State in the Interest of S.T., 950289-CA

Decision Date29 November 1996
Docket NumberNo. 950289-CA,950289-CA
Citation928 P.2d 393
Parties304 Utah Adv. Rep. 36 STATE of Utah, in the Interest of S.T., H.T., M.T., and C.T., persons under eighteen years of age. N.T. and T.T., Appellants, v. STATE of Utah, Appellee.
CourtUtah Court of Appeals

Linda Q. Jones, Provo, for Appellants.

Jan Graham, Attorney General, and Carol L.C. Verdoia, Assistant Attorney General, Salt Lake City, for Appellee.

Ron D. Wilkinson, Orem, Guardian Ad Litem.

Before ORME, BILLINGS and WILKINS, JJ.

OPINION

WILKINS, Judge:

N.T. and T.T. appeal the juvenile court's order terminating their parental rights to their four children. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

N.T. (father) and T.T. (mother) are the natural parents of four children: C.T., M.T., H.T., and S.T. The children are now nine, eight, seven, and six years old.

The Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) initially became involved with appellants and their children in June 1989, when a DCFS worker visited appellants' home to investigate a child abuse/neglect referral. C.T., M.T., and H.T. were two and one-half years, one year, and one month old, respectively. S.T. had not yet been born. The worker found the house dirty and cluttered. The floor was covered with food and soiled diapers, and dirty dishes, with aged, crusted food, were piled in the kitchen. The worker reported the children, especially the baby, were so thin they appeared malnourished.

DCFS offered to provide family preservation services, which included counseling to help appellants organize and properly care for their children, visits from a homemaker, and family aid. Appellants declined the services, but on several occasions met with a counselor from the preservation unit, and accepted a vacuum cleaner and cleaning supplies. Appellants were also offered the services of the Family Support Center (Center), a twenty-four-hour crisis nursery designed to provide care for children at risk of abuse or neglect, and to provide services for families in need. DCFS encouraged appellants to use the Center, in part, so they could monitor the children's condition. DCFS directed the workers and volunteers to vigilantly record their observations and to report anything, however minor, that suggested abuse or neglect.

Appellants frequently left the children at the Center. 1 Although the Center requires parents to provide clean clothes, diapers, and bottles for the children, reports detail that the children often arrived with bottles containing sour milk and nipples with old, crusty formula. The children's clothing was often wet and dirty; sometimes the children had dried food caked in their hair and soiled bottoms. Severe diaper rashes and sores were also a constant problem. Various workers documented that the children often arrived sick with a bad cough, cold, or fever, and in some instances, head lice. The children had dark circles under their eyes and appeared extremely thin. Several reports noted bruises, burns, cuts, and bumps on the children's bodies. Some reports even noted black eyes. The children almost always arrived hungry. Because sometimes after eating, one of them would vomit or complain of a stomach ache, the Center's volunteers closely monitored the children to make sure they did not eat too much at one time.

Volunteers reported the children also exhibited significant emotional problems. At times they had bouts of uncontrollable, incessant crying, or exhibited anger towards anyone they came in contact with. The children generally seemed starved for attention, sometimes demanding to be held and other times acting withdrawn. Reports also indicated the children appeared developmentally delayed. For instance, at two years and eight months, C.T. only spoke two or three words; at fourteen months, M.T. could not stand by herself.

After receiving two more referrals in August 1989, the DCFS worker revisited appellants' home. The state of the home had not changed. The baby, H.T., appeared lethargic and very thin. The worker instructed appellants to clean the home and take H.T. to a doctor. The worker made repeat visits to the home throughout August and September. While the living conditions improved slightly, appellants never obtained medical care for H.T. After several failed promises, the DCFS worker made an appointment and transported H.T. to the doctor. The doctor found that H.T., then four months old, had only gained three pounds since birth. Because H.T.'s birth weight was average, she had since become underweight. The doctor diagnosed H.T. with "failure to thrive."

C.T. and M.T. were also evaluated by a pediatrician. C.T., at two years and nine months, was malnourished, anemic, and twenty-five to thirty percent underweight. The pediatrician noted that it is unusual to see children with inadequate nutrition because many commonly available foods are fortified. C.T. had not had any of the eleven immunizations required for children his age. In addition, C.T. also had significant developmental delays in all areas, including an eight-month delay in social skills, a twelve-month delay in motor skills, and an eighteen-month delay in expressive language skills. An average two-and-one-half year old has a vocabulary of fifty plus words; C.T. only knew two.

M.T., who was sixteen months old, was also malnourished, anemic, and significantly underweight, in addition to lacking the required immunizations. M.T. also showed severe delays in the same areas, having a four-month delay in motor skills, an eight-month delay in language, and an eight-month delay in social skills.

On November 6, 1989, appellants admitted to the State's first petition alleging neglect. DCFS took custody of the children and placed them in foster care. Appellants began their first treatment plan, which required them to secure adequate housing, maintain a clean home, participate in parenting classes, attain a psychological evaluation, and participate in weekly counseling. Father was also required to find meaningful employment.

