Court Opinion

ID: 9657302
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:19:35.963142+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:43.099926
License: Public Domain

Grant, J.,
concurring.
I concur with the result reached by the majority, but I base my judgment that the parental rights of J.S.C., the mother of D.L.S., should be terminated on somewhat different and broader grounds than does the majority opinion.
The first of the mother’s “evidentiary errors” concerns the receipt into evidence of various reports concerning the mental health commitments of the mother’s husband and her boyfriend. J.S.C. had divorced her husband at some time between the time the child in question was removed from her mother and father and the time of the termination hearing. The mother’s boyfriend had been the companion with whom she lived for some months during the same period of time. The majority opinion dismisses this evidentiary problem, stating that the error, if any, in receiving such evidence was harmless, in that there was other evidence about the injury to the child.
In my opinion, the evidence was admissible and important in *446the trial court’s decision. It was established, beyond question, that the mother suffered from a dependent personality disorder. There was credible testimony that as a result of this condition the mother allows others to assume responsibility for major areas of her life and will leave major parenting decisions to others. Since this is the case, it would seem to be important to determine with whom the mother was living during the 13-month time in question (between the removal of the child and the termination hearing), since those persons may well be responsible in the major areas of the mother’s life and could well be making parental decisions if the child were placed with the mother.
The foundation as to these exhibits was waived. The exhibits were objected to at the trial on the basis of relevance and because the exhibits contained hearsay about the mother’s relationship with her husband and her boyfriend. At this point, considering only the relevancy of the exhibits, I have no difficulty in determining they were relevant. The four exhibits complained of showed, in part, that the husband was placed in the Hastings Regional Center on October 28, 1986, for treatment of severe alcohol problems culminating in a suicide attempt (by wrist-slashing, requiring eight stitches). The husband was determined to be dangerous to himself at that time. He was released from the regional center on November 21,1986, returned to the residence of J.S.C., and was admitted to the Lincoln Regional Center on November 28 because of another suicide attempt resulting from an overdose of drugs. This attempt required the pumping of the husband’s stomach. At this point, the husband told the treating authorities that he felt he was a danger to others because when he loses his temper, he becomes violent. This fact was corroborated in the testimony of J.S.C. The husband was found to be dangerous to himself and to others at this time. He was discharged on January 21, 1987. It seems to me those facts are relevant when the trier of fact is in the process of determining if this child should be returned to the mother.
Similarly, in connection with the exhibit concerning J.S.C.’s boyfriend, with whom she took up residence at some time before the husband’s admission to the Lincoln Regional Center *447in November of 1986, the report shows that on June 8, 1987, this man was admitted to the Hastings Regional Center after commitment from the York County Mental Health Board. One week before that commitment, the boyfriend had been taken to the Lincoln Regional Center because of suicide threats. At that time, it was determined that this man’s problem was based on alcohol and drug abuse. He had been in the Hastings Regional Center in September of 1986 for the same problems. The man was apparently discharged from the second treatment on June 30, 1987. Testimony from the mother during the trial established that this person also was physically violent with her and others while they were together. Again, I think it was relevant to consider the characteristics of this person who was apparently in charge of the mother’s life for many months prior to the termination hearing.
It might also be noted that the trial court received similar evidence to show that a man who resided with the mother and her boyfriend (along with the visitor’s girlfriend, the girlfriend’s infant child, and occasionally the girlfriend’s two brothers) in the summer of 1987 was on probation from a felony conviction. This evidence was objected to on the ground of relevance but was not made the subject of an assignment of error. I think this evidence was also relevant for the reasons set out above.
I agree generally with the majority’s treatment of the evidence adduced from a social worker who submitted opinions based on reports of three psychologists, but I believe that only the testimony based on the opinion of the one psychologist who was not called as a witness in the hearing should be ignored. The social worker herself made valid factual observations which were properly admitted, and the other two psychologists testified. The testimony of the witness in question was proper, except as to all testimony concerning opinions of the missing psychologist.
Insofar as the majority opinion sets forth the factual issues to be tried de novo in this court, I believe the record contains many facts which must be considered. First of all, the physician who treated the child’s skull fracture did testify that the child had received “very good care,” but he testified on cross-examination that he was not aware of the poor and *448extremely unclean condition of the child’s home when picked up, nor was he aware of the father’s mental illness nor the mother’s personality disorder. The doctor’s opinion as to “good care” is certainly not controlling on the disposition of this case.
With regard to the trial court’s finding that termination of parental rights was in the child’s best interests, the trial court also had before it, as do we, testimony that when the husband was discharged from the Hastings Regional Center on November 21, 1986, he stayed with the mother and boyfriend. This situation “caused problems,” and the father again attempted suicide, resulting in the father’s admission into the Lincoln Regional Center on November 28,1986.
At a later time, the mother described her living conditions in May of 1987, when she was living in a trailer court with her boyfriend Bill, and testified:
Well, at the end of May my ex-husband [the father of the child] came up with his girlfriend and my ex-husband started to drink and he was doing something to his girlfriend — trying to strangle her because she would not give him the keys so he could go back to Lincoln. And Bill seen him strangle her and Bill pulled [the husband] off of there — off of her. And [the husband] hit Bill and Bill hit [the husband] and [the husband] fell to the ground. We got kicked out of the trailer park.
The mother admitted to a social worker therapist, who was counseling with the mother, that she did not know why she is attracted to people who engage in drinking, get into trouble with the law, and maintain adversary relationships with other authority figures. This witness testified, on cross-examination, that the mother has a “sense of excitement” in being involved with such people. This therapist further testified that sort of attraction is not likely to change in the future, because the mother relies heavily on impulse, wants to have a close relationship with aman, and wants to have attention.
This witness’ observations are reflected in the facts of this case. The mother divorced the father of her child because he was violent, abusive, physically assaulted her, attempted suicide twice, and had a severe alcohol problem.
While the mother of this child was apparently legally married *449to one man throughout these proceedings, she was also intimately involved with another — also throughout the proceedings — up to a month or two before the hearing. As the mother began to rid herself of one abusive, violent, alcoholic partner (her husband), she immediately, if not sooner, moved in with another violent, abusive, alcoholic, drug-taking partner, who also beat her and attempted to commit suicide. I cannot see that this progression of events shows the mother is improving in her ability to parent this child.
The facts on J.S.C.’s dissolution of marriage are not in the record, but it can be approximately calculated that the divorce apparently was to become final in approximately October of 1987. If that is so, the dissolution decree would have been signed in approximately April of 1987, and the action begun at least 60 days before that. It is difficult to have to make such approximations, but no facts were presented on this easily provable fact.
In connection with the mother’s inviting her ex-husband and his then girlfriend to stay with the mother and her then boyfriend, one psychologist testified that the concern she had about the mother’s activities was that the mother did not perceive this situation as a potential problem. Whether one is concerned about the mother’s amoral approach to life or not, one would have to be concerned if the mother did not have enough insight to perceive the real possibility of violence arising out of the situation the mother had created. Such violence did, of course, erupt, with the result of eviction from the trailer park residence above referred to.
With regard to the subject of the mother’s employment, the record shows that after her graduation from high school, the mother worked for the same employer for 3V2 years. She quit her employment only when she became pregnant with D.L.S. She is obviously employable, but she did not work during the 13 months in question when D.L.S. was being cared for by others. The record does not show how J.S.C. provided for her own existence during this time. She did obtain a job 1 week before the termination hearing. I believe the mother’s activities with regard to employment, which was ordered by the court in an attempt to let the mother prove that she could become an *450independent parent, show that the mother does not intend to exert herself to provide her child a safe home.
With regard to the trial court’s requirement that the mother maintain an appropriate residence for herself and the child, the residences which the mother provided, up to the time she moved in with her sister, have been generally referred to and described above. I do not believe that any of these residences provided appropriate space, bedding, or furnishing for her child, with the exception of the apartment referred to in the next paragraph.
The mother’s ability to maintain a clean residence was explained by the mother to a protective services worker with the Department of Social Services in York. In one of J.S.C.’s residences after leaving her husband, she resided in an apartment. When the protective services worker was unable for some period of time to talk to the mother at the apartment, she indicated to him that she had not been living in the apartment because she wanted to keep it clean; she felt if she did not live there it would not get dirty; and then when the protective services worker came to see the apartment, he would find it clean. The mother informed him that she spent the nights and some daytime hours at the apartment of a friend in the same apartment building.
With regard to the mother’s visitation, I find no indication in the record that the mother initiated any visitation. The social worker who supervised the foster parent placement for the child arranged for much of the visitation. It appears that the child was brought to the mother’s various residences, but none of them were clean enough to enable the child to be left with the mother all day unless there was supervision. Neither could the child be left overnight with the mother.
I believe that the evidence clearly and convincingly establishes grounds for the termination of the mother’s parental rights and that the trial court and this court have reached a legally correct result. In fact, I cannot think it remotely proper to subject this helpless baby, growing into a vulnerable little girl, to an environment where violence, abuse, alcohol, and drugs reign supreme, and where no one appears to be able or willing to defend this helpless little human being from the hazards that *451inevitably flow from such conditions.
Hastings, C. J., and Boslaugh, J., join in this concurrence.