused on thwarting the department’s efforts to serve her family’s needs. Most

concerning is the mother’s involvement in hiding the children at Thanksgiving. The

mother’s conduct in that regard is not reflective of a parent who can provide the

children with safe care.

       Yet, the mother invokes the reasonable-efforts mandate, which, while not a

strict substantive requirement for termination, requires the State to “show

reasonable efforts [toward reunification] as part of its ultimate proof that the child

cannot be safely returned to the [custody] of a parent.”            In re L.T., 924

N.W.2d 521, 527 (Iowa 2019). The problem is that the mother does not make a

reasonable-efforts argument so much as recite the applicable law relating to

reasonable efforts. To the extent the mother claims the department failed to

investigate in-state and out-of-state family placement for the children, she does not
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explain how that would impact reunification in this particular case. See In re M.G.,

No. 18-0650, 2018 WL 3912192, at *2 (Iowa Ct. App. Aug. 15, 2018) (explaining

reasonable-efforts challenges must be related to services that would eliminate the

need for removal). Even so, the department’s records show that it contacted

several members of the mother’s family but could not proceed with considering

them for placement because the mother refused to sign the necessary releases.

Given the facts of this case, we conclude there was no deficiency in the services

provided by the department, and it made reasonable efforts toward reunification.

Having reached this conclusion, we find the State has established a statutory

ground for termination.

       Next, we turn to the mother’s contention that termination is not in the

children’s best interests. When making a best-interest determination, we “give

primary consideration to the child[ren]’s safety, to the best placement for furthering

the long-term nurturing and growth of the child[ren], and to the physical, mental,

and emotional condition and needs of the child[ren].” In re P.L., 778 N.W.2d 33, 40

(Iowa 2010) (quoting Iowa Code § 232.116(2)). The mother is not a safe caregiver.

Her illicit substance abuse is unresolved, and she has two outstanding warrants—

one related to an operating-while-intoxicated case and another for violating her

probation in a controlled-substances case.            We consider the children’s

disappearance following Thanksgiving to be the mother’s attempt to run off with

the children, placing them in danger. The children are not safe in her care.

Conversely, they are currently in pre-adoptive placement and are integrating into

their new family and community well. See Iowa Code § 232.116(2)(b) (directing

the court, in assessing the children’s best interests, to consider “whether the foster
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family is able and willing to permanently integrate the child into the foster family”).

Termination of the mother’s parental rights would facilitate permanency for these

children and is in their best interests.

         The mother relies on section 232.116(3)(c) to argue her bond with the

children should preclude termination. Section 232.116(3)(c) permits the court to

forgo termination when “[t]here is clear and convincing evidence that the

termination would be detrimental to the child at the time due to the closeness of

the parent-child relationship.” This is a permissive exception, and it is the parent’s

burden to establish its applicability.     In re W.T., 967 N.W.2d 315, 322, 324

(Iowa 2021). The mere existence of parent-child bonds is not enough to trigger

this exception. In re A.B., 956 N.W.2d 162, 169 (Iowa 2021). Instead, the bonds

must be so significant that severing them would be manifestly detrimental to the

children. Id. The mother has not established bonds of this magnitude. She

conceded at the termination hearing that her relationships with the children were

strained. Based on that concession and the record as a whole, we decline to apply

this permissive exception.

         Finally, we address the mother’s claim that both her and her children’s

federal due process rights were violated when the children were removed from her

custody. We first note the mother does not have standing to raise claims on behalf

of the children.1 See In re K.B., No. 22-1343, 2022 WL 17481399, at *1 n.1 (Iowa

Ct. App. Dec. 7, 2022) (recognizing one party does not have standing to raise

issues for another party). As to her claim regarding her own due process rights,

1 The children’s interests are represented by their joint attorney and guardian ad

litem.
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the mother does not explain how she believes those rights were violated, waiving

the issue. See In re E.W., No. 22-0647, 2022 WL 2347196, at *2 (Iowa Ct. App.

June 29, 2022) (finding an issue waived when the parent failed to develop a

supporting argument). We also note that removal of children from their parent for

purposes of keeping the children safe does not violate the parent’s due process

rights. Lennette v. State, 975 N.W.2d 380, 394 (Iowa 2022). There is ample

evidence here that removal was needed to keep the children safe. And to the

extent the mother attempts to challenge the validity of removal of the children from

her custody, the issue is now moot. See In re A.M.H., 516 N.W.2d 867, 871

(Iowa 1994) (recognizing errors in the removal process cannot be later remedied

and “we cannot go back in time and restore custody based on alleged errors in the

initial removal order”).

       We affirm the termination of the mother’s parental rights to her children.

       AFFIRMED.