Appellants, however, did not begin working on the treatment plan until March 1990. Even then, appellants never consistently attended counseling or parenting classes, and on several occasions were resistant to homemaking services. Appellants did meet with a family counselor in April 1990, who diagnosed both mother and father with depression. In addition, father's aptitude test resulted in a score within the range of borderline intellectual functioning; on the same test, mother scored in the ranges of average and high average.

The children resided with a foster family from November 1989 to October 1990. While appellants made little progress with the treatment plan, the children made marked developmental improvements with the foster family. After eight months of attention, stimulation, and diligent effort by the foster mother, C.T. spoke in five to six-word sentences, recognized basic shapes and colors, sang songs, rode a bicycle, held himself on a swing, and interacted well with siblings and other foster children. M.T. started talking and learned to walk and run. H.T. gained nineteen ounces the first twenty days, and after eight months, gained nine pounds, thirteen ounces.

Appellants' fourth child, S.T., was born on June 12, 1990. DCFS did not remove the child from the home. Instead, DCFS created a second treatment plan and, despite appellants' sporadic attendance at parenting and counseling classes, returned C.T., M.T., and H.T. to appellants' care in November 1990.

In March 1991, DCFS investigated another referral. The worker reported a burn on M.T.'s palm which precisely and clearly spelled "IF". Appellants claimed M.T. was burned on the stove while a babysitter was with the children; the babysitter knew nothing of the burn. The worker also reported that the children, dressed only in diapers and underpants, had an offensive odor about them. The apartment was unsanitary and had an offensive smell. Appellants reasoned that it was due to their pet messing and urinating on the floor. While noticing food and garbage on the floor, the worker observed S.T. and M.T. pick a stale piece of bread and a cookie off the floor and put them in their mouths.

In April 1991, appellants admitted to a second petition filed by the State requesting protective supervision for the children. Again, DCFS offered reunification services to help appellants improve their personal functioning and parenting skills. DCFS offered a weekly family aide counselor, homemaking services, personal counseling, weekly supervised home visits, and use of the Center. Believing the best way to keep the children safe was to provide the family with the maximum amount of day care possible, the DCFS worker also authorized 180 hours of day care at the Kid's Corral.

Appellants, however, never consistently used the offered counseling and homemaking services. They refused to answer the door to the family aide and homemaking counselors on several occasions, failed to keep several medical appointments set up for the children, and failed to change the messy, cluttered state of the home. Mother did, at times, make an effort to participate in parenting classes.

While appellants sporadically used the reunification services, they continued to frequently use the Center and the day care facility. Reports, detailing the volunteers' observations of the children, showed little sign of improvement. The children still arrived dirty, wet, hungry, and sick with colds, coughs, and fevers. They often had bruises, burns, or bumps, and appeared thin with dark circles under their eyes. On several occasions, they did not want to leave when appellants came to pick them up. In addition, M.T., H.T., and S.T., three and one-half, two and one-half, and one and one-half years of age, respectively, were all on bottles, in spite of the fact M.T. and H.T. had been weaned from bottles by their foster mother.

In October 1991, appellants were evicted from their home due to unpaid rent and...

To continue reading

Request your trial
39 cases
  • In Interest Of B.T.B., 20170906-CA
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Utah
    • August 23, 2018
    ...termination of a parent's rights is actually necessary. Indeed, at times, we have spoken in similar terms. See, e.g. , In re S.T. , 928 P.2d 393, 401 (Utah Ct. App. 1996) (concluding, in the context of applying the two-part test, that "under these difficult circumstances, termination of app......
  • R.O. v. M.M. (In re Adoption A.M.O.), 20120762–CA.
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Utah
    • July 25, 2014
    ...“must be sufficiently detailed and include enough subsidiary facts to clearly show the evidence upon which they are grounded.” In re S.T., 928 P.2d 393, 398 (Utah Ct.App.1996) (citing Woodward v. Fazzio, 823 P.2d 474, 477 (Utah Ct.App.1991)); see alsoUtah R. Civ. P. 52(a) (“In all actions t......
  • Of v. J.P.B., 20170906-CA
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Utah
    • August 23, 2018
    ...termination of a parent's rights is actually necessary. Indeed, at times, we have spoken in similar terms. See, Page 26e.g., In re S.T., 928 P.2d 393, 401 (Utah Ct. App. 1996) (concluding, in the context of applying the two-part test, that "under these difficult circumstances, termination o......
  • State v. D., 20100406–CA.
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Utah
    • June 9, 2011
    ... 257 P.3d 1062 684 Utah Adv. Rep. 13 2011 UT App 184 STATE of Utah, in the interest of J.D. and E.D., persons under eighteen years of age. v. D., Appellant, v. State of Utah, ......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 books & journal articles
  • CONFRONTING INDETERMINACY AND BIAS IN CHILD PROTECTION LAW.
    • United States
    • Stanford Law & Policy Review Vol. 33 No. 2, June 2022
    • June 22, 2022
    ...Utah Supreme Court referenced it as a means of helping both "children at risk of abuse or neglect, and... families in need." In re S.T., 928 P.2d 393, 395 (Utah Ct. App. 1996). Other examples exist. E.g., Alfred Lubrano, Montco Nonprofit Offers Free In-Home Overnight Child Care to Low-Incom......

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT